Shelters When the Storm Comes

 “Our home is gone! 
    Washed down the river.”
    -- Displaced resident of NC 

 “Our home went up in smoke!
   Only the chimney is standing,”
   -- Displaced resident of
                  Pacific Palisades, CA  

During recent months, the hurricane disaster in Southeast US and the widespread fire damage in California have made headlines.  Thousands of residents were displaced and many became homeless.  Thankfully, such major disasters are so rare that we tend to take for granted the blessings of home, food, schools, churches, and community services. Many of us recognize that each of these blessings that support our social and physical well-being are from the good hand of our Creator God. 

Providential Shelters in Creation
Weather-related disasters remind us of how frail and dependent we are upon the normal function of the created order around us.  The created order consists of interwoven relationships among soil, water, air, and living organisms.  Together, these vital resources make up what scientists call ecosystems.  Ecosystems support human life and millions of other species of animals, plants, and microbes.   

Many scientists have tried to explain and even duplicate these ecosystems and the “ecosystem services” they provide.  From the giant mammals to the tiny microbes that reside in the mammalian gut, scientists are humbled by their limited success.  Many will acknowledge that only God or an unnamed “intelligent designer” could have created such complexity.   

We can marvel at how each of the millions of species can flourish, each in its own environment to which it has been adapted.  Without their amazing, life-sustaining adaptations in structure and function, each species would be as displaced and homeless as human disaster victims.  Let’s examine one particular example to illustrate our point.

Case Example:  Skunk Cabbage
Let’s consider one example in the plant kingdom, a plant whose unsavory leaves have earned it the name, Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus).  This fascinating plant is a member of the Arum Family along with Jack-in-the Pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum).  Skunk cabbage grows lushly in wet soils along streams where the water seeps from surrounding hillsides.  In North America, this plant species is considered a Spring wildflower although it blooms while the cold and snow of February still dominates its habitat. 

Recently, while hiking in Clear Creek Park here in Wooster, I was fortunate to spot the emerging flowering structures of Skunk Cabbage poking through the snow near the banks of Clear Creek. 

 You may ask how these plants could emerge after over a week of steady subfreezing temperatures.  The answer lies in Skunk Cabbage’s unusual ability to generate its own heat!  Heat is generated within the tissues of the fleshy, thumb-size flower stalk called the spadix.  The spadix is sheltered inside a fleshy hoodlike structure called a spathe.  Temperatures inside the spathe may reach 70 degrees Fahrenheit!  We might say, Skunk Cabbage creates its own “Spring weather” in middle of winter.  By storing up reserves of carbohydrates the year before and then “burning” them in February, the plant stokes its cellular furnaces which warm the plant and give it an early start in competition with later Spring-blooming species. 

 Amazingly, the Skunk Cabbage spathe often becomes warm enough to melt the snow around it.  The warmed tissues give off a distinct odor of rotting meat which attracts carrion-feeding flies and gnats to enter the warm shelter.  Once inside, the insects come into contact with pollen from the Skunk Cabbage flowers.  Then, when they leave the spathe and enter neighboring spathes, these insect visitors unknowingly transfer pollen from plant to plant allowing “cross-pollination.” 

Our Skunk Cabbage system not only favors its own survival and flourishing but also that of multiple insect species.  Later in the year, certain animal species such as bears may eat the leaves and seeds.   Skunk Cabbage is only one of many examples of the amazing provisions we believe God has designed for survival and flourishing of plants and animals.  Such relationships within God’s creation suggest that we live in a world that favors life and flourishing, not misery and death.   

Providential Care through Human Compassion
Most of us have been afforded the opportunity to live in the shelter and provision of a “home” where our needs are met.  Unlike the winter-flying insects that must find warmth and shelter inside a Skunk Cabbage spathe, our homes are places of reliable shelter from the snow and cold of winter, and the pounding rains and blistering sun of summer.  Home is also a place of safety from those who disregard the law.  Best of all, home affords a place in which family and friendships can grow, flourish, and make memories. 

Those who suddenly lose their homes and all of its provisions during natural disasters are at the mercy of God who providentially uses compassionate people who are willing to respond to desperate calls for help.  Temporary safe shelters, water, food, and medical services are essential to begin the restoration of order and the opportunity to rebuild homes and community. 

Many individuals and families face hard times when illness, unemployment, or another unexpected crisis occurs.  That is why it is comforting to find local helping hands and ministries such as People to People Ministries (PTPM) here in Wooster, Ohio to come alongside.  We are among those who thank the director, Joe Szeker, his dedicated staff, and many local residents who donate their time, food, clothing, and other resources in support of PTP’s mission “to provide an immediate, realistic, and compassionate response to people with these basic needs when these needs are not being met through any other programs.”  When we as God's image bearers demonstrate caring compassion in practical ways toward our neighbor in need, we are expressing the loving heart of God, evident in both human communities and in the providential life-supporting systems of His creation.

Further Reading: 

More on Skunk Cabbage:  Go HERE.
People to People Ministries:   Go HERE.
God’s Economy in Creation:  Go HERE.

