Et newsletter june_2008

Environment TO BAGO new slett er

International Year of Biodiversity

E nvironment TO-BAGO (ET) is a non-

government, non-profit, vol-unteer organisation , not subsidized by any one group, corporation or government body.

Founded in 1995, ET is a proactive advocacy group that campaigns against negative environmental activit ies throughout Tobago. We achieve this through a variety of community and environ-mental outreach programmes.

Environment TOBAGO is funded mainly through grants and membership fees. These funds go back into implement-ing our projects. We are grateful to all our sponsors over the years and thank them for their continued support

W hat’s inside

IYB 2010 1 Keep A Clean School Com-petition 2010 — Winners

2

World Environment Day 3

What is Intermediate Dis-turbance Hypothesis?

4

Cabbage Lily Infestation 5 Interview with David Rooks - Pt 1

7

Turtle Beach under stress 10

Keeping Tobago Afloat 11

Book Review 14

What’s Happening @ ET 16

Notes to contributors 18

The Yellow Blaze 13

June 2010 Volume 5 Issue 2

Scientists estimate that between 150 and 200 spe-cies become extinct every 24 hours! So in an effort to heighten awareness on the alarming rate at which we are losing biodiversity (all living entities on earth) the United Nations declared 2010 the International Year of Biological Diversity. Activities this year will focus on the importance of biodiversity for human well-being.

ET, a partner with the Convention for Biological Diversity Secretariat to promote awareness on biodiver-

sity, started off the activities by hosting a three-day exhibition at the Gulf City Lowlands mall. The exhibition featured artwork by local students as well as infor-mative literature for adults as well as children. On the morning of May 21st teachers and over thirty students of the Scarborough Secondary school got together to remove over 21 bags of garbage from the Crown point/Sandy Point beach. Garbage from recreational beach goers still seems to be the biggest issue and plastic bottles in particular, the biggest offender by

far. However, following close behind are oil bottles, condoms, cigarette lighters and building materials. Help us keep our environment clean

and bring mindfulness to all our actions: • Take a garbage bag to the beach to dispose of waste • Stop littering • Organise your own beach clean ups • Practice responsible construction • Properly dispose of oil bottles • Get more information

And enjoy this beautiful island and all its natural beauty.

Passerby looking at one of the exhibitions at Low-lands Mall

Students recording data on the garbage collected

Students and teachers and the garbage they collected

June 2010 Editor: Jo-Anne Nina Sewlal Assistant Editor: Christopher K. Starr Design & Layout: Jo-Anne Nina Sewlal Technical Support: Nolan Craigwell, Jerome Ramsoondar Nigel Austin Enid Nobbee Contributors: Jo-Anne Nina Sewlal Christopher K. Starr Bertrand Bhikkary Zoë Charlotte Mason Environment TOBAGO Photographs: Environment TOBAGO Bertrand Bhikkary Zoë Charlotte Mason Dawn Glaisher Wendy Herron

Board of Directors 2008-2009

President:: Patricia Turpin Vice-President: Kamau Akili Secretary: Kay Seetal Treasurer: Shirley Mc Kenna Committee members: Wendy Austin William Trim Fitzherbert Phillips Geoffrey Lewis Bertrand Bhikkary Heather Pepe Ryan Allard

Page 2 Environment TOBAGO newsletter

Winners of the Keep A Clean School Competition 2010 Each year for the last ten years, schools across Tobago are invited to partici-

pate in the Keep A Clean School Competition. This competition seeks to bring aware-ness on solid waste disposal issues in Tobago. Schools are asked to use the waste man-agement strategy of Reusing, Reducing and Recycling items which have served its origi-nal purpose.

This was an opportunity for schools to get creative and become problem-solvers. This year 24 schools throughout Tobago en-tered the competition. Many of the projects included reusing of every day items such as plastic soft drink and water bottles to make pencil holders, chac-chacs and vases. Other found even more innovative uses such as making lampshades and bowling ball pins! There was a greater emphasis this year on community activities and so, many of the schools took to the streets on foot armed with placards, information and a loud voice, urging their communities members to help keep the community free of garbage. One school even went to help clean a disabled gentleman’s home in their village. The winning school was the North Regional SDA school which scored high marks in every area of the competi-tion. Next, a tie between Charlotteville Methodist and Montgomery Government Primary and placing 3rd was Speyside Anglican Primary. Special Prizes were awarded as follows:

Also receiving special commendation was the School for the Deaf, Hearing and Speech Impaired for their participation in this year’s competition.

