Macska Moksha Press

Botany as Archaeology, to Stop a Lithium Mine

August 11, 2022 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

GUEST POST, by NIKKI HILL

Photo 1: Thacker Pass, all photos by Nikki Hill

“Sagebrush sea” is an endearing term that describes the vast high desert steppe lands of western North America. Rolling hills enveloped in silver green shimmer and sparkle like waves in the mid-day sun. This sea that spans the wide valleys and crests over plateaus connects the peaks and ridges from the shores of the Cascades and Sierra Nevada to the Greater Rocky Mountains. It is vast, indeed like an ocean. Nowhere does it ripple more like a sea than in the Great Basin, which coverrs most of Nevada and half of Utah, held by the Wasatch range to the east and the Sierra Nevada to the West, spilling out into the Mojave to the south and well into eastern Oregon in the north.

Many of the desert plants do indeed resemble ocean creatures: coral-like cactus and urchin-like succulents. Although it is commonly thought of as desolate and emptiness, the high desert steppe is incredibly abundant and alive. 350 species of wildlife and insects depend just on sagebrush herself.

The sagebrush sea is one of the largest continuous landscape types in North America, but only 5% of the area receives protection at the federal level, making it the least protected landscape in the USA.

This sea has been speaking to me for some time now. Calling me back, holding my attention, inviting me to see the patterns within it. In 2009, I was first introduced to the various First Food plants of the high desert, the traditional staple-food plants, and the reciprocal relationships that have fostered them for thousands of years. I have dedicated the majority of my time to following these plants since 2013, spending time camping and interacting with them, learning how to tend them, gathering and planting their seeds and picking up their stories as I wander. I have become endeared to them, bonded to their continuance in heart and hand.

DIY: How to make newspaper pots for veggie starts

May 7, 2022 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

You can make pots for veggie starts out of newspaper instead of using plastic pots, or peat pots. One of the biggest advantages of paper over plastic is that newspaper pots can be put directly into the ground, so there is much less disturbance to the plant. This makes newspaper pots especially appropriate for squash plants, as they are especially adverse to having their roots disturbed. This year, I’m doing all our squash starts in newspaper pots. FYI: by “squash” I mean all of the summer annuals in the Squash Family: winter squash, summer squash, pumpkins, cukes, zukes, gourds, watermelons, cantaloupes, etc.

What you’ll need:

newspaper
a soup can or jar of similar size
nursery trays, or something that can fill that function

How to make your own potting mix for vegetable starts

May 7, 2022 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

I can’t remember where I first heard this recipe, but it was over a decade ago, and it’s still the best one I know of. If you’re doing lots of starts (as in hundreds), this is much more economical than buying bags of potting mix. This is what we’re using this year at the Eloheh Indigenous Center for Earth Justice.

Ingredients: Perlite, Coconut Coir & Worm Castings

Ingredients:

1 bag Perlite, 4 square feet, preferably “propagation grade”
2 bags Worm Castings, 1 square foot each
2 blocks, Compressed Coconut Coir, only one size, I’m pretty sure. Might say, “expands to 2.5 cubic feet”

These ingredients are all appropriate for certified organic agriculture.

Coir is the main growing medium here, Perlite is for drainage, and the Worm Castings provide nutrition to the young plants. You can go with one bag of Worm Castings for plants that will spend a very short amount of time in pots before being transplanted out, like Squash (winter, summer, cukes, melons, gourds, etc.).

You can also add fertilizer to this blend. I add an organic complete organic fertilizer to batches of this I’ll be using for needy starts, like Tomatoes.

The Coir tales the place of Peat Moss, which I avoid for two reasons. First, its pH is on the acidic side, and second, it’s acquired by destroying peat bogs. We need to leave the remaining wetlands alone at this point.

You also need a tarp to mix this all on. A flat shovel, hoe, or other long-handled tool is also helpful, but not required.

Consideration for all life—even Carrots!

April 11, 2022 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

Homegrown carrots

I posted an article on social media about a scientists who believe that mushrooms “talk” to each other. Fascinating stuff. In response, someone made this comment to my post:

“my son and I were talking about this today… so now that plants, trees, fungi, animals, and so forth all talk to one another, what do we eat? The carrots are screaming when we pull them, the shrooms lose a huge part of their network. Cows love music. I’m really confused now.”

