Vacationing in an Era of Climate Change

March 9, 2025 ~ melaniereynolds ~ 8 Comments

_{People sitting in rocking chairs in front of giant glass walls at an airport. by Topher is licensed under CC-CC0 1.0}

_{Flight Connections between SEA, WA to PBI, FL}

Hello Nature-led friends!

I’m back from my annual visit to the In-laws in South Florida. There are no direct flights from our home airport to our destination airport, so when booking our two-leg journey my preferred connecting airport is Charlotte, NC. I like Charlotte (CLT) because it’s a smaller airport, breaks up our in-air time better and has a really good restaurant called “Bad Daddy’s Burger Bar.” If you’re lucky, you might even get a chance to sit in one of their white “Southern Charm” rocking chairs along a long bank of windows! (Read an interesting story about how they got there. Link below.) Allowing an extra-long layover allows us to enjoy our food and walk casually between our arrival and departure gates. It’s always stressful when you have to run a marathon through an airport with your bags, especially when the airport involves a labyrinth of escalators and trams between gates which inevitable makes me feel like someone stuck me in this famous lithograph by M.C. Escher. I’m looking at you Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta airport (ATL) in Georgia!

_{Lithograph by M.C. Escher, “Relativity” First print Dec. 1953}

We fly once a year to visit family and I’ll not be shy about it; I need anti-anxiety medicine to get on a plane. A series of incidences over several years has made it hard for me to get on a plane. I’ll always remember my last conversation with a boy who loved soccer and will never grow old. This January marked the 25th year all passengers and crew lost their lives aboard Alaska Air Flight 261.

My last international trip was to Japan in 2007. The trip was great, and my friends there always make me feel like a rockstar when I’ve had the chance to visit. Unfortunately, on the flight home out of Tokyo’s Narita airport the plane suddenly hit “dead air” during takeoff just before reach cruising altitude. No air, no lift. The plane suddenly dropped several thousand feet! It was all I could do not to scream, because I knew there were young children sitting behind me. The plane found lift and was able to regain altitude and resume a normal flight. I waited the whole eleven-hour flight for deboarding just to have the opportunity to see the pilots and say, “That drop scared the crap out of me!” And the Captain said, “Me too!” I shook my head and said, “No, no, no, you’re supposed to tell me you had it under complete control the entire time!” I don’t feel better knowing the pilots were also scared.

_{https://www.climatecentral.org/graphic/climate-change-is-disrupting-air-travel-2023?graphicSet=Five+Ways+Climate+Change+Impacts+Air+Travel}

I’m terribly sorry if this post unlocks a new fear of flying for you, but I assure you as I assure myself every time, I have to fly that these incidences are incredibly rare! My logical brain knows this and yet, I feel as if I can feel the world too much. In these circumstances having a long memory is more of a curse. Don’t think I haven’t been telling myself that I wish I were a bit dumber! “Ignorance is bliss” is a common saying in the U.S. and I sure would like to experience that bliss because the weight of the world is quite heavy indeed. I’m striving to encompass the idiom; “let it all roll off of your back like water off a duck” and less of “an elephant never forgets.” The more I pretend not to care, the more my face betrays me.

So why am I telling you all this? Because climate change is real, despite what the Trump Administration says while it quietly scrubs climate data from U.S. government websites. Remember back in the day when people used to talk about “Global Warming” and there would always be some person in the back that would be like, “What are you talking about? We just had the coldest winter on record?!?!” And then Scientists were like, “Yeah, but the world itself is still incrementally increasing in global temperature year after year.” Then the naysayer is all like, “What do I care about the price of dirt in China?” (I’m sorry, that’s an American idiom used when someone expresses that they don’t care about what happens in the rest of world.) That kind of thinking is short-sighted and sometimes intentionally so because life is easier when the only world you care about is the one you make up in your head.

In an effort to use better language Scientists and people who give a damn about the planet and the lives upon it now say, climate change for better accuracy. The climate would still be warming and changing with no human interaction because weather is a cyclical system, but humans are rapidly accelerating it with unknown consequences. This is why I think we need to focus on adaptation and resilience. Climate change is already starting to affect how we vacation.

Bathtub Beach before the start of a reclamation project in Stuart, Florida.

