www.clickondetroit.com/news/michigan/2024/05/09/popular-northern-michigan-trail-closed-for-summer-due-to-invasive-species/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=snd&utm_content=wdiv
Popular Northern Michigan trail closed for summer due to invasive species
Newsthanks
Damn, that sucks. Thats where I got bit by a tick and got lyme disease. Lyme disease sucksnbut I'll take it over those hemlock killing aphid thingies killing all my hemlocks. Btw, Porcupines backpacking for a couple weeks. Absolutely awesome Hemlock forests.
Wooly Adelgid?
I remember when I first came across these and they were covering a few small tress, they would all dance and sway if you got close.
Absolutely disgusting
Edit: I am thinking of the wrong bug.
I don't think these are the same insects. Sounds like you are thinking of beech blight aphids.
Ah ok, ya I never really pinned down what they were. Just in my 30 years in northern Michigan and I only started seeing them a few years ago.
No problem. Beech trees are at risk with beech bark disease and beech leaf disease, unfortunately. Hemlock is also slowly dying from the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid. We also found Balsam Woolly Adelgid here, which threatens fir trees in the state.
Indeed.
Hemlock Woolly Adelgid - Adelges tsugae
I didn’t realize there was more than one, but I’m not a *bug guy. Thanks for the full info!
Yup
Honestly one of my favorite trails. A few different routes, some small hills, massive reward at the end, usually quiet. Something totally different each season you go. Happy to see the state is making the "hard" choice to shut down for protection
Where does this trail start? I assume it ends on a bluff on top of the dunes overlooking Lake Michigan.
Yes! So it's on M22 just north of Sutter. The trailhead isn't huge so it's easy to miss
This is a good thing. Hemlocks up here are being absolutely devastated and it's so sad to see, they are such beautiful trees. Please relax, let parks employees do their jobs, and go on any of the many other trails in the area. Thank you!
Wow! Ten years ago, especially in Michigan's political climate, I couldn't even imagine any invasive species prevention work that would impact such a popular part of the state during peak tourist season. The world has a lot of ecological rebuilding to do, but Michigan has come a long way in a short period of time!
Agreed. A lot of very good things happening under the radar around Michigan lately.
Thanks to the end of gerrymandering, which was brought about by the statewide proposal that created a bipartisan commission to redraw district boundaries.
As a consequence of this sort of thing, many Republican-controlled legislatures are now raising the level of difficulty for statewide proposals.
Not just that. The incredibly hard work of community groups across the state.
This stuff doesnt just happen, and changing the systems is a symptom of citizen involvement, not the cause.
Absolutely. The ballot initiative came from the citizenry, to your point.
Ill add a plug here. Groups like Michigan United are some of the citizen action groups that make these changes possible!
I envy that MI accomplished such a seemingly impossible task in Indiana.
I don’t see the connection between ending gerrymandering and controlling Wooly Hemlock Adelgid
So you think that the government that passed a ban on banning plastic bags would take proactive steps against invasive species?
(And yes, I realize it was probably the MDNR that did this, but look who’s controlling it these days)
One doesn’t necessarily effect the other. Again, there’s no connection between plastic bags and invasive specifies
Humans? Are humans the invasive species?
specifically the down State variety.
You’re Native American? Very cool chicken duck woman thing.
She was waiting in the bushes of love
Act like you're all better...okay...
Is anything really invasive or is our perception of the unnatural really just the course of evolution?
Yes, there are species that are actually invasive and no, their appearance outside of their native environments is not a process of evolution.
Considering most invasive species are initially introduced to new areas by humans, I’m not sure how anyone could wonder if it’s evolution at work.
Because humans evolved, and are a part of nature. So doesn't that make our actions natural???
What is with this hang up with the word “natural” with you guys? Humans accidentally introducing foreign species to new environments where they can’t be kept in check is not an evolutionary process.
it is, but that doesn't mean it's fine to let it happen
No one said it was? And no, it isn’t an evolutionary process.
Just like animals/insects/plants getting carried from one place to another on storms or drift wood patches isn't a natural evolutionary process? Do you get mad at how volcanic islands in the Pacific get plants and animals? What is different about a bird pooping seeds out along a migration root, vs. a human liking a plant in Asia, and planning seeds for it back home in Maine?
