We picked up the rock during low tide, looking at the life on it. Barnacles encrusted much of it. We also saw barnacle-eating dorids – sea slugs that specialize in feasting on barnacles. Dorids attach a frill of yellow-white egg sacks to the rock surface that barnacles have been cleared from, and this rock had several frills. This summer there have been a lot of dorids and a lot of egg sacks along my piece of Puget Sound – the beach I work on as a volunteer beach naturalist. Limpets, and tiny baby mussels had attached to its barnacle-free surface, and soft-bodied flatworms grazed where there were no barnacles. Apparently part of the flatworm’s diet this time of year is dorid egg sacs. There is also evidence that the dorids prey on limpets, even though the field guide says they only eat barnacles. It appears that as dorids clear the rock of barnacle encrustations, it enables other life to colonize the cleared space. Right here, on one rock held in one hand, we saw an ecosystem within the larger ecosystem of the beach, the intertidal zone, Puget Sound, Puget Sound region, state of Washington … spiraling outward and outward. At each level, life was recycling resources, holding both life and death while meeting the needs of many different organisms for attachment, food, and shelter. So we observed a miniature world, a microcosm, on a smallish rock held in one hand at the edge of the returning tide.
As we learn more about all the interactive relationships within a microsystem, and between microsystems, into a larger, network of other systems, we also see that we really only understand a little piece of the larger story of these relationships between creatures and their environment. This rock in that moment epitomized for me the climate change choices facing us all. Climate change is, or it is not, or is in part, caused by humans. Cause arguments aside, it seems to be coming down upon us like a tsunami. Earth appears to be caught in multiple feedback loops, and this massive process threatens us all. The preponderance of evidence to date indicates human actions are at least compounding the problem – especially our use of fossil fuels as our first and only solution to any energy need. The consequences for all life on earth are incalculable. The possible changes available to and recognized by us at this time may or may not mitigate it. But transitioning to renewable energy appears to have many other benefits, while also having a potentially positive impact on climate challenge. It seems we gain more by acting according to our incomplete knowledge, than by dissipating energy and resources arguing about whether humans are causing or just worsening the feedback loops, or have no effect at all. At any point in time, our understanding is incomplete, but we act anyway, using the best information we have, refining our understanding and actions as more information comes to light. It’s time to move forward on renewable energy, while continuing to observe and evaluate impacts, adjusting actions as we learn.
Juanita Bay notes
This is the time of year young birds and animals are out and about. Virginia rail chicks are scampering around in the cattails off the west boardwalk, and Bullock oriole, black headed grosbeak, red-breasted sapsuckers and baby barn swallows are out and about along with ducklings, young raccoons and other animals. Green herons usually visit the park from early July into September. An adult deer was sighted and photographed in the glen between the parking lot and Market Street in late June, and various dragonflies and butterflies are flitting and zooming around the park.
Green Calendar
Watershed Park nature walk: 9 a.m. July 18. Meet at Northeast 45th St. and 110th Ave. N.E. entrance in Kirkland. Visit http://www.eas.org/.
SEELC programs: From 5-7:30 p.m. July 16, Art and Poetry workshop; 1-4 p.m. July 19, Ecological Art from Forests to Rainbows; 7-9 p.m. July 22, Ask Now the Beasts: Reality and Sustainability. Free, but pre-register at www.seelc.org.
Remember to support your local farmers’ markets!
Janice Johnson lives in Juanita and is active in various local environmental, community, and music groups.