We would like to congratulate not just the winners but all participating schools. We believe that even though prizes could not be awarded to all schools, each school, through their learning experience from the project, are all winners and will take home life long lessons. ET Also takes this opportunity to thank our sponsors, BHP Billiton, National Lotteries Control Board and Petrotrin.

Best Beautification Initiative Bon Accord Government Primary School Best Composting Initiative Bon Accord Government Primary School

Best Vegetable/ Herb Garden Charlotteville Methodist Primary School

Best Reuse of Material Moriah Government Primary School Best Community Awareness and Involvement Initiative Mason Hall Government Primary

Best Beautification Initiative Bon Accord Government Primary School Best Composting Initiative Bon Accord Government Primary School

Best Vegetable/ Herb Garden Charlotteville Methodist Primary School

Best Reuse of Material Moriah Government Primary School Best Community Awareness and Involvement Initiative Mason Hall Government Primary

Pat Turpin, ET’s President awards a special prize to a student from the School for the Deaf, Hearing Speech Impaired.

MISSION STATEMENT

E nvironment

TOBAGO

conserves Tobago’s

natural and living

resources and advances

the knowledge and

understanding of such

resources, their wise

and sustainable use and

their essential

relationship to human

health and the quality of

life

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World Environment Day 2010

This year Environment Tobago (ET) commemorated World Environment Day, June 5th by joining the Belle Garden Wetland Association as they launched their United Nations supported project: “Sustainable Community-based strategies to conserve and protect the Belle Garden Wetland”.

The project is a community initiative in which one of its aims is to contribute to the conservation and stewardship of the Belle Garden Wetland through increased biodiversity monitoring and education. The project is timely and resonates with the theme for this year: Many Species. One Planet. One Future. More generally, 2010 has been designated the International Year of Biological Diversity. It represents a call to ur-gently repair and reverse the human impacts on biodiversity loss.

The project also hopes to contribute to sustainable livelihoods by increasing eco-tourism opportunities in the village. Last year 11 persons, mostly women, from the Belle Garden and surrounding villages were trained and certified as eco tour guides. This group has now formed the Belle Garden Wetland Association and has taken yet another step to promote conservation and management of the wetland via this new project. The principle elements of the project include: • The setting up of a Blue Crab monitoring area • An outdoor butterfly interpretative area/Butterfly garden • Butterfly Ecology Training • Micro-Enterprise Training and Mentoring

Environment Tobago is very pleased to be associated with this project and will continue to mentor and provide support the young group. The Soroptimists of Tobago has also pledged their interest and assistance where needed. The group has also received support from Eden Nurseries in Tobago in the form of providing several butterfly-attracting species of plants for the launch of the event.

On another note ET joined the Environmental Management Authority at the

Left — Cazelle Roberts-Dyer of NLCB presenting Special Prize to Ma-son Hall Government Primary School. Right — Ms. Singh and student of North Regional SDA proudly displays their First Place Certificate

“ To many people these tall peaks make for a challenging but scenic hike. But they are not just another tall mountain to clim b. ”


ECOLOGY NOTES

Left - Young children assist in the flower-planting exercise; Middle - Devon East-man, Vice President of the BGWA gives a tour to attendees; Right - Mrs. Patricia Turpin and Mr. David Antoine of ET with Dr. Adana Mahase, Project Coordinator for the United Nations supported project: “Sustainable Community-based strategies to conserve and protect the Belle Garden Wetland” enjoys a light mo-ment before the launch of the project at the entrance to the wetland

Belle Garden Wetland Association at work

Members of the Belle Garden Wetland Association

What is the Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis? Jo-Anne Nina Sewlal

Dept of Life Sciences, University of the West Indies

The many and severe bush fires this country has experienced this dry season is the cause of concern for many people as the disturbance they cause to natural ecosystems decreases the amount of biodiversity they contain. Two ecosystems known for their great biodiversity are tropical rainforests and coral reefs. It is a common belief that the fewer disturbances these ecosystems receive the higher the biodiversity they contain. However, the Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis devel-oped by Joseph Connell in 1978, states that the opposite is true.

The organisms that first occupy a disturbed area are referred to as “generalists” in terms of the wide range of food they can consume and habitats they can occupy. Over time as more biomass accumulates in the ecosystems through the death and decomposition of animals and plants, different vegetation is able to be sus-tained. This means that a variety of microhabitats are available in terms of height,

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ARTICLES

Cabbage Lily Infestation Bertrand Bhikarry

Environment TOBAGO Director

The recent proliferation of cabbage lily down at Thompson's river in Lambeau has created a furore among our environmentally aware citizens. Pistia stratiotes may be pleasant to look at but its potential as a trouble-maker cannot be understated. Its pres-ence as a alien plant species has been getting a lot of airplay recently too, as environ-mentalists and politicians alike look to wish it Godspeed and goodbye. Amateur scien-tists may think to look for its origins in expectations of some newsworthy finding, but it's too late to identify any single source of the weed, it's been here, there, and every-where in the world.

