Re: "Time for the return of the native"
- Subject: Re: [SG] "Time for the return of the native"
- From: C* P*
- Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2002 22:02:11 EST
In a message dated 3/26/02 1:08:48 AM Eastern Standard Time,
ritaxis@CRUZIO.COM writes:
<< This is _not_ true. Sometimes a robust habitat can be thrown for an utter
and desperate loop because of the habits of a particular species. A
ground-shading plant that emerges much earlier in the spring than the
natives, for example, can wipe out otherwise vigorous and well-integrated
plant communities. My friend who lives in Massachussetts was telling me
that the Japanese barberry does that where she lives. >>
I picked this paragraph because I live near that barberry you speak of. Most
of your messages are thoughtfully constructed and bear a true interest in
your environment. Originally that barberry (Berberis vulgaris) was a hedge
plant or what was called an armored plant (thorny) to keep unwanted passage
through private land. It bears berries beloved by birds and has a flaming
red color fall color. It is not 100% awful nor are the other shrubs
mentioned. Most are for sale in nurseries in our area. Lest you think some
of us are not aware that the situations you describe so articulately do not
exist, I hasten to say that we are aware.
As you go on in the garden, you become aware of many environmental issues
that could stand a good looking over though you also at the same time become
aware that you are nearly alone with those concerns. It comes to mind, the
Sierra Club, Green Peace, etc. Amongst Americans none of these groups and
those much smaller as well are popular or supported unless the issue is
immediately next door to you.
That these new regulations with little publicity and no press that I have
seen emerge makes one wonder who is benefiting by the emplacement of a new
bureaucracy to enforce the regulations. There is also much fact researched
on other lists with regard to the decision making individuals and their
magical prescient personalities, none backed by research or statistic. This
is a time in the events of our country when such regulations can be put into
place unnoticed. All of the vitamins and related products were made food
supplements instead of FDA regulated products by similar chicanery during the
depression. That is a lot of years and it is still not corrected.
The states of California, Florida and Texas which have huge agricultural
stakes in healthy crops have been doing this job for years. I don't think
anyone has complained in that area. BTW, NYS which is always in trouble for
just being, has agriculture as the largest industry in the state though few
would know this.
There are hundred's of paragraphs that could be written on the protection of
the USA from foreign weeds but such movement has been going on for a thousand
years and probably can never be stopped. North American plants are causing
troubles in other parts of the world. I don't want to write a lot more - just
a small plea to gardeners that those posting seed and plant regulation
changes are not in favor of covering the West in ivy or the East in Kudzu,
they are informing you that your rights may change permanently and now is the
time to adjust these regulations to conform with the real world.
I own a few acres in an Eastern state and the property I own is an old farm.
The land has been changed in the eleven years I have lived here by increased
deer herds, three years of severe drought several years back, rabies infected
raccoons, deer ticks increasingly infected with Lyme disease, birds infected
by more than one fatal type of virus (West Nile), one October freak snow that
destroyed a lot of woodland, and local owners returning to lumbering
practices that have been absent for over 75 years. All of these are legal as
far as I know and no regulation will stop any of them. Furthermore in my
town 100% of all free flowing water is polluted by dumping corporations, the
General Electric being the largest. No fish caught in the Rennselaer County
town of Nassau is edible. Over $50,000 was raised and expended by this very
small town to stop a mining company from blowing up a mountain directly in
the center of the town. A broom on a hillside pales in comparison to all of
this. We have bigger fish to fry while considering our environment.
Claire Peplowski
NYS z4
