I really enjoyed how the second part of the book was started off by Reece. I'm not necessarily talking about pages 87-91, but I'm talking about the chapter on the flying squirrels. I think that this chapter does a great job of taking your mind off the depressing effects of mountain top removal mining and the somewhat overral "sad" tone of the book. It was also very interesting to find out how they trapped the squirrels, and how abundant they were in this part of the forrest. At the end of the chapter Reece states how they trapped ten different squirrels, but Krupa mentions how Reece and these students just witnessed something that 99.99% of all people will never see. This stuck out as very interesting to me and as another reason why these forrests need to stay intact. Fying squirrels only florish in this area and if this part of the forrest was destroyed then where would they go? Plus, the idea of a flying squirrel is very fascinating so I think that it was very interesting how Reece dedicated an entire chapter to them.
Going back to the plants in the area that are being destroyed Reece mentions how there is one plant in Appalachia that is only traceable to that region in Appalachia and in China. This was the tulip poplar. Then he goes on to say how there are two-thirds of all the wild orchids in Appalachia are cousins to those in China. This is so interesting based on the fact of how far area these two areas obivously are. These facts just go on to continually show how old this mountain range is. Reece mentions how it is even older than the Himalayas. Destroying this mountain range by mountain top removal is just a complete shame and Reece is doing a great job at depicting why.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I agree with your comment on the flying squirrels; It was a nice time in the book to have a pause from all the depressing information he was giving us.
ReplyDeleteAlthough he briefly mentions it in the text, I never thought about how special the Appalachia region truly is. Perhaps we take it for granted because we live next door. But Reece (and you) are right. Where and when am I ever going to see a squirrel fly? Furthermore, will I even have the option to the see a flying squirrel later in life if it's habitat is non-existant?