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Re: Warning- diatribe was Re: Opinions please.

I will tell you as a nursery owner how I feel about the "government" making
laws regarding weeds.

Really I have no problem with it. I have a problem with how these laws are
implemented and who is implementing them. First of all this cannot be done
on a national level, at least not in specifics because every area (not
political areas, but natural areas) has different current problems and
different potential problems. For instance Lonicera maackii will never be a
problem here in Tucson. It is too dry for it here. There needs to be local
task forces, maybe made of nurserypeople, agriculture specialists, and
BOTANISTS to assess the problems and appropriate actions to take. We need
educated decisions made. Here in Arizona you can look at the noxious weed
list and some of the plants are indeed weeds, others are a joke to be on the
list; you can see that the people that composed the list had just a few
clues and held prejudice against entire genera because one species was a
weed. This is inappropriate application of, I am sure, good intent. I would
like to see these rules made INTELIGENTLY with a little real research.
Otherwise people will lose respect for the effort of illiminating noxious
exotics and then nobody wins.
The goal here is to protect wild areas, not piss people off. I am aware
that, especially in more northeastern areas, nurseries are selling weeds.
This needs to stop. I agree with that. Here in Tucson you can still buy
Pennisetum setaceum (becoming a terrible weed here) at many nurseries. I
think the other problem here is that most nurserypeople, unfortunately, are
NOT botanists. They have no background in ecology or environmental biology,
and they don't spend a lot of time out. They need to be taught that these
plants are weeds. Nurserypeople are also hard to teach because they are
usually the "experts" in their relations with the public and don't take well
to being told how they should run their nurseries. But not all nurseries are
like this. Some of us out here have backgrounds in ecology, in botany, in
environmental science. I started my business to fund my research in Mexico.
I am afraid what will come from all this bureaucracy. Usually the intent is
good, but gets carried to extremes and used for other purposes. Also look
where the weeds are coming from! In Arizona nurseries are not responsible
for the bulk of noxious weed introductions. The USDA in its effort earlier
this century to control erosion introduced many exotics. Most weeds here
came from agricultural activities and cattle ranches. There are a tiny
handful of plants that made it here due to horticulture, and even those are
unseen in nurseries today with the exception of fountain grass (Pennisetum
setaceum) as I mentioned earlier. Our laws need to not be centered on
nurseries. The USDA is horribly responsible for many noxious weed
introductions. Take a more encompassing view of this issue. It is
convoluted; you cannot scapegoat one industry and solve the problem, and you
cannot make national sweeping laws to solve it either. It needs to be dealt
with by naturalists not politicians, and regionally not sweeping.

Jared R. Shortman
jared@tucsongrowers.com
Tucson Growers
www.tucsongrowers.com
(520) 882-7060
2509 N. Campbell #338
Tucson, AZ 85719


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