Celebrated as an ornamental pond plant, the water lettuce - one of its many names, has its uses; Infusion of the leaves is used for dropsy, bladder complaints, kidney afflictions, diabetes, hematuria, dysentery, and anemia. A poultice of pounded leaves can be used in treatment of hemorrhoids, tumors and boils. The juice of shell-flower leaves, mixed with coconut oil, is used for a variety of chronic skin conditions. Pow-dered dry leaves mixed with a little honey used for syphilis, 3 to 4 teaspoons a day.

Further, the leaves are used for treatment of ringworm of the scalp, syphylitic eruptions, skin infections, boils and wounds. Cabbage Lily oil extract can be used for worm infestations, tuberculosis, asthma, dysentery, piles, ulcers, burns. Even more, the weed is used for alleviating symptoms of menorrhagia. Among the natives of the Ama-zon basin, it is used for arthritis. That’s the good news.

light exposure which in turn controls the temperature and humidity of the microhabitats. Different plants also mean that there is a greater variety of food available. Therefore with this change there is a change of the organ-isms that occupy it with generalists being replaced with specialists, this process is referred to as competitive ex-clusion.

So theoretically, ecosystems like tropical rain for-ests and coral reefs should have low biodiversity since the level of competition present would mean that the few species that are expert competitors would push most of the other species making the ecosystem a species poor ecosystem. However, in these highly diverse ecosystems, competitive exclusion is prevented.

However, these ecosystems are exposed to fre-quent disturbances, for instance, in tropical rainforests, the occurrence of tree falls. These gaps in the canopy cause the formation of many microhabitats which are home to a variety of organisms. Therefore ecological succes-sion is not allowed to reach optimum levels and support only a few specialized spe-cies.

Tropical Rainforest

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The not so good part is the presence of the lily itself may be a symptom of 'things gone bad', and getting rid of it may be best done by addressing the cause. Envi-ronment Tobago, as a key island NGO with interests in keeping things green did some peeking around the Lambeau area in an effort to locate why the (sic) serene lilies were growing so well, so quickly.

Some potential causes were revealed. There's a fairly large vehicle service facility which operates without care for where the operations wastewater and petro-leum derived wastes end up. Also the sewage overflows from the entire Hamden Lowlands settlement drains into the storm water system for the area. Considering the dearth of rain over the last few months, the liquid content of the Thompson has led to a hothouse of nutrients for the water lettuce to thrive.

Before attributing blame to anyone, or to any entity even for a lack of attention to the Water Pollution rules (EMA Water Pollution Rules 2001) Environment Tobago thinks this is a timely reminder that we have to put our house in some sort of order. If Tobago does not attend to its hygiene, its wastes as it con-sumes goods without thought to discarding the wrappings, this small piece of paradise may suffocate. Literally. There's more. As the our NGO team wan-dered around the Lowlands Hampden this week, one result of the irresponsible approach to land use in the area is made manifest by the presence of a large bog, created by the bull-

dozing of large parcels of land further east along the old Milford Road. There, another landlocked morass of lilies cover a fairly large stagnant body of water. There may be tilapia and other fishes within, but it’s a haven for mosquitoes all the same - and other vectors. Our people observed some hapless members of the expatriate Chinese work-force actually fish for their dinner out of this open cesspool, not a good prognosis for a vertical departure from Tobago. There are highly publicized efforts to control ex-otic diseases which may enter our borders by commercial fights and inter-island ferry. In fact, if given a choice of inconveniences, most citizens would prefer to control our risks in more conventional fashion - by keeping the environment and the water table clean.

In closing we may suggest that the lilies at Thompson River in Lambeau could be controlled most effectively by placing opaque sheets of material over the area. It does not have to be the entire river under plastic, as lilies under the covering will per-ish without light. If at the same time a restriction for the detritus is placed at the river mouth and the water allowed to flow yet, when the dead plants are removed manu-ally, those lilies upstream will enter the dark void to undergo the same process. The impending 2009 rainy season can exacerbate the spread of these lilies to other wet-land areas of Tobago. There are wetlands at Granby, Carapuse, and Louis D'Or which can be infested. In other parts of the world, they have used 'biological solutions' to get rid cabbage lily infestation, but we in Tobago today may not want to repeat the mistakes of those who have introduced alien species to get rid of alien species.

