Today I mark 32 years of sobriety. Abstinence, sobriety, and recovery are often conflated. They’re not the same things.
I mark the beginning of my recovery in 1990, when I began individual counseling with a trauma specialist. Though I’ve lost track of the specific date, it’s early in the year, so 35 years ago.
I got sober because drinking was interfering with my recovery, my need for which reaches from childhood with multiple, intertwined, roots. For me, sobriety was just part of my journey through recovery. I say “I got sober,” not just “I stopped drinking.” Abstinence was as necessary for my sobriety as sobriety was for my recovery, but I don’t equate sobriety with abstinence. Today, I have the occasional glass of beer or wine with dinner. I am still sober.
Abstinence is not the same as recovery. I got sober because drinking was interfering with my recovery, my need for which reaches from childhood with multiple, intertwined, roots. For me, sobriety was just part of my journey through recovery.
Recovery is not black and white, it’s not binary. Recovery chooses life. Those choices take many different forms, as varied and creative as we are. Real people are complex, their lives, complicated. Recovery is equally complex, and highly individual.
Today, November 30th is the Remembrance Day for Lost Species. Animals, mostly charismatic megafauna, get most of the attention. Plants are mostly overlooked. I root for the underdog.
As in past years, I limit this list to northern North America for two reasons:
There are many more tropical plants, and plant extinctions, than I can manage.
Restricting this list geographically is in keeping with my specialization in plants native to northeastern North America.
The lists below are sorted by botanical name, linked to an accompanying Wikipedia article, if available. Most of these species were endemic to a small area, sometimes only a single site. Because of this, most have no common name, and the taxonomy of many is unclear. Each entry includes the common name, if any, last know location, and year it was last observed in the wild.
I’ve had no additions or updates to these lists since 2020. If you have additions or corrections to this list, please let me know, and provide a link which I can research.
Extinct
Agalinis caddoensis, Railroad near Shreveport, Louisiana. last observed 1913
MY LAST PUBLIC APPEARANCE IS THIS WEEKEND, JUNE 1st!
June
Saturday, June 1st
1-3pm: Pollinator Safari, East 4th Street Community Garden, Kensington, Brooklyn
We’ll survey the garden looking for “pollinators”, i.e.: insects and others visiting the flowers blooming all around the garden.
Explore the garden’s plants and flowers, and learn how to see them in new ways with urban naturalist Chris Kreussling (aka the Flatbush Gardener). We’ll “hunt” for pollinators, and other flower visitors,around the garden. As we try to identify them, we’ll learn about the garden’s biodiversity and ecology.
Previous engagements this season. It’s was a busy one, with something every weekend – except for Memorial Day weekend – from mid-April to the first weekend of June.
April
Sunday, April 14th
Bush Terminal Piers Park, Brooklyn
11:00 am – 1:30 pm: Removing invasives, planting native plants.
THursday, April 18th – Monday, April 22nd
Attending the Northeast Natural History Conference in Albany, NY.
Thiursday, APril 25th, 5:50 – 7:00 pm
CANCELLED NYC Pollinator Working Group, Monthly Working Committee Meeting. This is a closed meeting for members of the Working Committee, only.
The meeting was cancelled, but if you are interested in joining and working with us, please fill out the Membership Application and let us know!
Friday, April 26th – Monday, April 29th
City Nature Challenge Observation Period!
Check out the CNC:NYC 2024 Event List. As a Brooklyn Borough Captain, I’ll be attending the following events in Brooklyn. Many of these events have limited space for participants, or require advance registration, so check the links if you’re interested.
“Garden vitality and health are key to building a sustainable, nurturing environment for all living creatures. Please join us for a garden ecology session with Chris Kreussling (The Flatbush Gardener). We’ll study plants, insects, and animals and how they all work together to create a harmonious habitat.”
The annual New York Restoration Project Tree Giveaway begins distribution on Saturday, April 13th, a little less than 6 weeks away. It runs for four weeks, ending on Sunday, May 12th.
Advance registration is mandatory. You select your preferred species when you register. Note that each location will only have 6-8 species. Some locations, especially smaller sites, may be “sold out” of some species. So, check the locations you can get to, confirm you can do it on their giveaway dates, and select from the species available at those sites.
Consider the mature size, after 30 or more years of growth, of each species. There are two lists below: one for smaller-medium sized shrubs and trees that max out at no more than around 50′ high and 30′ wide; the other for the larger trees that will grow too large for most urban yards. These sizes do not take into consideration existing vegetation, outdoor structures, etc. Your conditions will vary!
I’ve highlighted the 12 species that are NEW for 2024. The 6 species that aren’t available this year are crossed out.
I just finished [2023-10-28] uploading the last of my photos and iNaturalist observations from the Torrey Botanical Society field trip to Marine Park on Saturday, September 16. I had a huge backlog of photos from my 2nd trip to the Adirondacks this year (warranting its own blog post), and I’m slowly catching up.
Our Trip Leader was Priyanthe Wijesinghe (cradling the handsome crab above), Torrey Council member, and keen iNaturalist observer of Marine Park: roughly 75% of his iNat observations are from that area of Brooklyn. As often occurs with Torrey field trips, there were several heavy-hitter botanists attending. Some more of us — myself included — could be considered more general naturalists. Altogether, on iNaturalist we documented 130 different species (taxa) that day, only 47 of which were plants.
For my part, in my observations of the day, I documented 37 plant species (80% of the total), and 78 overall (60%). Even more exciting for me, 13 of the species were new to me! (On iNaturalist, at least.) A good part of that is the benefit of having so many keen and knowledgable observers on-hand to point out and identify interesting organisms.
The other is the unusual habitats accessible in the park, mostly sandy shoreline meadows and salt marsh. And, as our visit was timed to coincide with low tide, we had access to things washing up on the shore, as well. Each of these habitats presents its own challenges and opportunities for organisms to survive and thrive. So there are many specialists that won’t be found outside of such areas, making them critical for sustaining the biodiversity of New York City.
Here are some of the species that I first photographed that day, most of them habitat specialists. This list is likely to change as identifications are corrected and refined.
The collective texts of the generated spam comments to my blog sometimes resemble poetry. Each line in this “poem” is the complete text of a single spam comment.
from a printed book, reproduction
monuments related to deep
antiquities. These are the
Egyptian papyri works of art.
At the same time, many antique
handwritten books were made,
One of the most skilled calligraphers
Of his works, he is especially famous
the best poets of his era and
which is carried out by the printing
The most common form handwritten by the author.
handwritten synonym
written on the parchment was scratched out
Meta-Meta: This is the first post published since I activated and configured the ActivityPub plugin on the blog. I already published this as three Mastodon posts, broken up for text limitations. Hopefully this shows up on its own!
Saturday, August 12, join me at Wave Hill in the Bronx. I’ll be leading two Native Pollinator Walks, part of their Bees, Butterflies, and Blooms weekend of events. My walks will step off at 11am and 1pm from the Perkins Visitor Center, where the gift shop is located.
I’ll be staffing their Pollination Station information table between walks.
City Nature Challenge (CNC) 2023 is happening at the end of this month, from Friday, April 28, through Monday, May 1. Since 2019, I’ve been a Brooklyn “Borough Captain” for New York City’s participation.
This year, there are events happening all over Brooklyn on both Saturday and Sunday of CNC. All events listed here are free and open to the public. Some may offer, or recommend, registration.
