Oh, and there is recent evidence that opossum do not eat ticks in large numbers...but who only thinks beautiful animals should make our ecology work? Marsupials are cool...so many things you both think about are things I think about too. Here is the science...truth is such a moving target. I would still share a sandwhich with one. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34298355/#:~:text=Abstract,Acari%3A%20Ixodidae)%20per%20week.

I am sitting here in tears...you both are "my people"...I want to jump up and down and scream about all the amazing diverse plants that struggle to survive in the biological stew we have made of this planet. It is incredibly cathartic to listen to you. Most of my effort is in trying to get people in my local area to "see" what is there, value it, and step up to save some of it. The disturbing thing is, that to have even intact habitats to compare with what we are making, and bits of land that support all the species supported by all those native plants throughout history...we need people...smart people willing to get their hands dirty...to unlock the mysteries of plant/animal relationships, to learn how to grow and restore these plants that we know so little about. Thank you both for your work...this was better than therapy...just to know that I don't stress about these things alone. We have had so much success in improving our habitat on one acre...not "putting it back" but defending the native plants, and expanding their numbers...if you grow them, the delight of seeing something like a blue headed vireo (which I did not even know existed) come hang out right in the back yard...it is a miniscule effort, but it gives me hope and keeps me going...for one more year. I am 60 now, with health issues...and don't know how, when we raise our kids in apartments, give them phones to stare at, and send them to schools that look like prisons, we are going to get the next generation to care SO much more than the current one...I honestly feel you and I are the people who will show people that the way of hope is to understand our connection to plants...on every level from atmosphere, to making soil, to even petroleum and especially atmostphere. How can we be so damn myopic? I want to believe we are not the biological equivalent of fire or a meteor, and you give me inspiration, laughs, and giggles.