Art, Nature, & Living

Cyanide Millipede
© Lawrence Duncan

Here in the lush temperate rain forests of the Pacific Northwest there lives a small little creature known as the cyanide millipede, also referred to as Harpaphe haydeniana. Without a bone in its entire body, this little critter grows to about two inches long and will live for only about two or three years.

But don’t let the small size of H. haydeniana fool you: of all the creatures in the forest, from the ferns, flowers, and trees, to the birds, bears, and cougars, the cyanide millipede is one of the absolutely most influential creatures in the entire ecosystem. Without it, the forest would be a very different place indeed.

The cyanide millipede plays its role as the principal “shredder” of the forest, chewing up leaf litter and other plant parts that fall from the canopy above. This may sound like a pretty lowly task, but the effects of this shredding are truly profound.

The vast majority of minerals and nutrients that forest species require to live are found in the living creatures themselves. And so when a tree dies or loses its leaves, or a flower has finished flowering, the essential nutrients that it holds are bound within its parts that will become detritus on the forest floor.

Enter our friend the cyanide millipede: It has been estimated that more than 50% of all leaf litter passes through the guts of this humble little creature. And in so doing, the nutrients available to other creatures in the forest are increased by about 40,000 times!

It’s this kind of “recycling” that allows the forest to continue to rebuild itself, freeing minerals and nutrients to percolate through its complex systems, from one creature to the next, to the next, until finally the cycle is started all over again.

Next time you see a gargantuan 300 foot tall Douglas fir tree that has been alive for perhaps 1,000 years, remember also the millipede. It is thanks to this little two inch long fellow, crawling around on the forest floor and chewing on dead leaves and twigs, that the forest as whole is the wonder that it is.

For art, nature, & living,
~ Obadiah Green

Further Reading:

Wikipedia: Harpaphe haydeniana
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harpaphe_haydeniana

Concepts in Ecosystem Management: Underground Ecosystems
http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/olympic/ecomgt/unecosys/undergrd.htm

Mostly Millipedes
http://www.humboldt.edu/~natmus/newsletter/Miriapoda/index.html

Species Harpaphe haydeniana – BugGuide.net
http://bugguide.net/node/view/15008

Forest Ecophysiology & Ecohydrology Telemetry Transect
http://oregonstate.edu/feel/

Inspired Little Tree
© Lawrence Duncan

With so much of our lives spent surrounded by concrete and steel, it’s easy to feel disconnected with the nature of which we are a part. Easy to forget that the Sun is making its way across the sky, that the wind is rustling in the trees, and that the bees are busily making their way from one bright and colorful flower to the next.

There was a fellow I used to know that liked to where moccasins. And if you ever asked him why, he would often relate a little story: A story of a technological future where people are completely isolated from the natural wonders of the world, and where the technology has come to be the only environment in which they live. He would tell the story:

“Imagine a time in the future where the entire world is wholly encased in technology, concrete, glass, and steel. A place and time where people wake up in the morning not feeling the warming rays of the sun, nor breathing in the subtle scents of the still morning air.

Protected by layers of synthetic rubber and more concrete, one makes their way to a nearby transport vehicle, never once coming in contact with the ground and Earth that is hidden just underneath the layers of man-made abstraction.

The vehicle hurries off, shuttling its occupants to yet another facility that is wholly encased and sealed off from the now warming morning air and golden sunlight. Many hours later, the vehicle reverses its course, hurriedly whisking its occupants back to the shelter of filtered, ventilated air of their living unit once again.

And not even once do these technologically-based beings come into contact with the ground and Earth that is the same ground and Earth that grows their food. The same ground and Earth that their ancestors learned to draw the raw materials from to make the technology. The same ground and Earth that their concrete, glass, and steel living units are anchored upon.”

And then he would ask the question, “How many times have you felt the ground under your feet today?” And so the story would become a little bit clearer in the sense that he was not talking about some distant far-off future. He was really talking about the here and now.

How many times have we all gone through an entire day, never even once touching the Earth upon which we live. And does that make any difference in the way we feel? The decisions we make? The way we live our lives?

These are not questions that have easy answers. But part of this fellows answer was to where shoes that he could have the simple and yet profound experience of feeling the ground and the Earth upon which we live.

And it is in those simple and profound experiences that we can re-find our connection to nature. But even more, we the can find the connection between ourselves and our world. To touch the Earth and remember that the Sun does indeed make its way across the sky, that the wind is indeed rustling the in trees, and that the bees are indeed busily making their way from one bright and colorful flower to the next.

For art, nature, & living,
~ Obadiah Green