Bayou-Diversity: Nature and People in the Louisiana Bayou Country

3. Modi Operandi: Methods of Functioning or Operating

3 Modi Operandi Methods of Functioning or Operating Observed a gator killed spike buck in Streeter’s Canals. He was about half eaten and had numerous tooth puncture marks over carcass. A 10' gator was sunning about 200' down canal. —KO Field Diary, 27 October 1982—Lacassine NWR Hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans and lower bayou country. —KO Field Diary, 29 August 2005 The natural world of bayou country is driven by a myriad of processes , all a blend of biotic and abiotic components with their deepest roots in the energy from our closest star. Photosynthesis, respiration , and meiosis are no more important to life than the averages and extremes of weather that steer plant succession. Migration, hibernation , predator/prey relationships, and disease are bound in the physics of time. Survival of individual plants and animals is connected to survival of populations is connected to habitat quality is connected to soil fertility. The living and nonliving parts are inseparable , a concept often ignored by citizens of a consumer-oriented society. 118 Modi Operandi: Methods of Functioning or Operating / 119 Connections If I could choose one concept to leave with readers of this book, it would be that of “connections”—links between humans and the natural world. Connections can also be links between plants or animals and their habitats. Everyone knows that fish need water, but few realize that many prairie plants need fire to survive. ­ Spanish moss needs clean air, spring peepers need seasonal pools, and mud daubers need mud. Connections can be broad—all animals­ depend on plants either directly or indirectly, or very specific—red-­ cockaded woodpeckers need old pine trees infected with the fungus that causes red heart disease in the tree. Rare indigo snakes need the burrows of endangered gopher tortoises in southeast Loui­ si­ ana. In the hill country of north Loui­ si­ ana beech drops grow only under the disappearing beech trees. As a species and as individuals there is little that we do that does not impact other living things by affecting connections. The consequences of our actions on other life forms can be negative or beneficial . The scale can vary from global extinction of a species to preservation of entire ecosystems. Clearing bottomland hardwood forests in the lower Mississippi Valley ensured the demise of ivory-billed woodpeckers, but conservation efforts have likely preserved the greater Yellowstone ecosystem. The same action can be fatal to individuals yet essential to the well-being of a whole population, as in the use of hunting as a tool to maintain healthy deer herds. Most detrimental impacts are the result of cumulative actions. The fact that I drive a gasoline-powered truck each day doesn’t impact caribou in northern Alaska. The fact that 50 million people drive similar vehicles may seriously affect caribou as the demand for oil and its associated activities in the fragile Arctic displace the herds. Knowing the connections is important. It is even more important to realize that we have not yet figured out most of the connections , and that many will always elude our comprehension. These in particular are no less significant to the players involved. Recogniz- 120 / Biota: The Plant and Animal Life of a Particular Region ing that unknown connections exist is as important as proven facts in making daily decisions that impact the natural world. Tree Fall Deep in the D’Arbonne Swamp just on the bayou side of Wolf Brake a giant, forked willow oak split at the confluence of the two trunks and crashed to the forest floor. Barring thunder and gunshot it was probably the loudest sound in that neck of the woods in many a year. The odds are good that no humans were around to hear it, but certainly nearby wildlife went to red alert at the first crack. A­ scenario in which a doe in an adjacent thicket snorted and headed for the hills, a fox squirrel bailed out of a leaf nest, and a barred owl flushed indignantly from a cavity in the doomed tree is not unrealistic. When I found it, the tree had recently fallen, probably as a result of the fringe winds of a hurricane that destroyed entire forests 150 miles to the south. Here the impact was less dramatic but just as crucial to the survival of a forest. Where the tree once stood something absent for a hundred years suddenly appeared on the ground...