Exotic species; how the times change
Joshua Stuart Rose
jsr6 at duke.edu
Wed Jun 13 17:30:13 EDT 2001
On Wed, 13 Jun 2001, Michael Gochfeld wrote:
>
> To Joshua: I thought your remarks re: diversity were well chosen.
>
> We actually do learn things. I never thought much about exotic plants
> until a 1992 meeting in Spain called attention to the devastation
> wrought in the post-Columbus encounter with the new world.
>
> As a child I watched hummers in my grandmother's Japanese Honeysuckle,
> trimmed the Privet Hedge, and weaved Daisy chains. How Honeysuckle and
> Privet impose a constant battle, and I never even knew about Garlic
> Mustard, Oriental Bittersweet, or Japanese Polygonum (to name just a
> few) which are completely changing the character of local woodlands in
> central NJ.
Thanks Mike! Glad you liked it.
As for exotics, I'm waging a PR battle on our local birding listserv.
People exclaim joyfully about the Cedar Waxwings eating Russian-Olive
fruits, or Carolina Wrens nesting in their Privets, and I can't restrain
myself; I have to write back and notify them about what an ecological
disaster these plants are. The irony is, when I was a pre-teen nature
enthusiast, I was a big advocate of these plants! You see, back in the
70's the National Wildlife Federation published a book called "Gardening
with Wildlife". In the back, they listed loads of plants, and with each
plant the animals that used them. In this list were Polygonum, Autumn-
olive and Russian-olive, and others, which were used by common backyard
birds like American Robin, Cedar Waxwing, etc. As an impressionable
youth, I encouraged my parents to plant such things in our yard
(unsuccessfully, thank God; they liked Viburnums and Rhododendrons
better). You can bet that the NWF regrets publishing that particular book
now...
Yes, we do learn things, but overcoming the inertia of what we knew 20
years ago is an endless battle!
Cheers,
Josh
Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Biology (Zoology, R.I.P.)
jsr6 at acpub.duke.edu
http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/
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