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Last week my column was focused on education, and the week before that, the topic was city water challenges. This week these two topics flowed together when I heard Elizabeth Byers explaining the significance of the Kump Education Center Wetland. I
n her introduction to the Kump Center Wetland for Master Gardners last Monday, Elizabeth acknowledged that we live in a time when Global Warming threatens the natural ecology that supports human life on Earth. Many species are becoming extinct because they have lost their natural habitat, and our species could be next.
However, Elizabeth remains hopeful that human beings will recognize that we depend on a fragile ecological balance.
If we can work with the positive patterns of nature, like urban wetlands and other restorative environments like forests, we may be able to reduce destructive trends and improve the chances for human survival.
Years ago, when I was in high school, we read “On Walden Pond” and learned that Henry David Thoreau thought towns and cities harmed the natural order of living things. Thoreau said that cities along rivers were like clusters of insect eggs in the niche where leaves attach to tree branches. These insects would suck the living sap out of the branching system and kill the trees.
Thoreau's natural analogy helped his readers understand the destructive patterns of developing cities on rivers that he observed in America almost 200 years ago. Now we do not have to be a 19th Century transcendentalist to recognize how rivers have been polluted by city sewers, highway oils, and industrial chemicals.However, few people realize that native plants in a healthy wetland help purify air and water.
The Kump Center Wetland is a haven for 50 native plants that Elizabeth identified and listed for Master Gardners to see. My favorite plants are the button bushes that have blooms that cover the bushes with white balls in July. We always enjoy telling children about the candlewick rushes that early settlers could use for lighting their homes.
The children like the taste of peppermint, spearmint, and sweet flag. Now visitors who want to know more about the plants in our wetland can check out Kump Center Wetland on I Naturalist. There are pictures of blooming plants with suggested times when they may be seen best. There are also many birds and other animals in our wetland, but they are not as easy to find because they hide from the noisy highway and do not want to be seen.
If we hope to maintain a healthy environment where we can survive, we need to support native plants and animals as much as possible. We need to take time to think about the other living things in our urban environments because we may be able to help protect our vital supply of clean water and fresh air if we protect our wetlands, they will provide a great service for urban ecology.