Everytime we overstep our bounds as human beings, we affect the natural environment, and all other species around us in profound new ways we often do not anticipate or even realize until it is too late.
I started this blog a year ago in order to separate the Lake Martin political issues regarding water, plant, wildlife, ecology, and the so called ecotours, from my
Louisiana Swamp Tour Blog.
Photo of me and Christina by Philip Gould
My swamp tour blog was originally set up to
help people find quality tours
My friend Butch, guiding a swamp tour
and at the same time
expose the destructive activities of corporate, small business, and government entities that were disruptive of ecology at Lake Martin.
I soon realized that the positive results of my writing posts about ecopolitics in Lake Martin were so overwhelming,
I needed to put those posts in it's own blog.
So here we are. The Birds Of Lake Martin Blog.
I can now write in great detail about manipulation of water levels, herbicide application,
and bird nesting activities without creating an information overload
for people who are just wanting to find a quality swamp tour.
A lot of people live, work and play at Lake Martin.
Because of so much overlapping activities of resident wildlife and human recreation,
we humans(with the power and money to make gross alterations to ecology), need to be careful of
the things we do in the name of protecting and managing the area,
and consider that we may cause more harm than good if we are not all working together, and value the presence and coexistance of all people, and plant and wildlife species in the Lake Martin ecological complex.
A Cricket frog, which lives in the floating mat of plants, and is often a hatchling alligators first food.
But, unity of service amoungst the entities dedicated to using, managing and protecting the area is grossly lacking or completely nonexistant for the most part.
Nutria, a very much misunderstood and undervalued non-indigenous species
Because of this we have lawnmowers in the rookery, cutting down Bald Cypress trees planted by the girl scouts,
and drainage of the water resources during periods of drought, not to mention,
excessive application of dangerous herbicides to kill and destroy the natural beauty and function of the swamp plants.
And all of those above mentioned activities are proposed to benefit the area ecology as a whole, when in fact, the big money management policies and activities are almost always designed to target one species or group of species to the demise of the rest of the eco-matrix.
Until we can all work together,
and protect all species in the ecosystem,
the delicate and thus very vulnerable well being of the birds at Lake Martin
hangs in the balance.
All photos are copyrighted and courtesy of Claude Nall unless noted otherwise.
A White Ibis by Claude Nall
