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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