In response, I wrote:

I’ve been giving those subjects a lot of thought, more than I can put down in an FB comment. (I’m actually working on a book on these topics.) But, briefly, I would mention a few things:

First, there’s the fact that many vegetables and nearly all fruit can be harvested without harming the plant. In fact, many berry seeds, for example, germinate better once they’ve fermented in a digestive tract. Some plants respond positively to having their leaves picked. Any of the mints, for example, come back doubled after your pinch back their tips, which makes twice as many flowers, and hence seeds, on that stem. Such pinching back can be done multiple times per season. So there’s that—the plants that want us to eat from them.

Can Our Veggie Gardens Feed us in a Real Crisis?

March 27, 2022 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

A haul from the Author’s urban farming operation in Portland, Sept. 15, 2007 *(Photo C.H.White)*

I originally posted this essay in July, 2019, in response to massive flooding in the US Midwest that had the potential to affect food supplies. I am reposting it now because food shortages could result from the war in the Ukraine. As in 2019, I am seeing suggestions on social media to “plant a garden.”

If only it were that simple.

I used to be a small-scale organic farmer so take it from me: totally feeding yourself from your own efforts is very, very challenging. Though some friends and I tried over multiple seasons, we never succeeded, or even came anywhere close.

War in the Age of Bernays

March 8, 2022 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

Map of Ukraine with Edward Bernays and a Mushroom Cloud, collage by the author

War offers us an intense if perverse spiritual experience with its myth-making drama of life lived at the extremes of human experience. America has always been susceptible to this kind of religious fervor particularly when we need to forget all of our deep internal divisions and our failure to address even the most elementary social problems. We have pushed the uneasy knowledge of our own wars and war crimes deep into the recesses of our souls but we still long for absolution. There is nothing like a really nasty enemy to restore a sense of our own high moral character. Of course, the thrill of this spiritual revival is usually experienced from the comforts of home far from the blood, guts, and gore. ~Richard Moser

I’ve seen this movie before and it sucks.

The first time was 1979. I was ten years old, in Omaha, Nebraska, which was an intolerant, ignorant place, and insolent about it, to boot.

It was called, “Hostage Crisis.” In Iran, some students took over the US embassy and held a bunch of Americans captive for 444 days. The bad guy was the Ayatollah Khomeini. Everybody hated him. Everybody hated “Eye-Ran.” It was popular, this hatred. It was a bandwagon you were supposed to jump on.

I didn’t get it. It felt faked. I mean, people were really into it—very enthusiastic with their stupid jokes and name-calling and all that—but the way it was suddenly everywhere, like flipping a switch, seemed artificial. How could everyone despise someone so much who they’d just heard of for the first time?

I was smart enough to keep these doubts to myself, or rather, intimidated enough. I could tell that asking questions could get me into trouble, and maybe beaten up.

The misery of a “limited exchange”

March 4, 2022 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

Photo by author (Sunset at beach near Manzanita, Oregon, 2021)

The fear of nuclear war has been reawakened, and for good reason. I’ve heard a few commentators refer to the idea that such an event could kill “all life on earth.” While that’s an exaggeration (at the very least some microfauna would survive even in a worst case), a major exchange could certainly kill all humans, many immediately, and the rest the aftermath from fallout. I grew up in Omaha, which was on the target list because of the Strategic Air Command was based nearby, and we were told we’d be vaporized.

Destruction at this massive scale, much of it instantaneous, is certainly a horrific possibility, but its completeness is somehow perversely reassuring. Like, it would be over quick. But less drastic situations would be nightmarish in their own way, and could cause long-term suffering and social breakdown without the “relief” of extinction.

A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2020 modelled a scenario in which India and Pakistan fight a regional nuclear war and blow up just 50 bombs. They estimated that the particulates kicked up into the atmosphere by the blasts and the firestorms would cause a limited “nuclear winter” situation bad enough to significantly reduce food harvests and lead to starvation. The crisis would go on for years, and would be worst for those countries that import much of their food.

In a limited exchange between the US and Russia in which most cities were left intact, and some rural areas were hit (like where ICBMs are housed), we could still expect widespread disruption of gas, electricity, water treatment, shipping, etc., such that people wouldn’t be able to drive anywhere, there would be massive blackouts, lack of potable water, and stores would go empty. The economy would crash, and domestic violence would probably erupt. Radiation sickness would overburden an already struggling health system. The casualties from secondary effects could far exceed the number killed in the initial strikes.

So just imagine if, tomorrow, you were suddenly stuck where you are. The last thing you heard before the internet went down was that a few dozen missiles had been launched. It was an hour after sunset and you see a few distant flashes in the sky. The power blacks out.

