(no subject)
I think that what we need to do is learn to eat squirrel and rabbit. Logically, when we get a couple of barn cats, some of our rodent and related species problems should go down. Someone told me that the smartest, fastest, hunting-est dogs can be outwitted by ground squirrels. He has boundless admiration for these creatures. They are admirable, for sure. I don't disagree that they ought to be admired in the way that the Chinese revere the rat...
Yet they are eating our food faster than it can grow. Currently, we are using many sorts of wire cages around all of our garden beds, with more or less success depending.
Our town (unincorporated) is in the middle of the southwestern Mojave Desert. If you Google the town, you will find our property in the very middle of the sprawling acreage that makes up this town. In the middle of nowhere almost fits. It would have fit perfectly 10 or so years ago before the big boom of land speculation that happened in the decade right before the latest bust. Now I feel as if I simply live in the rural part of a high desert town, surrounded by the San Gabriel Mountains to the west, West Victorville to the east, the Cajon pass to the south, and El Mirage dry lake to the north.
Some odd things are happening, likely due to normal drought cycles, generalized global climate change, and all of the ecological changes that occur when an undeveloped area is rampantly developed. The rampantly developed part is likely to subside somewhat until the regional economy picks up. If it does. Any time soon. Yet the ecological damage has been done. This desert may take 100 years to regenerate, if it does. If it can.
For instance. Wildfires are touching (not yet devastating, but touching) the high desert more and more in places that are quite unaccustomed to fire. Development brings new plant species which change the landscape in ways that make it difficult for endemic species (plant and animal) to get by, let alone compete. In some cases, whole swaths of the Mojave Desert are being obliterated. Many of these new species offer something to humans (lush New England lawns in a desert, windbreaks which are necessary but not sustainable), others have come in inadvertantly over centuries, have established themselves and are replacing the desert biome with something different (tumbleweed, crane's bill, wild mustard) As far as fire hazard, the fuel load of nonnative Brome grasses and wild mustards are problematic, but there are others new and invasive species that are not particularly helping the high desert's various ecosystems. Most of these new plants offer little by way of habitat or food to high desert wildlife. There may not be a Mojave Desert in a few decades.
Fire events, strange rainfall and snow patterns, and unusual wildlife migrations are being noticed. I'm noticing an odd lack of coyotes, a natural predator of some of these rodents. Fewer snakes than normal too. Again, the local snakes tend to keep rodent and rabbit populations down. I'm curious where these mainstays of the Mojave are in recent years.
I'm not a vegetarian but I'm not a big meat-eater either. I know how to clean and prepare a fish. I haven't a clue how to prepare a rabbit. Were my Appalachian daddy still around, I'm quite sure he could advise me. The Internet, I'm sure, is full of advice. I don't know that I have the heart to do this. Some family members think that we need to become the predator. Since the native predators seem to be missing all around this area this year, they think we can help the situation out. I have offers to help with the cooking, but being that I'm the hillbilly grown up, I'm expected to do the preparation. My Buddhist friends would be aghast. They might suggest I sit with the situation for a while and see if a better solution comes up.
By the end of summer, I'll put up some photos of our wire protection devices on my wordpress, with a link here.
Yet they are eating our food faster than it can grow. Currently, we are using many sorts of wire cages around all of our garden beds, with more or less success depending.
Our town (unincorporated) is in the middle of the southwestern Mojave Desert. If you Google the town, you will find our property in the very middle of the sprawling acreage that makes up this town. In the middle of nowhere almost fits. It would have fit perfectly 10 or so years ago before the big boom of land speculation that happened in the decade right before the latest bust. Now I feel as if I simply live in the rural part of a high desert town, surrounded by the San Gabriel Mountains to the west, West Victorville to the east, the Cajon pass to the south, and El Mirage dry lake to the north.
Some odd things are happening, likely due to normal drought cycles, generalized global climate change, and all of the ecological changes that occur when an undeveloped area is rampantly developed. The rampantly developed part is likely to subside somewhat until the regional economy picks up. If it does. Any time soon. Yet the ecological damage has been done. This desert may take 100 years to regenerate, if it does. If it can.
For instance. Wildfires are touching (not yet devastating, but touching) the high desert more and more in places that are quite unaccustomed to fire. Development brings new plant species which change the landscape in ways that make it difficult for endemic species (plant and animal) to get by, let alone compete. In some cases, whole swaths of the Mojave Desert are being obliterated. Many of these new species offer something to humans (lush New England lawns in a desert, windbreaks which are necessary but not sustainable), others have come in inadvertantly over centuries, have established themselves and are replacing the desert biome with something different (tumbleweed, crane's bill, wild mustard) As far as fire hazard, the fuel load of nonnative Brome grasses and wild mustards are problematic, but there are others new and invasive species that are not particularly helping the high desert's various ecosystems. Most of these new plants offer little by way of habitat or food to high desert wildlife. There may not be a Mojave Desert in a few decades.
Fire events, strange rainfall and snow patterns, and unusual wildlife migrations are being noticed. I'm noticing an odd lack of coyotes, a natural predator of some of these rodents. Fewer snakes than normal too. Again, the local snakes tend to keep rodent and rabbit populations down. I'm curious where these mainstays of the Mojave are in recent years.
I'm not a vegetarian but I'm not a big meat-eater either. I know how to clean and prepare a fish. I haven't a clue how to prepare a rabbit. Were my Appalachian daddy still around, I'm quite sure he could advise me. The Internet, I'm sure, is full of advice. I don't know that I have the heart to do this. Some family members think that we need to become the predator. Since the native predators seem to be missing all around this area this year, they think we can help the situation out. I have offers to help with the cooking, but being that I'm the hillbilly grown up, I'm expected to do the preparation. My Buddhist friends would be aghast. They might suggest I sit with the situation for a while and see if a better solution comes up.
By the end of summer, I'll put up some photos of our wire protection devices on my wordpress, with a link here.