Sluice at Gibson’s Bay Jetty cleared of vegetation, back in 2001. Now it is currently overgrown

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“he tried to marry a Trinidadian girl, but his father in Venezuela found out and said he was not to marry until instructed to do so. “

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF DAVID ROOKS. Part 1. The Trinidad Years. Edited by Christopher K. Starr and Jo‑Anne N. Sewlal

Dept of Life Sciences, University of the West Indies [David Rooks is a former president of the Trinidad & Tobago Field Naturalists' Club and the founding president of Environment Tobago. In this two-part series, an interview with him is edited into autobiographical form. The interview was conducted at Talparo, Trini-dad on 30 December 2009.] I was born in Newtown, Port of Spain in September 1936. I have been married twice and have four children: Ronald (b. 1962), Bernard (b. 1963), Courtenay (b. 1965) and Jaclyn (b. 1967). My father, Courtenay Rooks, was the son of an English army officer. My mother, Catherine Carmen Caracciolo, was a descendant of the 18th-century prime minister of the Kingdom of Sicily. Her great-grandfather and his family moved to Venezuela around 1807, because of the Napoleonic wars. They were agriculturalists, who came to Trinidad by way of Venezuela. They bought land and planted cocoa in a big way, and my great grandfather sent my grandfather to Trinidad to buy land and establish cocoa here. He owned land from Tortuga to Mayo. He was very much interested in wild creatures too and put up a statue of St Joseph, his namesake ‑‑ he was Giuseppi ‑‑ to protect the forest and his co-coa. My grandfather got married in 1883. It was a long process, because he tried to marry a Trinidadian girl, but his father in Venezuela found out and said he was not to marry until instructed to do so. He found a Spanish woman in Angostura [now Ciudad Bolívar] for my grandfather and told him "Go to Angostura and marry this girl. I've organised it all." So he went back to Venezuela. When I went to Venezuela as a nature guide, one of our tours was through Ciudad Bolívar. I thought I recognised the cathedral, and I found that is where my grandparents were married. Across the plaza from the church is the museum, and the pictures on the walls are my mother's aunts and uncles. My family has no connection with the Angostura company, but they had with Simón Bolívar, himself, because they fought with him against the Spanish. Many members of the family were involved with Bolívar in the revolution against Spain, so, I have a military heritage on both sides. My own military training was as a cadet while I was still in St. Mary's College. I was first a boy scout and then became a cadet, because I liked to shoot. I guess that came from my father, who was a volunteer army officer. My favourite pastime was collecting butterflies, and I regret that I did not retain my collection through all my years of moving. I had some lovely specimens, caught all over Trinidad, mostly in the hills behind Port of Spain, Chancellor Road and down in Diego Mar-tin around Rubio, and I used to enjoy coming home from school and looking at my speci-mens. In school my favourite subject was biology, by far, and at the start of the school year I would read all my biology books in the first week, so I would be ahead of everybody. I treated biology like reading stories and learning about real people, which were butterflies, lizards, alligators and agoutis. We even had a pet agouti, which would come to the table and beg for food. He was given to us supposedly to cook for Christmas dinner, but he never saw the table on top, only from below. He became a member of the household and was christened George. The other butterfly enthusiasts and I didn't have Barcant's Butterflies of Trinidad and Tobago [published 1970], although of course I got a copy as soon as I could. Before then, we had to scratch around to find who had what species or what we had caught from works of the early Trinidad naturalists, like Léotaud. I remember Charles Turpin, who lived next door. He was the director of works and hydraulics and remained a close friend all my life. Mr. Turpin had an agouti pen, where

