A year ago, Doug Tallamy spoke at the “Spring Fever” gardeningevent in Rapid City.
His presentation educated many and alerted more to the real andpotential damage to the native ecosystems by the ignorant orunaware introduction of alien or non-native plants into ourlandscapes.
I feel Tallamy made two important points.
First: the complex relationship of insects, birds, animals andplants and even soil evolves very slowly. Alien-introduced (nonfoodsource) plants are capable of disrupting or removing crucial foodsources for native species.
Second: as gardeners or, more broadly, custodians of the land,we need to place equal value on plant beauty and the plant’sability to provide food, pollen, nectar and fruit for birds,insects and wild animals, as well as ourselves. Individually, weneed to know (more) about the consequences of what we aredoing.
The Nebraska Statewide Arboretum has placed emphasis on growingsustainable (native) gardens as well as edible gardens.
Current gardening literature emphasizes using native plants,developing sustainable and edible landscapes and broadening ourpurpose of gardening to include providing food plants for insectsand birds.
I was surprised to find an interview with Mark Davis titled “AFriend to Aliens” in Scientific American magazine, February 2011.Davis, on staff at Macalester College, has made his mark in theareas of invasion biology, restoration ecology, succession ecologyand climate change.
Finding a major article on alien plants in Scientific Americanis like finding an article about the world’s largest andhighest-energy particle accelerator in Organic Gardening, so I wasstruck by what appear to be his main points.
Clearly a skeptic, he says seeing native species (plant andanimal) become less abundant is, for many, an emotional rather thana studied and fact-based response.
“Science cannot be motivated by ideology. it has to be driven bygood data. … I don’t believe we can justify using socialresources (money and man hours) to support projects that are oftenlittle more than claims of personal preference,” he said.
He acknowledges that history is replete with plant introduction.Tulips, potatoes, peaches, apples and other plants were highlydesired baggage for early travelers, collectors and amateurbotanists.
The attitude of prizing the rare or unusual will likelycontinue, Davis said. “We need to focus our resources on thosespecies that are truly causing harm. the others we need to learn tolive with.”
Or without, I would suggest, choosing to disagree with him onsome points.
For gardeners specifically, the pressure to purchase and plantalien plant material primarily for its color, appearance or raritymust be reduced and replaced with more informed reasons to considerwhen choosing plant material.
I would welcome an educated, cooperative effort with businessesin the green industry, the advertising community and the purchasingpublic to – at a minimum – begin to label plants’ origin and valueto pollinators and birds, as well as their beauty in thelandscape.
Cathie Draine is a member of the South Dakota State UniversityCooperative Extension Master Gardeners and the Garden Writers’Association. she lives and gardens in Black Hawk. Email her .net.
Related posts: