Moving Mountains

Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you. ~Matthew 17:20

When a volcano arises in the ocean, spewing lava it is easy to picture a mountain as an island. Here, where our mountains are the old and worn Appalachians, they feel more simply like an interesting feature of the scenery, an easel to display the vibrant fall palate. But if you are a Blackpoll Warbler looking for a place to nest, even those relatively low elevations effectively bring the boreal forest a good deal closer than continuing farther north where they become common across Canada. One way to view a mountain is by habitat zones. If you have hiked a mountain tall enough to have various zones you surely noticed the changes. Some transitions may be subtle, but moving into the alpine zone where trees don’t stand a chance is typically rather distinct. If you were to pick one of these transitions and imagine water filling the surrounding landscape, you would immediately see the island effect that all mountains experience.

Just like climate change is threatening coastlines with rising water levels, that same warming is moving the climate zones up mountainsides. Granted, it happens at a pace that is hard to notice, but it is a real issue. The tree line on Katadhin is advancing up at an average of a foot a year. That may not seem like a problem unless you are the creature whose available habitat is continually shrinking. That includes Blackpoll Warblers. At an estimated total breeding population of 60 million birds, it may seem that we don’t need to be concerned about them, but that is over 70% fewer birds than fifty years ago. Clearly a significant factor in this precipitous decline is habitat loss. In New England, the breeding range of Black Warblers is retreating upslope at a rate of around five meters a year. It is simply a matter of time until the suitable habitat is no longer available on our mountains. At least the birds can wing their way north in search of new homes, but not every creature of the boreal woods has that option.

The slow pace of geologic time led our ancestors to imagine mountains as steadfast and thus great metaphors for the faithfulness of the divine. They could never imagine that we small creatures could have such an out-sized impact on creation that we could change entire ecosystems, but here we are. Perhaps it is time that we consider the promise of Jesus that with faith we could move mountains. Surely we need to start by moving mountains of despair and denial in order to preserve this home that we share with all creatures.

Prayer: Steadfast One, plant the seed of faith in us, we’ve got mountains to move. Amen.