In this context, "natural" means "without human intervention".
If a bird poops a seed somewhere, that is natural. If humans brought a plant in, it is not natural.
Keep in mind that there is no ethical judgment in the definition, only categorization. You asked what the difference is, and that is the difference -- the contextual definition of what is or isn't "natural".
Who said I'm mad? I'm just confused by this focus on what counts as "natural" invasion and what doesn't. I'm not saying that invasions of established ecosystems don't happen in nature, but those invasions are a hell of a lot different from humans bringing something like the Emerald Ash Borer to North America from Asia and accelerating the process significantly - or kickstarting the process when it otherwise wouldn't have happened. We're on the opposite side of the world from the Emerald Ash Borer's native environment; the chances of it spreading here naturally would be slim to nothing were it not for humans unknowingly bringing them over here.
You're equating two different processes here and asking why they aren't viewed equally.
Japanese knotweed and kudzu have entered the chat. Native species often get pushed out by introduced species that have no native predators that evolved along side them like in their homeland. If you want native species to disappear by all means plant a non-native that out-competes and has no natural predators. We have often brought species over on purpose because they are pretty or easy to grow but then find out that nothing here can eat it or it takes over forest ecosystems. Drift doesn't normally account for continental movement, that happens with human intervention whether it be on accident or purpose. Climate change is making it worse where at least some species wouldn't survive a harsh winter now it's usually warm enough to prevent die off.
A bird migrating from China to the US is likely to shit out that seed way before it hits land.
You're also ignoring millions of differences with respect to your analogy, from an evolutionary standpoint. Down to the microbial level from both the summer and winter range for the bird you mentioned on a migration route, that introduction has been mediated by natural processes. I like where you're going with it, and you're scratching the surface on how important biodiversity and wild places are to our own existence! Cheers.
Sure but the onus is on us to determine the level of carnage and irreversible damage we’d like to inflict before intervening for the sake of our own place in the world, ecologically speaking.
Are humans unnatural beings in a natural world? What makes an organism natural vs unnatural?
You are trying too hard to come off as insightful and it is not working, my friend.
Your question doesn’t make sense, but anyway, it’s not a discussion about natural vs. unnatural. The word I used was “native.”
💯🎯
lol Not at all, rather the complete. Thanks for playing though.
Fake laughter and saying things like “thanks for playing” aren’t helping you look any less ignorant.
Sorry to ruin your little moment.
What the hell are you talking about bud
It was an attempt to come off as anything but insightful to incite indicative responses.
Human mediated introduction and environmental impact are outside the scope of what most would consider a natural process. Clearly we’ve scarred our systems far more than we can ever imagine to repair, but I’d say that it’s a worthy endeavor from our standpoint to invest in maintaining and rectifying these systems, both from a public health and monetary standpoint in the long run. Also, recreational and aesthetic values that may vary among folks… but clearly an important component in this point you raise.
I completely agree.
Right on! I guess with that I'd just follow suit with the common use of the word invasive as it pertains to conservation. It's definitely an interesting topic to think about, but I'm reluctant to do so where folks would easily take your comment above and doubt the scientific understanding of what a non-native invasive species is and how we use science to determine management practices. It a weird landscape these days.
An invasive species is a non-native species whose introduction does or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human, animal, or plant health. Source
With evolution, the ecosystem balance isn’t rapidly disrupted the way it is with an invasive species. One example is Burmese pythons in Florida.
Are we categorizing people from Illinois as an invasive species now?
FIPs
We probably should be
Instead of clickondetroit it should be clickbaitdetroit. I refuse.
Thanks u/StrangelyOnPoint for doing the work that I didn't want to do.
Bummer, that's one of my favorites. Hopefully, the remediation works, and it's re-opened for next year.
Woolly adelgid? Yeah that shit can fuck off. I've been in some beautiful Hemlock stands up here in the UP and I'll be pissed if it gets up here.
Fortunately there are some good alternatives nearby. The trail at the end of Boekeloo Road is nice and leads to a quiet beach. There's also a pretty network of trails off of Trail's End road that connect to to Esch Beach.
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Old Indian Trail, Sleeping Bear Dunes