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Tuesday, September 19, 2023

Atala Butterflies Return from Near Extinction

Since the 1970’s the Earth’s insect population suffered severe population declines as well as loss of diversity. The NY Times 2018 article, The Insect Apocalypse Is Here. What does it mean for the rest of life on Earth?, reported: 

The German study found that, measured simply by weight, the overall abundance of flying insects in German nature reserves had decreased by 75 percent over just 27 years. If you looked at midsummer population peaks, the drop was 82 percent.

An Atala butterfly emerges from its cocoon
Photo credit: Holly Elmore Images
According to the November 2019 Somerset Wildlife Trust Insect Declines and Why They Matter Report by Professor Dave Goulson, 41% of insect species are threatened with extinction.

Though the overall insect-population is in a dire state, there are ample success stories of species restoration. A common contributing factor to success stories is the growing trend of replacing non-native ornamental plants with native flora and greenery in residential, commercial, and community landscapes. The 2021 RiA Magazine article, Urban Carbon Sinks: Rewilding Urban Landscapes, introduces the Holocene extinction, the Insect Apocalypse, and how rewilding urban landscapes may avoid catastrophe.

Homegrown National Park
The December 2022 RiA Magazine article, Soil & Water: the foundation of life, features award-winning author and renowned entomologist Doug Tallamy's Homegrown National Park  (HNP.)

HNP is a grass roots call-to-action to regenerate biodiversity. According to Doug,

In the past, we have asked one thing of our gardens: that they be pretty. Now they have to support life, sequester carbon, feed pollinators, and manage water.

National awareness is HNP's product along with a request for the below actions on the more than 40-million acres of private lawn in the United States:

  1. Reduce lawns.
  2. Plant more native plants.
  3. Remove invasive and/or non-native plants.
The What's the Rush 24-minute video by Doug is a superb overview of the critical status of the insect population along with simple lifestyle changes by individuals that collectively make a huge difference.

Success Story
The once abundant Atala butterflies were thought to be extinct from the 1930’s until 1959 when a few specimens were discovered. In 1979, a colony of Atala butterflies was found on an island off the Miami Coast. It is likely that the current population are descendants of the island butterflies.

Atala butterfly cocoons
Photo credit: Holly Elmore Images

Like the Monarch butterfly’s relationship with the milkweed plant, the Atala butterfly has a symbiotic relationship with the coontie palm; the female only lays eggs on the coontie palm. Thus, when early Florida settlers overharvested the coontie palm for its starchy root, the Atala butterfly population declined and disappeared along with its host plant.

With its recent popularity as a native ornamental plant in Florida landscapes, the abundant urban coonties support healthy populations of the once nearly extinct Atala butterfly.

The Elemental Impact (Ei) Rewilding Urban Landscapes Pilots contain three coonties, one in the front-yard native-plant landscape and two within the backyard food forest. This summer Zach Zildjian, the pilots’ curator, noticed a female Atala butterfly laying eggs on one of the food forest coonties. 

Over the next weeks, Ei Founder & CEO Holly Elmore documented the transformation of ravenous caterpillars into the chrysalis stage along with their emergence as magnificent butterflies. With perfect timing, Holly captured one Atala literally emerging from its cocoon. The Holly Elmore Images (HEI) album, Atala butterflies return from near extinction, gives a pictorial recount of the magical experience.

Coontie Palm
Once abundant in South Florida the coontie palm (Zamia integrifolia) supported a healthy Atala butterfly population. Poisonous in its unaltered states, the coontie palm gifts the Atala caterpillars and butterflies a natural protection from predators via their poisonous state.

Coontie in the Ei Rewilding Pilot
Photo credit: Holly Elmore Images
Often called a fossil plant, the coontie palm is a cycad, an ancient plant group that thrived along with the dinosaurs during the Jurassic Period; most likely, the cycads were a predominant food source for the many herbivores. According to a 2011 Berkeley News article, cycads are among the most endangered plants. The coontie palm is the only cycad native to Florida, and according to several sources the only one native to North America.

