Michael Parks
@jurassicparks
Writer working on book about grasslands and people ( for Bloomsbury. Also a dad / husband / dog walker in N. New Mexico.
A group of conservation groups has formed an America’s Grasslands Coalition. One thing they’ve done is produce some great maps. May not seem a big deal but grasslands have often been mis-mapped. These may be the first comprehensive maps of U.S. grasslands static.grasslanders.org/public/Grass...
There’s a wonderful amateur entomologist in Iowa, MJ Hatfield, who likes to say, “Botanists move too fast!” Cracked me up when I heard it — how can anyone move slower than botanists — but it’s made me slow down and I’m always amazed Plants blur at automotive speed. Bugs even walking is too fast
We call this kind of diagram “the writer’s nightmare” Generally ecosystems or social-ecological systems, everything is reciprocal, temporally overlapping. meanwhile standard narrative is linear and multiple cause/effects end up as laundry lists
“Not til June can the grass said to be waving in the fields. When the frogs dream and the green waves and the buttercups toss their heads and the heat disposes to bathe in the ponds and streams, then is summer begun.” Thoreau, 1850
Last night I saw a nightjar or should I say…last night I saw a nightjar!!! Wild to be walking toward a rock on the pavement that suddenly flies. Even my dog was surprised. Such cool birds, with a special place in grassland lore and ecology…
Ecological puzzler from northern New Mexico: why is this aspen grove where it is? Table area where narrow valley opens up a bit then closes. Southwest facing. Lots of fallen logs — I think aspen. Diversity of stem sizes. Some understory conifers. What’s going on ecologically?
Think it’s important that habitat loss and climate change are likely far bigger drivers of declines than any of these. E.g. USFWS has this to say but can’t put a number to habitat loss like it does cats and collisions. How we eat, manage ecosystems is a way humans kill birds
Gets pretty nerdy, but fascinating, especially for a dad with two A name daughters
This article by a climate scientist has this stat www.theclimatebrink.com/p/the-ai-aug...
Think this apocryphal quote might be useful just inserting [plant]
Fascinating good news article, touches not only lion-livestock co-existence, but also removal of some of the veterinary cordon fences that are infamous in grassland / fence ecology worlds for having decimated Southern Africa migrations. The heart of it: funding and restoring lost herding practice
Man I am so bored by these takes. This technology is awesome (original sense of the word) and the implications wild. Just take a look at this one example where an organically developed structure in an LLM leads to discovery of biological structure in mice. Zero interesting questions my tookus.
My mom and a friend are having a debate about the identity of this bird. I am insisting turkey. Am I wrong?
Having lived in / spent time in Mongolia and Argentina...it's wild that the U.S. is on par
What's bizarre is the first paragraphs of his memo set up a strawman of climate change "decimating civilization" and then he rebuts the idea that it will lead to "humanity's demise" I 100% do not think climate change will lead to humanity's demise, but am quite worried about civilization!
some great content on the Mongolia reddit (this counts as productive "research", right?)
This article has some rather telling / fascinating quotes about the water sitch (in the context of data centers) in Texas: www.myhighplains.com/news/your-lo...
I worked as a comms contractor for Google's DC / energy team. They put out economic reports that I believe were accurate, but tellingly play "indirect jobs." Long-term operations for a DC you're talking tens to hundreds. This was before the AI boom but no real material difference I'd imagine.
Or in the paper that map is from. Bit generalized but what I have
Viral anti-ethanol skeeters. 👍 I'll never cease to be impressed by how bad this policy is or how much of a handout to very special interests Was myself just reading about ethanol accelerating Ogallala aquifer decline. Check this map of (water-intensive) corn Crazy places to grow corn
Having a debate -- do other people think the Llano Estacado looks like the head of a buffalo?
Love this grass. "Feathergrass" in Mongolia. Each long awn connected to a small, pointed seed. Mongolian friend said people call them "arrows." I think (?) the awns are advantageous for wind dispersal Genus is Stipa spp., derived from the word "steppe." Characteristic grasses of the Eurasian Steppe