Walking the straight and narrow

[Dale Roberts/Bill Yule]

  We are all witnessing the homoginization of the earth at the hands of
human activity that favors a depauperate flora and fauna that is generalized
in habitat requirements, omnivorous in appetite and fecund in reproductive
ability.  Don't you think?

                              Bill Yule
----- Original Message -----
From: "Martin Bailey" <cmbb at sk.sympatico.ca>
To: "Anne Kilmer" <viceroy at GATE.NET>
Cc: "Lepslist" <LEPS-L at lists.yale.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, July 09, 2002 9:24 PM
Subject: Re: Walking the straight and narrow


>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Anne Kilmer" <viceroy at GATE.NET>
> To: <cmbb at sk.sympatico.ca>
> Sent: Monday, July 08, 2002 11:19 PM
> Subject: Re: Walking the straight and narrow
>
>
> > nice posting.
> >
> > I blame the birds (for habitat change), as far as seed dispersal. The
more
> there are, the
> > more there will be.
> >
> > anne
>
>
> Dear Anne,
>
> While it is well documented that birds and other beastlies carry seeds
from
> one location to another, I don't think that this is what I am observing.
It
> is a change in habitat brought about by European settlement.
Specifically,
> the invasion of "pristine" places by European seeds and new plant root
> systems.
>
> When the land is disturbed; soiled ploughed up, trees chopped down and
> stumped, or now gouged by fashionable vehicle tires, at least two things
> happen:
>
>  1) The underground root system of the plants that were there is torn up.
> Which is exactly what you want to do when you farm the land.  Make it as
> close as impossible for the former flora of that land to defend itself
from
> the new seeds planted there.
>
> 2) The chemistry and the balance of the micro-organism below the soil is
> disrupted.  A nutrient base that, while we know little about it, we try to
> recreate by using chemical fertilizers or "going organic" if we intend to
> continue farming that soil.
>
>
> My concern is not the disrupted soil, but the untouched land adjacent to
the
> farm field, road, or weekend adventure by those with more money than
brains.
>
>  How large does a plot of native prairie have to be to remain intact from
> the onslaughts happening around it?
>
> While I do not know the answer, even in a general way, it is astounding to
> note land that I occasionally sweep a net across that has never been
touched
> by the hand of man is totally overrun by the imported plants of man.
>
> I also butterfly on land that is a mixture of native and exotic plants.
It
> is a larger area where the remaining native plants will survive only by
luck
> and not by design.
>
> And there is the miles of no public entry land.  Here the native rules
> except for the occasional pothole where a truck went through during a
rain.
> A rare disturbance, but enough to give Dock (Rumex occidentalis), a weed
> from Europe, a foothold to survival.
>
> Funny thing coppers like Dock.  And if the American Copper, for example,
is
> ever found here, expect it amongst that weed - Rumex occidentalis.
>
> So what are we trying to save?
>
> Not too long ago there was an enquiry on this list on when to hay meadows
in
> Vermont so that they do not become overrun with saplings.  A graduate
> student in environmental studies.
> Sort of odd.  Environmental studies to stop the reversion of what was once
> forest lands back into forest.
>
> But then again may be it isn't that odd.  The forests of Vermont are now
> different.  All the naturally growing hardwoods were chopped out by 1900
> never to return. Meadows and their fringes are more conducive to wildlife
> and butterflies that impenetrable hardwood stands.
>
> What was once ain't ever going to return.
>
> May be we should be promoting a new bio-diversity.  A self-sustaining one
> that is lightly touched by the human hand.
>
> Martin Bailey,
>
> greetings from:  Weyburn, SK., Canada.
>                          49.39N  103.51W
>
>
>
>  ------------------------------------------------------------
>
>    For subscription and related information about LEPS-L visit:
>
>    http://www.peabody.yale.edu/other/lepsl
>
>


 
 ------------------------------------------------------------ 

   For subscription and related information about LEPS-L visit:

   http://www.peabody.yale.edu/other/lepsl