You Think I'm An Ignorant Savage

"And you've been so many places I guess it must be so/But still I cannot see/If the savage one is me/How can there be so much that you don't know?"

Bonus Question: If you can name that Disney Movie you get a really BIG shout out in the next post.

Okay, before I tell you how all that relates to my next Environmental Learning Tale I should answer the question from last week's post. Also, shout out to Brenna who got pretty close to the real answer. Here it is...

Lake Eutriphication comes about because of the deposition of nutrients into a lake. Things like nitrogen and phosphorus run off from farmland and wind up in the water. Now, algae gets really excited when that happens (because it loves nutrients) and starts to grow like crazy. This isn't the best plan, however, because it quickly runs out of nutrients, dies, and sinks down in the lake where it is broken down by little decomposer organisms. These organisms need oxygen to do their job, so they suck up all the oxygen in the lake and use it all (greedy things). As as result, the lake has no oxygen left at all. And that, my friends, is Eutriphication. It is worst in lakes because the water has no where to go to get more oxygen. It just hangs out and makes lots of fish unhappy.

So, to tie this back to the title of this post, here is the Environmental Learning Tale for the week....

Too Bad About The Europeans...

This is a story about the importance of observing what is going on around you.

When the European's landed in America and decided that they discovered it, they were pleased with what they found. Seemed to them like America was a pretty neat place (all those trees and things) but they really thought that it could do with some domestication, so they cleaned up a few patches of troublesome forest and set up a couple farms. The Native Americans (who actually lived here before the Europeans arrived, calling the nature of the white man's 'discovery' into question) weren't thrilled.

The Europeans, for their part, weren't too thrilled with the Native American's either. Generally they thought they were savages (hence the title of the post, despite the hideous inaccuracy of the movie from whence it came.) So when they caught sight of what the Native Americans called 'farms' they laughed up their sleeves.

This was because the Native American's excelled at what is known as Polyculture. They actually grew multiple plants on the same patch of land. The crops they grew (corn, beans, and squash) were known to them as The Three Sisters, and the commonly held view was that they didn't grow well unless they were planted all together.

Well, the Europeans thought this was pretty silly (Three Sisters? Come on! Corn doesn't have a sister...) So they planted their crops separately and patted themselves on the back for being so civilized.

Until, that is, their croplands began to fail.

They just couldn't figure out why they had to keep finding more cropland (and cutting more forests down while they were at it). What was wrong with the soil? Moreover, WHY THE HECK WEREN'T THE NATIVE AMERICANS HAVING THE SAME PROBLEM?!?!?!?!*

Because, my friends, the Native American's knew something that the Europeans did not. Namely that The Three Sisters really DO grow better together. That's because the squash vines can grow up the cornstalks, and the beans can fix nitrogen in the soil for the corn and squash to use. All in all, a happy little field. Sister's, after all, work well together (most of the time.)

Tragically the Europeans did not figure this out, and while they did get enough food to sustain themselves, it took a lot more work than it would have if they'd stooped to taking a lesson from the people who'd lived on this continent since the Pleistocene.

So, who were the ignorant savages in the end?

*Note: The Native Americans actually did have to move their cropland around every so often, it was just MUCH less often than the Europeans. Also, when they did rotate their cropland, they would let the forest reclaim the portion that they had abandoned. When they needed that patch of land again they would burn the growing wood down and let the ash fertilize the soil even more. Which was pretty good planning on their part.

Well that's my tale for the week, I hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. To follow up, here is my Environmental Question.

Environmental Question: If you don't need to farm a given patch of land for a few years, why is it a good idea to plant a cover crops like beans (excluding the benefits of nitrogen fixing in the soil)?