Treasures Along Roads Less Traveled

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

In his beloved poem, "The Road Not Taken," Robert Frost uses the imagery of divergent roads where we as travelers in life must choose which road we will follow.  Indeed, our lives continually require us to make choices.  Some may have only minor consequence.  But Frost’s “fork in the road” analogy seems to suggest major choices we must make.  We all make choices that shape our moral and spiritual identity, form our social network, influence how we use material resources, and sensitize us to our vocational calling and purpose in life. Whether our choices are good or bad, we are all given time, talents, and treasures to use as stewards of these as gifts and opportunities.

Book Review
This month’s blog presents a book review of Forests, Wetlands and Flamescapes, subtitled Wildlands of the Dayton, Ohio Region in 1800…and Today, authored by my friend, David Nolin.  From my vantage point, Dave seems to have taken "the one less traveled' -- one that “was grassy and wanted wear.” Whether I am correct in placing Dave on such a path and whether I’m making a correct application of Frost’s intent will remain to be seen.  I will leave it for Dave and other readers to comment and steer me aright if necessary.  But stay with me and we’ll see where this blog leads.

How Things Used to Be
One’s preference for the “road less travelled” can take different forms.  Some of us prefer to apply this preference literally when we leave the highways and interstates behind to view the landscape from rough and winding country roads.  We may even be prone to stop along country roads to hike offroad, where we are permitted, to find trails and paths less traveled, and where landscapes remind us of “how things used to be.”  Such places offer a quietness from the bustle of our busy world, solace to appreciate the beauty of the natural landscape, and time to observe the diversity of its resident flora and fauna.  For some of us, after we have rolled back the distractions of every-day life to reflect on the natural landscape, we encounter new and worthwhile questions.

The Author
Dave Nolin has been among those who have long been fascinated by “how things used to be” in the landscapes of southwestern Ohio.  During his 30-year career with Five Rivers MetroParks of Dayton, Ohio, Dave has been active in the discovery, acquisition, and land stewardship of numerous natural area treasures of the surrounding region.  

Forests, Wetlands and Flamescapes gives us an account of what Nolin has learned from extensive field studies and research into historic accounts and mapped data, all of which he has compiled into an understandable, fascinating, and beautifully illustrated book.  Readers are treated to an account of “how things used to be” in landscapes of southwestern Ohio, the forces that have historically shaped these landscapes, and the land management principles that we ought to follow to maintain these biological and historical treasures.

For History Lovers
Readers of Forests, Wetlands and Flamescapes who love history will be treated to numerous accounts describing the various plant communities of southwestern Ohio complete with color photos and maps.  Prior to the entry of agriculture and industry, Native Americans used fire to hunt game animals and maintain prairie grasslands for good grazing.  Readers who have believed that land stewards can keep landscapes “the way they used to be” by simply leaving them undisturbed will be in for a surprise.  From the historical records, Nolin argues just the opposite—the only way to conserve many of these natural areas such as open prairie grasslands is to disturb them!  In other words, in order to conserve them [Latin, con- (with) + servitium (service)] we must “serve with” them by planning and executing disturbances typical of those which have sustained them for centuries.  To use Robert Frost’s analogy, these natural areas are each like the road that “was grassy and wanted wear.”  

For Map Lovers
Readers who love maps will be interested in how Dave is leading the effort to refine an older map published in 1966.  This map, entitled Natural Vegetation of Ohio at the Time of the Earliest Land Surveys, was compiled from mapped data from the Public Land Survey System (PLSS) obtained prior to 1800.   

In Chapter 2, “Mapping a Lost World,” Dave explains his project to evaluate the PLSS data using GIS (Geographic Information Systems) software in order to provide more accurate mapping of pre-settlement plant communities.  The result is a treat for readers who love both maps and history.   This is true because the aim of the project is to use documents containing pre-settlement data to go beneath the “landscape layer” familiar to us today in order to reconstruct an “historic landscape layer” that maps the plant communities as they existed in Ohio prior to 1800.  

Just in Time for Spring
The coming of Spring is a great time to follow “roads less traveled” to find the botanical treasures of remnant natural areas.  My wife and I are planning to use Forests, Wetlands and Flamescapes to explore some of these natural areas.  Chapter 5, “Some Modern Lifeboats,” serves as a guide to twenty-one protected natural areas within the Dayton, Ohio region that are accessible to the public.  Nolin gives the location of each of these natural areas on a map of the Dayton regional area and describes the landscape and past disturbances.  Each natural area is also highlighted with photos of notable plant species and an aerial map of the designated hiking trails.

In conclusion, if you are among those of us who love the “road less traveled” or know someone who has that love, may I heartily recommend Forests, Wetlands and Flamescapes.  And don’t be surprised this Spring if you are hiking in one of the treasured landscaped described in this book to run upon Dave Nolin and maybe his wife, Catherine, already there enjoying it.

Where to Purchase:
Nolin, David.  2024. Forests, Wetlands and Flamescapes: Wildlands of the Dayton,
    Ohio Region in 1800…and Today. Generis Publishing.
    For more information and purchase, go HERE.

Recommended Further Reading:
Nolin, David.  2018. Discovery and Renewal on Huffman Prairie: Where Aviation
    Took Wing.  Kent State University Press 
    For purchase, go HERE.  Book review, go HERE.
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