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Saturday, September 29, 2007
The Sensuality, Wisdom, and Fragility of the Earth
I don't know how to express how much I love the desert. I love it like I love my children. I can be hiking there and suddenly feel a rush of overwhelming joy that comes from deep inside myself. I can sit for hours watching lizards, and tears of gratitude will just spontaneously fall. I bask in the beauty and solitude, but I also feel great grief at the damage that we do to our earth.
This year, we arrived in the desert the day after a rainstorm. The washes were still wet with the sensual undulations created by the water run-off.
Last year at this time, I wrote about the fragility of the desert's cryptobiotic soil. Re-reading that, I find that I can't do a better job of expressing myself this year, so I pasted last year's post below. I have now been to this area of the desert five times. You would not be able to find any evidence of that. We leave no trace. After we have packed up, I sweep our site with a piece of wood that I find, so no footprints or any other markings are left. We avoid walking on fragile cryptobiotic soil, and the footprints we leave as we hike in sand will blow smooth in very little time.
This is cryptobiotic soil. It is precious. What you see here has probably taken at least 100 years for our mother earth to create. And we can easily destroy it in a moment.
Close-up
We have visited our spot in the desert four times. The first two times, we didn't see a soul outside of our own group. But recently, the BLM created a map of the area and now, occasional bikers and ATV-ers wander through. On this trip, we heard a couple of ATV groups one morning. We were well-hidden and escaped detection - but we still got to hear the engines and loud voices from our camp-site.
The photo above shows some of the cryptobiotic soil that is prevalent in the desert. This soil is critical to the desert's health. Unfortunately, many ATV-ers and 4-wheel drive vehicle drivers (yes, and some hikers) either don't know or don't care about taking care of our earth and they end up driving over this precious soil, ruining it for many years.
From wikipedia:
"Soil crusts are important members of desert ecosystems and contribute to the well-being of other plants by stabilizing sand and dirt, promoting moisture retention, and fixing atmospheric nitrogen. Because of their thin, fiberous nature, cryptobiotic soils are extremely fragile systems. A single footprint or tire track is sufficient to disrupt the soil crust and damage the organisms. While some species within the soil crust system may regrow within a few years of a disturbance, the damage to slow-growing species may require more than a century before the delicate soil returns to its former productivity. This sensitivity to disturbance means that travelers in arid regions should be mindful of their impact on cryptobiotic soils. As a general rule, visitors should stay on pre-existing roads and trails, only traveling off-trail on durable surfaces such as bedrock or river gravel."
In addition to leaving an ugly footprint on the land and sometimes ruining this fragile soil, ATV-ers create a noise that assaults my ears as I commune with the quiet beauty around me. I find it hard to understand why someone would go to the beauty of the desert only to mar that beauty through creating tracks that last a long time. Why would you go to a naturally serene spot and create noise with engines and loud voices?
A big part of me can't wait until we run out of oil. I won't be able to get to the desert then, but at least the earth will be able to heal itself.
This year, we arrived in the desert the day after a rainstorm. The washes were still wet with the sensual undulations created by the water run-off.
Last year at this time, I wrote about the fragility of the desert's cryptobiotic soil. Re-reading that, I find that I can't do a better job of expressing myself this year, so I pasted last year's post below. I have now been to this area of the desert five times. You would not be able to find any evidence of that. We leave no trace. After we have packed up, I sweep our site with a piece of wood that I find, so no footprints or any other markings are left. We avoid walking on fragile cryptobiotic soil, and the footprints we leave as we hike in sand will blow smooth in very little time.
This is cryptobiotic soil. It is precious. What you see here has probably taken at least 100 years for our mother earth to create. And we can easily destroy it in a moment.
Close-up
We have visited our spot in the desert four times. The first two times, we didn't see a soul outside of our own group. But recently, the BLM created a map of the area and now, occasional bikers and ATV-ers wander through. On this trip, we heard a couple of ATV groups one morning. We were well-hidden and escaped detection - but we still got to hear the engines and loud voices from our camp-site.
The photo above shows some of the cryptobiotic soil that is prevalent in the desert. This soil is critical to the desert's health. Unfortunately, many ATV-ers and 4-wheel drive vehicle drivers (yes, and some hikers) either don't know or don't care about taking care of our earth and they end up driving over this precious soil, ruining it for many years.
From wikipedia:
"Soil crusts are important members of desert ecosystems and contribute to the well-being of other plants by stabilizing sand and dirt, promoting moisture retention, and fixing atmospheric nitrogen. Because of their thin, fiberous nature, cryptobiotic soils are extremely fragile systems. A single footprint or tire track is sufficient to disrupt the soil crust and damage the organisms. While some species within the soil crust system may regrow within a few years of a disturbance, the damage to slow-growing species may require more than a century before the delicate soil returns to its former productivity. This sensitivity to disturbance means that travelers in arid regions should be mindful of their impact on cryptobiotic soils. As a general rule, visitors should stay on pre-existing roads and trails, only traveling off-trail on durable surfaces such as bedrock or river gravel."
In addition to leaving an ugly footprint on the land and sometimes ruining this fragile soil, ATV-ers create a noise that assaults my ears as I commune with the quiet beauty around me. I find it hard to understand why someone would go to the beauty of the desert only to mar that beauty through creating tracks that last a long time. Why would you go to a naturally serene spot and create noise with engines and loud voices?
A big part of me can't wait until we run out of oil. I won't be able to get to the desert then, but at least the earth will be able to heal itself.
Labels: cryptobiotic soil, desert, photography
posted by Carol at 8:28 AM
4 Comments:
I like the word cryptobiotic.
It's amazing how the earth works. When soil like that can take more than a century to rebuild, and parts of the scab lands were created in a single flash flood, the mechanics of our planet look even more perplexing!
Yeah, I throw around the word "cryptobiotic" because it feels good on my tongue and I sound impressive. ;-)
I had to look up Scablands, because I had no clue what you were talking about. Guess your intelligence came from somewhere other than MY genes!
Learn something everyday. I feel the same as you. We have a lot of jet skis and loud motor boats around here (as well as ATVs) I don't understand why you would want to go out on the quiet serene water and make all that noise. What happened to sailing?
Hey Mary!
Doesn't it seem like people have an addiction to speed, noise and conquering? But sailing... THAT is art.
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