With proper processing, the water-soluble toxin cycasin washes away from pulverized coontie root, which transforms into an edible flour for bread, porridge, and cakes. Indigenous tribes mastered the cleansing practices and shared it with the Seminoles; around 1825, the Seminoles taught early settlers how to process the poisonous coontie root. Additionally, the dried rhizomes were used for medicinal  purposes, treating ailments such as stomachaches and skin irritations. 

As south Florida populated, the coontie palm was overharvested, and the once common coontie palm segued into an endangered species. As the coontie requires a decade to reach a harvestable state, natural species replenishment was not feasible.

According to the February 2020 The Palm Beach Post article, Coontie, Florida’s only native cycad, wins National Award from GCA:
During World War I, as many as 18 tons of coontie were processed daily for the military. This led to the original decimation of the plant, which was further depleted by overdevelopment in the later housing booms
The coontie is listed as a Commercially Exploited Plant [(FDACS/DPI rule 5B-40.0055 (C)]; thus, harvesting coontie in the wild is prohibited without a permit.

With emergence of native-plant landscapes, nurseries began cultivating the hardy coontie for residential, commercial, and community planting purposes. Per the UF/IFAS Extension Sarasota County:  A Florida-Friendly Landscaping™ Tale of Survival and Resurgence (Part I): Coontie Cycads:
As modern landscapers shifted towards plants that utilize less fertilizer and less water, coontie was finally recognized for this crucial use. Adaptable, low maintenance, drought tolerant, and with evergreen tropical fronds; this plant has surged in popularity. You commonly see the plant serving as an excellent foundation or accent plant in various landscape designs.

The coontie’s status as a rare native plant also adds an ecological dimension to any landscape. Encouraging local biodiversity and supporting the caterpillars of the rare Atala butterfly. You are not only beautifying your surroundings but also contributing to the conservation efforts of these imperiled species.
Atala butterfly recently
emerged from its cocoon

Photo credit: Holly Elmore Images
The re-emergence of the near-extinct coontie as well as the Atala butterfly is a prime example of the extended benefits of embracing native-plant landscapes. By recognizing the Florida-friendly growing traits of the native coontie, commercial nurseries and landscapers began the restoration of two nearly extinct species.

As native-plant landscapes segue into customary practice and harmful pesticides and fertilizer use is diminished, population-restoration success stories like the Atala butterfly along with its host plant the coontie palm (Zamia integrifolia) will be common, rather than miraculous. 

Additional resources:

Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Division of Plant Industry: Do You Know Coontie? Florida’s Native Indians and Settlers Did.

_______________________________________

Tax-deductible donations in any amount are greatly appreciated to support Ei's important work. 

DONATE HERE


About Elemental Impact:
Elemental Impact (Ei) is a 501(c)3 non-profit founded in 2010 as the home to the Zero Waste Zones, the forerunner in the nation for the commercial collection of food waste for compost. In June 2017, Ei announced the Era of Recycling Refinement was Mission Accomplished and entered the Era of Regeneration. Current focus areas include Nature PrevailsSoil Health | Regenerative Agriculture, and Water Use | Toxicity.

The Regeneration in ACTION Magazine articles, From Organic Certification to Regenerative Agriculture to Rewilding Landscapes: an evolution towards soil integrity and SOIL & WATER: the foundation of life, published to explain and substantiate the importance of Ei’s rewilding urban landscapes work within the Nature Prevails focus area.

The Holly Elmore Images Rewilding Urban Landscapes-album folder documents two active pilots: the Native-Plant Landscape Pilot and the Backyard Permaculture-Oriented Pilot.

MISSION:
To work with industry leaders to create best regenerative operating practices where the entire value-chain benefits, including corporate bottom lines, communities, and the environment. Through education and collaboration, establish best practices as standard practices.

Ei’s tagline – Regeneration in ACTION – is the foundation for Ei endeavors.

The following mantra is at the core of Ei work:

Ei is a creator, an incubator.
Ei determines what could be done that is not being done and gets it done.
Ei brings the possible out of impossible.
Ei identifies pioneers and creates heroes.