_{Bathtub Beach Erosion. Screengrab from County website slideshow, https://www.martin.fl.us/BathtubBeach on Mar 9th, 2025.}

On this recent trip I was hoping to find a new swimming beach that might have a reef close enough to shore that we could swim to and explore. Both places ended up being closed due to reclamation programs in progress. The ocean is washing away Florida’s beaches. Expensive projects are being undertaken to return sand and berms to Florida’s beaches. It is a vacation destination for many people, because of the beaches. Everyone wants a view of white, sandy beaches but without mangroves and sea grapes there isn’t a whole lot to help keep the soil and sand in place.

The other place is Peanut Island in Riveira Beach. There’s no indication that the island or ferry to it is closed on the website. We drove there to find no one else there and cranes and big piles of sand spotted on the island. I wish I had taken a picture. I have looked at the website again right now (March 9th, 2025) and there is no change to the website indicating whether the island is open or closed to the public.

A couple of places we did get to visit was the Juno Beach pier. They now have an entrance fee onto the pier at $2/ a person. I don’t mind though. I think it’s fair to ask for reasonable funds to help keep something open for community members and tourists alike.

_{Juno Beach Pier 2025 By Melanie Reynolds}

_Boat-tailed _{Grackles at Juno Beach Pier By Melanie Reynolds}

We also visited one of our favorite places called Loggerhead Marinelife Center. I didn’t take any pictures this time around but it’s a great place to visit if you find yourself in Juno, Florida, U.S. The Marinelife center is a one mile walk from Juno Beach Pier.

Has climate change affected any of your favorite vacation or holiday places?

Have a great week! Make time to get outside!

Note: Some links are in picture captions.

Additional Links below:

Story behind the Rocking Chairs in U.S. airports https://www.theverge.com/2014/12/22/7434209/how-rocking-chairs-ended-up-in-airports

Website for the Juno Beach Pier and Loggerhead MarinaLife Center: https://marinelife.org/juno-beach-pier/ and https://marinelife.org/

Boat-tailed Grackle Info: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Boat-tailed_Grackle/overview

Nature, Community & Your Place in the World

February 3, 2025 ~ melaniereynolds ~ 15 Comments

_{Photo by Quang Nguyen Vinh on Pexels.com}

You may be concerned about the state of the world these days. It’s understandable. Things are changing with every rotation around the sun. We can’t go back. There’s nothing to go back too. Time marches forward and no one gets to change what happened yesterday. You can try to recreate what was, but it can never be exactly the same. Nostalgia is an unreliable narrative.

The time for individual convalescence and introspection is over.

In my time I’ve survived two recessions, a volcanic eruption, lived in poverty, ate fish from rivers contaminated by silver mines and aluminum plants. I’ve been physically and sexually assaulted, fought with neo-Nazis, and kicked out of my nice Christian church at the age of 16 when I confronted the Sheriff, a fellow parishioner, about his words aired on live tv the night before where he stated that women being raped should “lay back and enjoy it and not fight back.”

I’ve survived an earthquake, a “once-in-a-century” firestorm, a “once-in-a-century” icestorm and a “once-in-a-century” windstorm. Guess what? They lied; these storms are no longer rare. They seem to come once a decade at least, if not more.

My family, friends, and I have been poisoned by the U.S. government in the name of national security. We’re not the only ones. We’re called “Downwinders”, those who were affected by releases of radioactive material in the air and in the failing storage tanks that still leak into the groundwater and rivers. They made “Fat Man” and “Little Boy” here and dropped one of them on the hometown of one whom would eventually become one of my dearest friends, Hiroshima.

We suffer cancers, hypothyroidism and various hormone disruptions at high rates, but maybe it wasn’t the radioactivity; maybe it was the leeching of arsenic and mercury from the slag pits at the silver mines, or the “acceptable levels” of chemical wash from the aluminum plant. Maybe it was the glyphosate in Roundup or other pesticide ingredients in the farmers’ fields. Can you prove it? Can you show which atrocity caused your cancer in the name of civilized progress?

What of generational pain? The depression-era and WWII surviving grandparents, great aunts, and great uncles that talk to you as if it all just ended some months ago. Who teaches you to wash the aluminum foil and fold it neatly for reuse, who still weep for the ones that didn’t come home, and the one who lost his whole platoon and three fingers in the Pacific theatre. The bitterness of the Korean war and the spite of the Vietnam war bleeds down from parents to children and grandchildren. So many causes for alcoholism and violence in a blue-collar town.

I survived all this, but the list of grievances isn’t nearly complete. However, this is not an AA meeting where we feel obligated to compete for who’s had the worst life thus far. Your grievances are valid. You and I have endured because of who we are and sometimes in spite of who we are.

I want you to take stock of the many things that you have survived in your life and then reflect on all the things you still managed to accomplish.