Volume 5 Issue 2


he might have up to 50 agouti. He was a hunter, the type that never shoots his prey. He would catch them and put them in the pen at home. He owned or controlled a lot of land, and wherever agouti were getting scare he would take several from his pen and re-lease them. So he kept the agouti population up to mark. My father was another early influence in natural history, although he was more interested in general species identifying. He was a very keen hunter, but he never overdid it. He always lectured to us on being protective of the animals that we liked to hunt. We shot ramiers [pigeons] and duck, mostly blue and teal. My father would take us into the swamps. He and Mr. Turpin would take us hunting with dogs, mostly for agouti, although on a rare occasion we would shoot a deer or a wild pig [peccary]. We went all over the island. My father was also friendly with one of the big planters in Mayaro. We would go and stay at his house in Mayaro and spend the days hunting. This planter was well versed not only in natural history but in archaeology, so he became known as a collector and identifier of pre-Columbian artifacts. He would take us to the Amerindian middens and identify for us remains of wild creatures that we found there. My father and I also fished a lot, and he would identify what we caught or what we saw. I never asked him how he learnt all that. After finishing secondary school, I went straight into the engineering school for the oil industry at Trinidad Leasehold. I was in that programme for three years. It was supposed to be five years, but there was a shortage of drillers, so they shortened it. It was mostly engineering, with night school in such things as mathematics and technical drawing. Then I was sent for a year to do practical work under an experienced oil driller, and when he certified that I was good enough I got my own rig. I worked from 1958 as an oil driller. It soon became known in the oil industry that if you needed any wild creature identified you should go to David Rooks. That helped to stimulate my hobby of learning about biology. I was reading constantly, everything I could find about nature. I did further training and became a directional drilling engineer, which involves steering the well like a car. The geologist set the target, and I would have to draw a plan to guide the well to that destination. That took a lot of drawing and calculation. And when I was given a job, I was on call around the clock, sometimes working very long hours. It paid well. In that job, if you make a mistake it is very costly to the company, so it is worth it to them to pay for the best they can get. It gave me an opportunity to see different parts of the country, even offshore, so I'd see seabirds and fish on the surface. In fact, offshore drilling rigs, if they are permanent structures, become reefs. You have the biggest and best varieties of fish under them. Many of the old rigs are excellent for scuba diving. I stayed in the petroleum industry until 1965, and even after that I still did the occasional job in it. However, by that time I had become an independent businessman. My close association with the senior engineers in the oil industry had shown me that they were all suffering from the same problem. They had nobody to design or maintain their air conditioning. So I took a course in air conditioning and refrigeration and started my own company, Climate Control, which became the biggest air conditioning supplier in the oil industry. I got into it by natural migration. I moved to Port of Spain in 1966, because I was now getting a lot of work there. It was then that I discovered the Field Naturalists' Club. Before that I had no mentors in natural history aside from the hunters, whose knowledge was mainly limited to species identification. Association with the Club gave me the opportunity to learn from individuals with a deeper knowledge. On field trips, people would separate into groups, each with a knowledgeable person as an unofficial guide. Often I was in a group with someone like Victor Quesnel, who knew just about everything about plants, with Frankie

“My favourite pastime was col-lecting butterflies, and I regret that I did not retain my collection through all my years of moving. “

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Farrell to back him up. If I saw a butterfly or bird that I wanted to identify I'd ask them, and if they didn't know they would tell me whom to ask. Over several years, then, I de-veloped a good grounding in the natural history of the country. I joined the Club officially in 1973. I was associated with it for several years be-fore anyone told me that I could actually join it. I knew many who where members, and eventually somebody said "Why don't you join?" In 1975 I was elected to the Manage-ment Committee, and I served as president for four one‑year terms. The last came by accident, as Frankie Farrell was elected president, but then he asked to be relieved of duty, on account of advancing deafness, and moved that I be elected to serve out his term. I sold the company to Neal & Massy around 1971 because of problems with a shareholder. It was a private company with five shareholders. One was an oil man who knew that a rise in the oil price was coming. He had an oil company in Saudi Arabia and wanted to take over my company, because he knew that air conditioning would be much in demand when the price rise came. I knew that Neal & Massy also wanted it. At first I told them no, but when this shareholder started to give me problems I discussed it with them and changed my shares in Climate Control to shares in Neal & Massy.

Then I realised I didn't like the politics of major corporations, so I retired from business and went travelling over North America. There I saw cultured marble being manufactured, so I took a course in making cultured marble and eventually made a very good product and started a company on the Eastern Main Road in Laventille. I put my money from the Neal & Massy shares into my manufacturing company, Elegant Products, not knowing that a recession was down the road. By 1985 I had no customers. None of them could afford cultured marble. So I shut it down and came to Tobago at the end of 1985.

Reference Barcant, M. 1970. Butterflies of Trinidad and Tobago. Collins, London.

Turtle Beach, under stress Bertrand Bhikarry

Environment TOBAGO Director Turtle Beach Tobago. Always a place of great activity, it's that same popularity which may remove it from the map. In its documented history the (Courland) bay was the primary send-of point for most of the islands sugar crop. Before that it was where Dutch colonists embarked on their planned settlements for this tropical island. Even before them, the native Indian (Arawaks) had a semi-permanent presence in the vicin-ity. Therefore it would seem that the Turtle Beach, from the time it was first seen

by humans, has offered some measure of suc-cour, whether it was food, or shelter. It's a nice thing to contemplate; Generations past used it, generations to come will use it also. It seems that's a supposition which may be about to change as the present islander may well be key among those who are to blame for the killing of the beach at Courland Bay. If a beach can be described as a shadow of it's former self, it must be Tobago's Turtle View of Turtle Beach over the Black

Rock Pond

“If a beach can be described as a shadow of it's for-mer self, it must be Tobago's Turtle Beach. “

Volume 5 Issue 2



Beach. In the 'grand discovery of Tobago', a period defined in the tourism sector as somewhere between 1988 and 1994, Turtle beach was the epitome of the Caribbean holiday.