The next day there’s a run on gas so nobody can leave. The stores are only accepting cash. Within a few days, the stores are empty. Even though its spring, the temperature drops and drops some more. It’s hard to stay warm and dry and you feel like you might be getting sick.

The uncertainty is the most maddening part, and people start panicking. The sounds of gunshots become more frequent. Somehow the cops are still able to drive around, and the sirens are almost constant. You don’t feel comfortable going anywhere by yourself anymore.

The consolation prize is that sunsets are crazy colorful from all the crap in the air.

The map is not the territory; the media coverage is not the event

March 2, 2022 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

Collage by the author

They say “the map is not the territory” and I might add that “the media coverage is not the event.”

Maps are limited by their scale, age, level of detail, intended purpose, and who made them. You wouldn’t take a road atlas on a hike. We can learn useful things from maps but to truly know the territory, we have to go there. I think we all know that.

Media coverage can be judged by similar factors: degree of context, date, level of detail, intended audience, and who paid to produce it. We won’t learn about socialism from the capitalist business press. We can learn useful things from media coverage but to truly know what’s going on, we’d have to be there. I think we forget this.

I’ve seen this movie before and it sucks

February 27, 2022 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

Uncle Sam bomb mural, Berlin, by Sebastian Spindler, Public Domain

War offers us an intense if perverse spiritual experience with its myth-making drama of life lived at the extremes of human experience. America has always been susceptible to this kind of religious fervor particularly when we need to forget all of our deep internal divisions and our failure to address even the most elementary social problems. We have pushed the uneasy knowledge of our own wars and war crimes deep into the recesses of our souls but we still long for absolution. There is nothing like a really nasty enemy to restore a sense of our own high moral character. Of course, the thrill of this spiritual revival is usually experienced from the comforts of home far from the blood, guts, and gore.
~Richard Moser

I’ve seen this movie before and it sucks.

The first time was 1979. I was ten years old, in Omaha, Nebraska, which was an intolerant, ignorant place, and insolent about it, to boot.

Beyond the War on Invasive Species: Interview with Tao Orion

February 17, 2022 by Kollibri terre Sonnenblume

Tao Orion, author of “Beyond the War on Invasive Species”

Tao Orion is the author of “Beyond the War on Invasive Species: A Permaculture Approach to Ecosystem Restoration.” She is a permaculture designer, teacher, homesteader, and mother living in the southern Willamette Valley of Oregon. I interviewed her on May 18, 2020, for my podcast, “Voices for Nature & Peace.” What follows is a partial transcript of that conversation, edited for clarity. [Listen to the entire interview here]

K: A lot of people have heard the term, “invasive species” and most of them of course are assuming it’s something bad, but when it comes right down to it, it’s actually very difficult to define the term and we could even say that there isn’t one definition of that term.

T: Yes, that’s something that I found really interesting as I was researching my book, because I was really trying to find out if there was a clear, objective description of what an invasive species is, and I found that even the National Invasive Species Council—which in the US is the federal government level board that looks at invasive species issues—spent years on deliberating on the definition and even so, they weren’t able to come up with something that I felt was purely an objective description that could be [applied] in all contexts. It seemed to vary from place to place and time to time.

K: Monsanto was one of the companies involved in setting [that council] up.

T: That’s another disturbing element about how the big frenzy around invasive species and the purported damage that they do came to be so popular; a lot of that was informed and funded by pesticide interests to spur the sale of products, herbicides in particular, to deal with species invasions.

K: I think that most people are probably not aware of the fact that the use of pesticides and herbicides has been rising over the last 20 years, not falling. I think people hear about organic agriculture and they think we must be on the right path. But due in part to the war on invasives and also due to genetically modifying crops to be Round-up Ready so they can survive the use of pesticides—these two things seem to have driven an increase in the use of pesticides over the last 20 years.

T: Yes, it’s definitely alarming. My background is in organic agriculture. I was immersed in that world. Even before writing this book, I was under the impression that herbicides were somewhat less toxic in the realm of pesticide toxicity [as opposed to insecticides or fungicides, for example]. In researching herbicides more for invasive species management and agriculture in general, I learned a lot more about their toxicity and insidious toxicity to insects and mammals and other lifeforms that I don’t think gets talked about enough. People assume they’re more ecologically benign, but really they’re not, and that’s important to bring to the table.

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