For me, meaningful relationships have been fractured at times. Some people are hard to love. Some people express their love in weird and unfamiliar ways. Sometimes we struggle to accept it for fear of betrayal or abandonment…again. I made it out of my hometown that I hated more than I loved. I love where I live now, and the flaws are more like beauty marks in my eyes. Cities live and die by the people who inhabit them. We are the breath and cells when a city is viewed as a living organism.

I still believe in Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech, though it might take longer and likely not be in any way we might have envisioned it for the future.

I grieve for the losses other people seem to forget or don’t talk about anymore; missing people who were never found, natural beauty destroyed, buildings and places of refuge that no longer exist like a favorite store or coffee shop.

Often times we, humans, are framed as separate from nature, but we are a part of it! We are fragile creatures with the ability to shape the land, the seas, and the communities around us be they made of humans, plants, animals or invertebrates. We shape the world through both our peace and violence, creation and destruction. You have so much more power than you realize! Start small in the goals you want to achieve. Get involved with groups and organizations with shared goals and provide what assistance you can within your means. Don’t overdo it in your desire to help. Be strategic.

Last year was a tough, but I’m back now with a renewed effort to focus on my writing and professional endeavors. This page will never be powered by a chatbot! I remain committed to my goal of making this page a community space for those of us who love nature and care about the well-being of ourselves and others.

I’m always open to ideas and suggestions so tell me, what would you like to see more of here? Do you like book reviews? Do you want tips and tricks about nature and saving money? Do you want focused posts about interesting places, people, animals, etc.? Let me know your thoughts down in the comments!

_{Photo By: Kaboompics.com on Pexels.com}

I love scouring the internet for useful and interesting information!

For example: The Avian Flu has currently spiked egg prices in the U.S. (again), if you’re looking for less expensive alternative egg substitutes the University of Maine Cooperative Extension program has you covered!

Product	Equivalent Amount	Price per Serving	Pros	Cons
Eggs	1 egg = 1/4 cup	$0.44	Most reliable for color, flavor, and appearance	Highest cost
Flax Seed	1 Tbsp flax and 3 Tbsp water = 1 egg	$0.06	Doesn’t affect flavor Good source of protein, fiber, and omega-3 fatty acids Shelf-stable prior to mixing up	Flax seeds visible in batter
Applesauce	1/4 cup = 1 egg	$0.25	Doesn’t provide as much leavening as other options	Affects flavor and texture of baked good—best used in quickbreads
Seltzer water	1/4 cup = 1 egg	$0.05	Inexpensive Best texture and flavor of all the substitutes we tried Shelf-stable	Pale color

Table Excerpt from: Using Egg Substitutes in Baking and Cooking – Cooperative Extension: Food & Health – University of Maine Cooperative Extension By Kate McCarty, Food Systems Professional, University of Maine Cooperative Extension Feb 16, 2023

The Art of Tracking: Search & Rescue

August 26, 2024 ~ melaniereynolds ~ 7 Comments

The Art of Tracking: Search & Rescue

By Melanie Reynolds

Yesterday was a good day. On Wednesday (Aug. 21st) a 66-year-old man with Parkinson’s Disease and Dementia had gone missing from a nearby city. Three days went by with no luck and Friday had been nearly non-stop rain all day and night. The situation was becoming desperate. The Sheriff’s helicopter and search and rescue team hadn’t found him. A few drones had been used, but still no luck. They called off their search. The family reached out by social media asking for any and all willing neighbors to come out and help.

It seemed like most people only had thoughts and prayers to offer. That wasn’t good. I know I shouldn’t be judgmental. I don’t know their lives, responsibilities or commitments, but for me, thoughts and prayers will never be good enough. I hold myself to a high level of expectations that I don’t expect from others. My friend Takeshi once said I was the most Samurai person he’d ever met; to which I consider the highest form of a compliment I’ve ever received.

I would make time for a man whose time was running out. It was something I needed to do. When I was a bored rural kid in Eastern Washington tracking animals and trying to “get lost” were my hobbies. As I got older, I took some survival training courses and as of a few years ago joined a local volunteer program called Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) with a nearby Fire department. I have three emergency bags: one for home, one for van and one for hiking. I keep five tourniquets in my minivan alone. Some people even got tourniquets for Christmas five years ago. At least my stepbrother thought it was the best gift ever.