Lucky tourists at the time could step out of their hotel room, yawn, and roll into the nearby ocean for an invigorating dip. Or they could mingle with the beach seine fisher folk as the nets came in. In fact it's been ru-moured that the appreciative noises the visi-tors made were just barely drowned out by the persistent sound of the Caribbean waves. No more. No more is the wished for tableau likely to be re-enacted. Turtle Beach is beset by the problems unplanned development brings to an area. It runs the risk of being lost to other humans for eons as we who live here now insist on interfer-ing with nature's way of doing things. The

signs are obvious, even to the environmentally unaware. The illegal, yet sustained removal of sand from the beach has opened the Cour-land area to the ravages of the sea. The unfriendly practice of creating open beachfronts for a better view, for better access has placed those same properties at the mercy of the sea. In fact, it's not only the private sector who need to take the blame for these and other travesties, the authorities are at fault also. The heavy hand of the State is quite visible on Turtle Beach. In its wisdom, the Tobago House of Assembly regularly hires contractors to remove sand from the mouth of the Courland River, and also from the front of the Black Rock Pond. Ostensibly it is done for the purpose of improving drainage, or in the case of the latter place, better local health. In the up-shot though the sand which is cleared is off-times used by the construction indus-try. If Turtle Beach could talk, even maybe read a balance sheet, it would claim to be major shareholder in many local millionaires business to judge from the present low level of sand on the beach. Taking the anecdotal approach further; Turtle Beach's proximity to the population center is proving to the prime factor in its demise. The THA (again the culprit with the most reach) only recently acquired lands adjacent to the beach. It was an act that could hold promise for the future of the area, for all concerned. Once again though the goodness factor did not reach the ground. The relevant authorities saw it fit to clear-cut the area to provide parking for the heavily touted an-nual Tobago Jazz Festival. The surrounding wooded areas were also cleared, as security

“The illegal, yet sustained removal of sand from the beach has opened the Courland area to the ravages of the sea. “

Coconut tree on Turtle beach cut down just for a cool drink. Can you Imagine? The tree shown leaning seaward INSET is the chopped one featured. Photo by: Dawn Glaisher

Heavy vehicle traffic will soon kill the trees at the Turtle Beach seafront

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issue demanded - in these modern times. One of the more benign acts of destruction resulting from these activities is the opening of a wide beachfront area, which necessitated clearing the under-growth of a magnificent wooded stand. There are samaan trees there, beach al-monds and several other large examples of local plant life. The stand is a veritable breath of life in what's become a very inhospitable locale. Today the Tobago Heritage Fes-tival AKA the Black Rock Party, takes place on the delicate roots of the trees,

tramples the archeological artifacts left to us by those who were not actually our an-cestors. The ecologically unplanned clearance opens up the woodland for daily use by a stream of visitors, all who insist on keeping their vehicles close to hand as they make elaborate and messy picnics or beach fetes. It cannot last of course. Just seventeen years ago Turtle Beach welcomed the masses. What with the rapid rate of unsupervised development in the area it may be just five more before the area may display signage to the effect that being on Turtle Beach is dangerous for one's health.

Sand mining. Photo by: Wendy Herron

Keeping Tobago Afloat Bertrand Bhikarry

Environment TOBAGO Director

The problems which Tobago faces in this current dry and fiery period are at the top of the news daily, but instead of gazing on idly, there are many things which ordinary people can do make life easier. These are not grand fixes but we must admit at some point we are facing problems we created ourselves, over time.

Looming large is the lack of appreciation that we are about to lose the quality of life as we know it. But what is the problem exactly? It is the lack of respect with which we treat our trees, our streams and by extension our watershed. Sadly in the end it is the way we treat ourselves, since we are the top of the biological chain.

Quality of life encompasses the things we, and people before us, worked hard to achieve. Things like sewage treatment, and health care as well agricultural systems.