For additional information, contact Holly Elmore at 404-510-9336 | holly@elementalimpact.org

Monday, September 11, 2023

Sargassum, a hurricane's gift

Sunbaked sargassum mounds
photo credit: HollyElmoreImages
On Tuesday August 29 and Wednesday August 30, 2023, Hurricane Idalia's outer storm bands pummeled Florida’s Gulf Coast before making landfall on the peninsula’s big bend. In addition to significant flooding from storm surges, Idalia deposited tremendous mounds of sargassum seaweed infiltrated with boater and fishermen trash on barrier island and coastal beaches.

Sunrise walks on Longboat Key, a barrier island nestled between Sarasota Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, revealed Hurricane Idalia's gift of sargassum along the normally pristine beaches. Sargassum deposits first appeared a mile north of the beach condo, increasing in strength to nearly a foot deep on the northern beach stretch.

On the first day, the stench was overbearing as the dying sargassum released hydrogen sulfide that smells similar to rotten eggs. The normally sparkling gentle surf was brownish with floating sargassum and other debris. The floating sargassum often contains jellyfish larvae that causes a red, itchy rash upon contact. For nearly a week post-hurricane, Manatee County issued no-swimming advisories due to the water toxicity. 

Sargassum
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: sargassum is a genus of large brown seaweed (a type of algae) that floats in island-like masses and never attaches to the seafloor.

In Balance
When in balance, the naturally occurring sargassum plays an integral role within the ocean ecosystem. In the May 2019 Utilise Sargassum Seaweed For Its Many Benefits press release by the British Virgin Islands government, Marine Biologist at the Ministry of Natural Resources and Labour Mervin Hastings states, 

In-balance sargassum on beach
photo credit: HollyElmoreImages
"The Sargassum seaweed provides a source of food, home and nursery to an amazing variety of marine species (plants, shrimps, crabs, birds, fish, turtles, etc.). Sargassum also aids in creating sand dunes which helps in restoring eroded beaches."

Rich in iodine, bromine, mineral salts and vitamins, sargassum is beneficial for human use. According to Indigo Health

It is antioxidant, promotes proper hormone balance, protects from radiation and kills bacteria and fungi. When the thyroid is compromised, symptoms can include unexplained weight loss/gain, fatigue, hair loss and dry skin. Sargassum is one of the algae used in the production of Agar.

Per the Florida Department of Health, sargassum may contain large amounts of heavy metals like arsenic and cadmium and should not be used in cooking.

Over-abundant sargassum
photo credit: HollyElmoreImage
Out of Balance
Around twenty years ago, sargassum blooms crossed a threshold from beneficial to suffocating and harmful, both at sea and when washed up on shorelines. Similar to red tide, Karenia brevis, the naturally occurring algae blooms are fueled by human-produced and -released nutrients/toxins into waterways and eventually to the oceans. Nitrogen and phosphate fertilizers and other toxins dispersed into the oceans often result in explosive red tide and/or sargassum algae blooms.

Unlike red tide, which is deadly to marine life, sargassum does not release toxins that directly kill marine life. Like red tide, sargassum deposits on shorelines are costly to local economies with immediate, direct impact on tourism-driven coastal communities. Additionally, the seaweed can clog power plant turbines, boat engines, and other propeller-driven machinery.

When it leaves the cooler Atlantic Ocean waters and enters the warmer Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, the floating sargassum mass can smother sea grasses and coral reefs.

The Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt 
Initially noted in 2011, the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt (GASB) spans over 5,000 miles, weighs approximately 5.5 million metric tonnes, and consists of connected sargassum masses, many an acre in size. The GASB spans twice the length of the United States; yet, if compressed together the mass condenses to about the size of Delaware.

Sparsely deposited sargassum
photo credit: HollyElmoreImage
First documented by Christopher Columbus, the Sargasso Sea is located in the mid-Atlantic Ocean, provides food and habitat for marine life, and stays reasonably contained by ocean currents. The sargassum in the Sargasso Sea is a different strain that the algae within the GASB.

Though not proven, many scientists believe fertilizers and other agriculture nutrients flowing from the Amazon River basin into the Atlantic Ocean provided the food source for the GASB formation. Ocean currents carry the sargassum masses from its West African origin across the Atlantic Ocean into the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico.

The sargassum deposited by Hurricane Idalia on Longboat Key beaches originated in the GASB.

