Stem Fest 2012 T-shirts are on sale all week at the annual Tulip Time Festival in Holland, Michigan

Spring is in the air in Michigan. The birds are chirping, the bees are buzzing and the tulips… well, they’ve already bloomed. Their premature blossoming is causing trouble for the annual Tulip Time Festival in Holland, Michigan, and could point to a more worrisome trend of global climate change.

After an unseasonably warm March that saw temperatures soar to the mid-80s, trees flowered early and gardens everywhere got an unexpected splash of color. While few are bemoaning the mild winter (the 4th warmenst on record according to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration), it left coordinators for the Tulip Festival scrambling for a way to celebrate the annual tulip blooms in the first week of May lacking much of the main attraction.

Their solution, a humorous one: Stem Fest 2012.

Black t-shirts and buttons were ordered depicting the flowerless stems and making light of the situation in hopes that festival goers would do the same.

While the Tulip Time Festival coordinators’ view of the situation is refreshing, the reasons for the predicament are troubling. The festival has been a staple of the Holland community for 83 years, and only recently have there been questions about timing.

It may seem like a small problem with an easy solution, have the festival earlier, but as the climate changes and ranges shift north, these small problems will begin to add up and affect not only people but wildlife as well. This year, the tulips bloomed early, but were the bees around to pollinate them? When the bees finally appear at their normal time, how much sustenance will be available for them? It’s a frightening cycle with potentially disastrous results.

Stem Fest 2012 might be a good way to make light of a tough situation, but the implications of global climate change are truly a cause for alarm.

Take Action: Show support for the EPA strengthening limits on carbon pollution to help prevent climate change.

Natural Gas Drilling (Photo: Helen Slottje)

After the latest quake, a magnitude 4.0 on New Year’s Eve, five wastewater injection wells were shut down including an active injection site in Youngstown, Ohio just 100 meters away from the large tremor.

“While we couldn’t say for sure that there’s a direct causation between the injection well and the earthquakes, we thought it better to be overly cautious,” Andy Ware, deputy director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, said.

The wastewater pumped into these wells is a by-product of hydraulic fracturing or “fracking”, a process that involves forcing water mixed with sand and other chemicals  underground, which breaks up rock and frees the natural gasses trapped underneath.

Fracking companies are adamant that the earthquakes are not directly related to the drilling itself and drilling should not be affected by these new earthquakes. However, the earthquakes strengthen concerns that there is no safe way to dispose of the fracking waste products.

Thankfully no wildlife or people have been reported hurt in the earthquakes that have occurred so far, but this underscores the risk of fracking to our waters and people. 

The recent earthquakes in Ohio near hydraulic fracturing sites should serve as a wakeup call to citizens and lawmakers alike that wildlife and humans are affected by fracking through damaged habitats and toxic waste. Stronger protections are needed against harm caused by oil and gas development.

It is our job to be the voice for wildlife as well as ourselves. Something needs to be done to increase the regulation of these dangers caused by fracking, and for that to happen citizens need to speak up, contact their representatives, and stay informed.

Take action. Tell Congress to protect our nation’s water and wildlife from the dangerous impacts of hydraulic fracturing.

Manual labor was not in my plans when I signed up to attend a field trip for my conservation biology class to the Ives Road Fen in Tecumseh, MI. It was an opportunity to experience a fen, which is a rare type of wetland that is fed by mineral rich waters and home to a range of wildlife and plants. I was excited to see this rich habitat that was thriving only 45 minutes out of downtown Ann Arbor, MI.

It came as a shock when I realized the large impact invasive species have had on the fen. Even more of a surprise was hearing that I was expected to help remove the tough and invasive autumn olive plants.

When all is said and done however, I’m glad for the experience helping remove invasive species. It really drove home the impact of invasive species to me in a way that a textbook never could.

Books might mention that invasive species have the capability to dominate an ecosystem and wipe out native species, but when you see firsthand how stark and desolate the land is where invasive species have been eradicated the effect is much more powerful. We were in the middle of a remarkable fen ecosystem with hundreds of different species, yet the place where autumn olive had invaded was was now completely barren ground.

I may not have planned on manual labor, nor was I thrilled at having it sprung upon me, but I do plan on returning and bringing others with me to help eradicate autumn olive.

If the work that we did on one Saturday afternoon can help bring back the life and vitality of the fen to that desolate spot then it was entirely worth it.

Any positive action– one day of pulling and hacking invasive species or participating in the cleanup of a small local stream– can have a profound impact on restoring local ecosystems. No action is too small, and I encourage everyone to get involved in whatever way they can to help restore local wildlife habitat.