At the start of my search, I checked in at the table the family had set up in a grocery store parking lot. I asked if they wanted me to look anywhere in particular. They said he could be anywhere at this point, a needle in a haystack. I offered to start on the outer edge of the search boundary from the light industrial park back to the place where he was last seen. She told me to trust my intuition. I took two steps away then blurted out, I have tracking experience. I’ve been self-conscious of how much of a hillbilly I really am compared to the posh metropolitan areas of Seattle since I moved here twenty years ago.

To my surprise her eyes brightened. She introduced herself as the missing man’s daughter. She asked me to come back to the table, showed me a map and pointed at the last known sighting near a water tower in a heavily wooded area. “They (the Police) looked here, but its so thick with brush, please go back and look again.”

I dropped a pin on my phone and headed to the location. I noticed a police cruiser parked in a cul de sac facing the direction of the water tower. I parked, took my small backpack of essentials (food, water, a towel and first aid kit) and walked around the water tower to pick up a trail. In the US, our water towers are monitored by 24 -hour video surveillance and alarms to prevent tampering. I was very aware I was on camera and kept my body looking away from the tower and not at it.

The fact that it had rained so heavily on Friday was helpful. Both human and animal tracks were well-formed in the drying soil. I look for pressed down grasses that make a trail, broken branches, and any kind of human debris. I found bits of torn twill, but I’m quite sure our man wasn’t wearing a veil when he ran off into the woods. I found a bit of white jacket lining (polyfil), but he hadn’t been wearing a puffy jacket. I found two rabbits, a garter snake. Then I found a strong lead. A little stream that someone had tried to cross on Friday when the ground was the wettest. The mud was solidifying and holding the shape of deeply imprinted shoe tracks of someone who had gotten stuck and struggled to drag themselves out. His daughter had mentioned he was wearing black tennis shoes the same size as mine.

I followed clumps of mud up a hill in a pressed grass path. I felt like a hound catching the sent of its quarry. At the top of the hill the mud clumps had stopped, and I was intersecting the main walking trail. In the mind of a tracker, trampled and contaminated. I had four possible trails from that spot, so I started a pronged approach right to left looking for new clues to follow.

On the first prong I got about 35 feet when I came upon a heavily wooded hill that backed up to a neighborhood. Near the top of the hill was a coyote. I said, “Hey coyote, you seen a man around here?” The coyote was surprised to see me. I forget how quiet I can be. I was solely focused on listening for breathing, moans, growls and other things creeping about besides me. I also had the advantage of being downwind.

The coyote came within a few feet in front of me and sat tall. Polite coyote body language for “You shall not pass.” Behind her a pup ran from one side of the trail to the other. “Ah, I’m sorry to intrude. I’ll go back the way I came.” I made it clear I was leaving with no intent to come back. She didn’t follow. Prong two was a quick and short dead end with tall unpressed grass. Prong three and four weaved closely together and I found a couch and a bunch of bags of clothes that someone had dumped.

Prong four, my last good trail that was not the main trail led me to a cool giant mossy waterpipe. This was a great place to hide from the elements and dry off, but it was right at the edge of a steep and heavily wooded ravine. There were no fresh tracks under the waterpipe, but there was a wide swath of pressed down vegetation heading down into the ravine. He could have come here for shelter, slipped and rolled down into the ravine. It was at that moment I regretted wearing shoes and not my boots. My ankles wouldn’t have the stability needed to safely traverse down and climbing ropes would have been helpful too.

There was one offshoot trail from here. I took a quick look and discovered it was a black bear’s favorite path for stealing the neighborhood garbage and chose not to proceed any further. I walked back to my point on the main trail. My one-hour search had become two hours already. I wanted to keep going, keep looking. It’s hard to stop, it feels like giving up, but you have to know when to call it a day. In my mind I was mapping out a four-hour search pattern I would start from that point the next day. Around the same time, I started to hear a lot of people excitedly talking but I couldn’t understand what they were saying without getting closer.

I wrote it off as most likely a BBQ in one of the backyards of a house that abuts the main trail. By the time I reached my minivan I heard the sirens of emergency vehicles and the coyote family howling along with them. Could those sirens be for him? When I drove to the grocery store parking lot to ask a few questions no one was at the table. Hope began to bloom. By the time I got home and checked the search page it had just been updated that he’d been found! He was found breathing, but unresponsive just down from where I had stopped.

I’m happy to report that as of this morning he’s in stable condition in the ICU. It’s a good sign that he made it through the night. Part of me wishes I’d paid attention to the human commotion down the trail. That I could have been there to see the moments of his discovery, but I have a natural inclination to avoid crowds and linger on the edges. I was solely focused on finding one man who I expected to find among the bushes and his name was David.