Sea Turtle Impact
Fortunately, Hurricane Idalia arrived near the end of the Gulf Coast sea turtle-hatching season. The remaining estimated 30 - 50 sea turtle nests were destroyed or flooded by the storm surge. Within the sargassum mounds, there were a multitude of hatched turtle shells, most likely from pre-hurricane hatching.

Hatched sea turtle eggs
photo credit: HollyElmoreImage
When a nest of eggs hatches, Turtle Watch protocol is to count and return the hatched and unhatched eggs to the nest, which is then covered with sand. Presumably, the hurricane winds, rain, and surge destroyed the covered nests and dispersed the hatched eggs within the storm debris.

Sea turtle nesting season runs from May 1 through October 31 when loggerheads and green turtles return to Longboat Key where they propagate the species.

Without turtle nests to monitor, the Longboat Key Turtle Watch volunteers joined in on the trash clean-up from the sargassum mounds.

Heartwarming Cleanup
Until the beach was cleansed, each sunrise residents, vacationers, and Turtle Watch volunteers filtered through the smelly sargassum mounds and collected boater and fisherman trash washed up from the Gulf of Mexico. The variety and quantity of trash carelessly disposed of in the open water was astounding.

Howard Tipton and
his daughter Michelle
photo credit: HollyElmoreImage
Early Labor Day morning, Longboat Key Town Manager Howard Tipton visited the LBK beaches with his daughter to assess the sargassum scenario. Howard planned to contact Manatee County for removal of the voluminous sunbaked sargassum from the lovely beaches.

Within two days, the beaches were raked yet most of the sargassum remained. By Friday morning, the sargassum was removed with only wisps of the sea weed deluge remaining. Thanks to the community cleanup effort the removed sargassum was essentially cleansed of trash!

It was literally heartwarming to witness the cheerful, cleanup teamwork amongst residents, visitors, non-profit volunteers, and local government. The sargassum deposit was a community gift by Hurricane Idalia; strangers worked in unison to return the Longboat Key beaches to their pristine state.

Howard validates the community spirit inherent within Longboat Key residents and visitors with his statement:

“Living on the coast in Florida, storms impacts are just the price for living in paradise.  What’s amazing on Longboat is how the community comes together to support one another, and how we support a healthy natural environment.”

The Holly Elmore Images album, Idalia's Gift of Sargassum, showcases the sargassum-infiltrated beach along with the community-driven teamwork for the clean-up.

Remember there are always Divine gifts in circumstances, no matter how dire they appear on the surface!

_______________________________________

Tax-deductible donations in any amount are greatly appreciated to support Ei's important work. 

DONATE HERE


About Elemental Impact:
Elemental Impact (Ei) is a 501(c)3 non-profit founded in 2010 as the home to the Zero Waste Zones, the forerunner in the nation for the commercial collection of food waste for compost. In June 2017, Ei announced the Era of Recycling Refinement was Mission Accomplished and entered the Era of Regeneration. Current focus areas include Nature PrevailsSoil Health | Regenerative Agriculture, and Water Use | Toxicity.

The Regeneration in ACTION Magazine articles, From Organic Certification to Regenerative Agriculture to Rewilding Landscapes: an evolution towards soil integrity and SOIL & WATER: the foundation of life, published to explain and substantiate the importance of Ei’s rewilding urban landscapes work within the Nature Prevails focus area.

The Holly Elmore Images Rewilding Urban Landscapes-album folder documents two active pilots: the Native-Plant Landscape Pilot and the Backyard Permaculture-Oriented Pilot.

MISSION:
To work with industry leaders to create best regenerative operating practices where the entire value-chain benefits, including corporate bottom lines, communities, and the environment. Through education and collaboration, establish best practices as standard practices.

Ei’s tagline – Regeneration in ACTION – is the foundation for Ei endeavors.

The following mantra is at the core of Ei work:

Ei is a creator, an incubator.
Ei determines what could be done that is not being done and gets it done.
Ei brings the possible out of impossible.
Ei identifies pioneers and creates heroes.

For additional information, contact Holly Elmore at 404-510-9336 | holly@elementalimpact.org