For example irrigation comes to mind. If we were to miraculously change our ways, each and every one of us, then the cost of services we consume will dimin-ish. The entire treasure chest of natural gifts we inherited will be left intact - the way it should be. We will be exemplars in keeping our part of the world pristine for our grandchildren. In fact, we pay lip ser-vice to these ideals every year in the an-nual Tobago Heritage festival. Truck removing river gravel

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Further in leaving the hills green and keeping water-filled streams we would have left to them (the next generation) a far more valuable inheritance than some concrete venues and graffiti covered stadiums. We must not forget the costs of maintaining those

artificial things when we build them. The term sustainability comes to mind. Forest and reefs and coastal riches, like fish stocks, will pay off a lot more to the Tobago people than basketball ever will. Let's make the island an open university for nature. Look at Grenada, a country we felt sorry for just a few years ago. A country to which we gave generously, secure in the knowledge it's a country without a 'profitable' energy sector. No energy industry but they had SGU. St. Georges University today boasts nearly 8,000 doctors and more than 700 other SGU graduates who have taken the St. George’s University philosophy of global education while applying their

education around the world. The Grenadian people who own guesthouses, taxis, tour companies and

all that sort of thing have built a support system around what is basically an educational product. And it's not all there is to it. Students by and large have families who visit. That group does not stay on campus. The simple fact is there is more airlift into Grenada than we have in Tobago today speaks volumes for our tourism savvy. We could take the example. In To-bago we could focus on our biodiversity as the product. We say we do, but that's talk. There is no need to enumerate all the meth-ods through which opportunities arise for making a living as well as a contribution; for that you can contact the young leaders for our environment at the local EMA office (Jones Building Wilson Road, ask for Lind-ford Beckles)

Or if you have lost faith in the au-thorities, which is an unfortunate sign of the times, you can get in contact with your local NGO. There is the Buccoo Reef Trust, who had a coast-to-watershed research project on, there's Environment Tobago, who are already always present in the school via their Clean School Project to name just one of their projects. In closing do pay heed to an old American Indian saying: "The frog does not drink up the pond in which he lives."

Photo showing logging

The end product of logging

“Let's make the island an open university for na-ture. “

The Yellow Blaze Zoë Charlotte Mason

Environment TOBAGO

The sudden infusion of yellow blaze is seemingly the talk of the island right now, and this time it’s not about the political rallies. From taxis to the stores, people are speaking about the unknown rush of colour overwhelming Tobago’s trees. We’ve gone from drought to delight; our branches are blossoming masses of yellow- funnel-shaped flow-ers and for only a few days duration. It’s a majestic wonder and for many a seasonal sight without a name.

The name of this yellow creeper is Macfadyena Unguis-Cati, or the Cat’s Claw Ivy. It’s a ‘high climbing woody vine that can grow up to fifty feet in height’. (University of Florida IFAS, 2009. Centre for Aquatic and Invasive Plants). The vine’s name Cat's Claw ‘derives from this clawed tendril which the plant uses to climb’. (Ken McClymont, 2007. Brisbane Rainforest Ac-tion & Information Network).

It originated in South America and is native to Central America, tropical South America also to the Caribbean. Before the nineteen fifties it was introduced in Australia and Southern Africa for ornamental purposes, though today it is considered an invasive creeper. This creeping yellow vine can also be found

in Hawaii, The South Atlantic Islands, Tanzania and also in tropical parts of Asia to name a few; al-though introduced to these areas it is not consid-ered to be invasive. Whilst the yellow flowering is short lived, the life-span of the Cat’s Claw vine is not. The plant itself grows at a relatively slow rate and is adapted to survive through drought. This said the sufficient irrigation, from the heavy rainfall, that we are ex-periencing right now in Tobago is apt for Cat’s Claw to flourish. We can expect to see many more weeks of this majestic yellow blaze yet so get your cameras out and get snapping- This vibrant ‘coat’ is

set to vanish from our trees as quickly as it blossoms. References: Ken McClymont, 2007. Brisbane Rainforest Action & Information Network. Online at http://www.brisrain.webcentral.com.au/01_cms/details.asp?ID=285 [Last accessed 30/05/2010] University of Florida IFAS, 2009. Centre for Aquatic and Invasive Plants. Online at http://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/node/259 [Last accessed 30/05/2010]

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Cat’s Claw vine al-most totally covering a tree

Close up of Cat’s Claw blossoms

Volume 5 Issue 2

http://www.brisrain.webcentral.com.au/01_cms/details.asp?ID=285�

http://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/node/259�

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TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH

Ernest Henry Wilson 1913. A Naturalist in Western China. Vol. 1. New York:

Doubleday, Page 251 pp. [Twemtieth in a series on "naturalist-in" books.]

