TUESDAY, APRIL 18, 2023 - LAND MANAGEMENT AND EARTH DAY

 TUESDAY, APRIL 18, 2023 EARTH WEEK 2

Next Saturday is Earth Day.  This week I’m looking at the environment and issues

Yesterday, I wrote about water.  Water is vital to life, and yet water is wasted (swimming pools, irrigating lawns in desert areas).

Today, stewardship of the land.

First - stewardship is not a term we frequently use.  It is defined as the job of supervising or taking care of something, such as an organization or property - such as "responsible stewardship of our public lands"

Taking care of the land is actually considered an ethical issue.  “Aldo Leopold, the father of modern conservation theory, believed that land stewardship was rooted in ethics.

The land ethic “enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, animals, or collectively: the land.” https://gokcecapital.com/land-stewardship/ 

Property owners (especially farmers) want to profit from their land for many years.  I know of farmers who own “100-year farms” - that is, the land has been in the same family for at least 100 years.  

One author wrote: “These rewards may include quality farm products, high-value timber, songbirds throughout the year, successful hunts, peace, and solitude, or a great view just to name a few.  That said, while stewardship motives have this selfish motive behind them, they are also altruistic.

You want to be a good neighbor (a good steward) of the land who is concerned for the soil, water, air, and biodiversity.  You want the land to be there for your grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

This author also suggests that taking care of the land is a spiritual or God-like activity.  (And, I agree).  The Old Testament suggests that every seventh year the land should lay fallow (that is, give it a rest every seventh year), and in jubilee years (every 50 years - or seven groups of seven).  Exodus says “You may plant your land for six years and gather its crops. But during the seventh year, you must leave it alone and withdraw from it.”

This is the concept of a “Sabbath” year - like the weekly Sabbath (work six days and rest on the seventh), this is to give the land a year to recover.

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Good land stewardship involves:

Good water and soil practices - such as maintaining good soil conditions.  (As an amateur gardener, that might mean a soil environment where earthworms can flourish)

Diversity - generally speaking, rotating your crops is good.  Corn for a few years, soybeans or legumes in other years, and even pasture lands periodically (like the sabbath years)

When I had a bigger garden I was careful not to plant my tomatoes in the same location year after year.

Good soil.  When I had raised beds, I tilled in manure, peat moss, and good soil.  There are some good chemical fertilizers - but manure and compost are natural soil conditioners.

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But, farming is a job, an occupation.  Getting profit or value off your land can also mean using other chemicals - pest control (kill the bad bugs); weed control (kill the plants that are not what you are growing), and appropriate watering or irrigation,  Modern farming can use modern methods - but still, be good stewards of the land.  

I know too many homeowners who are very concerned about their lawns.  They use weed killers in the spring on their dandelions and pesticides to kill the nasty bugs.  But, in a recent article, the authors suggested that dandelions can be an early source of pollen for bees.  And, if you kill the dandelions the bees might not have another source for pollen (and if you kill the bees that have negative implications as well.  

Then they use irrigation and fertilizer to keep their grass green all summer (even in those hot July and August days in Texas.  

And, on those days we do get rain, the rain washed the weed killers, pesticides, and fertilizers into the sewer system which can make the water treatment plants toxic.

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One additional factor in land management.  Plants and flowers use carbon dioxide and give off oxygen.  A source said, “One large tree can provide a day's supply of oxygen for up to four people. Trees also store carbon dioxide in their fibers helping to clean the air and reduce the negative effects that this CO2 could have had on our environment.”

We are all in this together.  This week as we think of Earth Day, let’s be nice to Mother Earth.  Can we find more environmentally beneficial ways for our lawns (including letting them go dormant in the heat of the summer)?  Are there better ways to handle weeds (including letting some of them grow?  

The last month has been grand in Central Texas.  The wildflowers have been exceptional.  One reason for better bluebonnets, Indian paintbrush, and other wildflowers is restricting the mowing of ditches until the wildflowers have dropped their seeds for next year's growth.  

Let’s be aware of our environment.  I love looking out my window and seeing healthy trees and grass.

LOVE WINS - and love implies taking care of our planet

LOVE TRANSFORMS - can we learn to be better stewards of our planet

KAREN ANNE WHITE, ©, APRIL 18, 2023