Hi Joan,
Peter Bane was the author of that article, although I can’t find that issue right now, I would email him directly. I remember the article, because part of the inspiration for looking at the issue of passenger pigeon extinction was related to the issue of impacts to nutrient cycles from the functional extinction of American chestnut and the loss of nutrient dispersal via passenger pigeon poop.
Peter and I had been comparing notes about our shared interest in such issues and had had shared with him the emerging scientific recognition of what has become known as the ‘Anadromous Nutrient Pump’ process of the salmonid lifecycle. The ecological benefits are very well documented as to the massive accumulation of marine nutrients (Ca, N, P, K, etc.) literally embodied by salmon who return to their natal watersheds and make these available after they spawn and die thus feeding and driving a whole trophic cascade. (Studies have found that 50% of the Nitrogen in juvenile steelhead and riparian conifers in Oregon streams is of marine origin) This is a key reason why many of us are clear that Totem Salmon are keystone species in our watershed systems because they are drivers for the keystone processes of critical nutrient cycling, such as the chestnut/Passenger pigeon nutrient guild were in the east coast. A great reference is a book by the American Fisheries Society Symposium 34 called Nutrients in Salmonid Ecosystems: Sustaining Producation and Biodiversity. John Stockner, editor. 2001.
Unfortunately the reality of this recognition about salmon nutrient cycles and all other bioacculmulatory organisms and processes get at the recognition that there is No Away! Garbage in- garbage returns in the form of toxic compounds such as PCBs’ that have become highly concentrated in the flesh of salmon and are now being found accumulating in significant concentrations in ‘pristine’ lakes and rivers in Alaska as a result of the “Anadromous Pollution Pump”!
In sum contact Peter Bane, the publisher of the PC activist.
In honoring our Ability-to-Sustain life cycles, I entrust,
Brock Dolman
Hi all, I remember reading an extraordinary article in an issue of Permaculture Activist (I think that's where it was) about the extinction of the passenger pigeon and the impact on the ecosystem of their demise. In my APES (that's AP Environmental Science - about as close to a permaculture course as you're likely to come in a public high school) course we are covering biodiversity next week and the text starts out with info about passenger pigeons. If you know the article could you let me know which issue it was. I looked and looked through my collection and was unable to find it. I suspect it's gone. If anyone has a copy of the article could you send it to me so I could share it with my students?
Thanks,
Joan
"People cannot discover new lands until they have the courage to lose sight of the shore" Andre Gide
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