Christopher K. Starr

Dept of Life Sciences, University of the West Indies [email protected]

Over a period of 11 years from 1899, Ernest Wilson made four expeditions into the mountainous borderlands of the Yangzi River basin in western China and Tibet. This was a time when vast areas of western China were unknown to western science. The Yangzi -- known in China as the Zhong Jiang, or Long River -- is the third largest river in the world, flowing more than 6000 km, mainly from west to east, mostly through mountainous areas. Botanically, it is an extremely rich region, and Wilson's professional purpose was to collect novel plants for introduction into European and North-American gardens. In all, he collected about 5000 species, including the seeds of more than 1500 species. The central environmental feature in that wild region is topography, and the theme of plant geography runs through this book. He also had much to say about the native non-han peoples, with whom he showed great affinity. The book is a sober, straight-forward narrative, very even in style and format. Wilson does not stop at intervals to change direction and address a particular topic, like stopping a road trip at a scenic overlook. In this respect, A Naturalist in Western China differs markedly from most naturalist-in books. The early chapters give the geographic setting and the various means of rough travel by land and river. In later chapters, much is said about plants seen and collected. How-ever, there is very little explicit mention of collecting. This is a blessing, as the enumera-tion of species and specimens would be quite tedious. Given the heavy baggage demands, the long caravan trips with many assistants were complex, demanding affairs, quite unlike what most of us would consider a field trip. Hard-ships of the route are mentioned, but without dwelling on them. Furthermore, Wilson was present during the Boxer Rebellion and several other anti-foreign uprisings, so it was a risky place to travel in both the physical and human aspects. Even under such difficult conditions, Wilson evidently took copious notes as he trav-eled. His account of places and events has a real loving touch, without the speculation and vagueness characteristic of typical travel literature, for example, "Looking back on the route we had traversed, we saw that the narrow valley is flanked by steep ranges, the high-est peaks clad with snow, but in the main, though bare and savage-looking, they scarcely attain to the snow-line. On all sides the scenery is wild, rugged, and severely alpine." Another example, with finer focus: "By an undulating path we reached the top of the ridge, which is known as T'an-shu-ya (Lime Tree Pass) from a gigantic Linden that occurs there. This tree (Tilia henryana) is about 80 feet tall and 27 feet in girth, and though hollow appears to be in good health. The young leaves are silvery, and the tree, from its size, is a conspicuous object for miles around." Sometimes Wilson went for weeks without meeting another foreigner or hearing English spoken, and in some villages he was the first foreigner the locals had ever seen, so that he was quickly surrounded by a crowd of the curious. (I know what this is like. It can be distinctly annoying, and the best solution is to adapt and treat it with amusement.) One does not expect the author of such an account to take a dewy-eyed view of all Chinese as rarified philosophers. While Wilson manifests a deep love and admiration for

Environment TOBAGO newsletter


the people, he is realistic, with occasional flashes of contempt for individuals and institu-tions. Still, his human sympathy is such that it even extends to the aims of the Boxer Re-bellion. The narration of this adventurous episode reads something like a field-trip report by Dan Jaggernauth. There is extensive ethnographic comment on some of the non-han minorities, but for the most part people and their economy are treated in passing, although in an odd way. There is something about this book that resembles a traditional Chinese painting: a detailed landscape, in which anything that is rendered large is usually a flower or bird, the human element always present, but tucked away in the distance in a minor role. Some-times the titles of his photos even fit this pattern, e.g. "Sandstone Bridge with Cypress and Bamboos". The 59 photos, mostly full-page landscapes, are a valuable addition to the text. Many photos of particular trees effectively serve as specimens. There is also a large fold-out map of Sichuan and western Hubei, showing the main part of Wilson's route, although it is misplaced in volume 2. (Vol. 2, published in 1914, is a general treatise on the flora of the region, with chapters on various aspects of rural economy.)

“In all, he col-lected about 5000 species, including the seeds of more than 1500 species. “

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Volunteers needed! Persons who are interested in helping with cataloguing and filing of ET’s educational, research and operational material

and archiving.

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and Services Map of Tobago

They are excellent and will be published every two years. Published in January 2008. Requests for these maps can be

made to ET office.

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Literature Available

GUIDELINES TO CONTRIBUTORS Articles on the natural history and environment are welcome especially those on

Trinidad and Tobago. Articles should not exceed approximately 1200 words (2 pages) and the editors reserve the right to edit the length. Images should be submitted as separate files. Submit material to any of the following: 1) [email protected] 2) [email protected] Deadline for submission of material for the 3rd Quarter 2010 issue of the Bulletin is September 10th, 2010.

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