I’m so tired of listening to “green” people hatin’ on invasive species. Theres this portrayal of invasive species being a devastating burden to native ecosystems. People are running big campaigns to remove them, spraying herbicides by the ton, yanking plants out of the ground, and even introducing non-native mammals and insects to take care of these plants!
This is mass insanity! Sure, there are a few cases where invasive species wipe out other native species, but these are few and far between. Most of the time, invasive species only grow in disturbed areas, and they actually improve the integrity of the land (not to mention providing excellent food and medicine. Even when they penetrate into native ecosystems, they usually provide more diversity. This is a fact that is overlooked by most ecologists.
I think the craze is fueled by the ranching industry. Take this example: St. John’s Wort used to flourish in disturbed areas around the U.S. It is a non-native species that makes many people happy, and caused no damage to native ecosystems. However, when cattle mow down pounds of it, their skin becomes photosensitive, and they get bad rashes. Well, it wasn’t long before ecologists started sounding the alarm on this “noxious” weed. Green zombies immediately answered the call and started yanking this plant out and spraying herbicides on it. They even went so far as to introduce a Japanese beetle that ravages St. John’s Wort. Nowadays, it’s hard to find St. John’s Wort where I live.
This is a real problem. I’m sure even Re-Wilding folks have jumped into the insanity. I’ve seen a few posts trashing non-native species. Easy people! Slow down and look at what you’re doing! Read the book Invasion Biology; Critique of a Pseudoscience.
There is much scientific evidence that diversity improves the ability of a system to survive difficult times. Non-native species rarely penetrate undisturbed ecosystems or cause native species to go extinct or even become endangered. There are a few exceptions, mostly in island and aquatic systems.
So if you think you can just uproot all the Burdock you find, you’re the one being a “noxious” species! Burdock may be invasive, but it increases the health of our environment, not to mention providing feral folks yummy Gobo tubers!
Mmmm, autumn-olive…
Preach it!
This is something I wasn’t really convinced about when reading Derrick Jensen. I guess the problem is that the distinction between non-native and invasive isn’t emphasized often enough. I suppose invasives are a subset of non-natives? St. John’s Wort is a really good example of how this issue relates to rewilding. Suppose a person with mild depression wants to start rewilding. One step would be to stop buying SSRI’s from the civilized drug dealers (the pharmaceutical industry) and start using mood-enhancing herbs like St. John’s Wort. If this person wanted to rewild using only native herbs what would (s)he turn to? Are there known native remedies to chronic melancholia?
“chronic melancholia”. lol. Ai dont think native peoples suffered from that nearly often enough to need such things (in the past), so chances of finding references are slim, ai think. Yes, definitly, the simply nonnative and the noxious invasives deserve to be grouped differently. But that doesnt change the fact that any alien species could have unforseen and trajic consequences to the ecosystem (see examples of new top preditors. extend principle.).
In my home ecosystem, mustards and thistles are taking over and replacing entire stretches of formerly scrubland hills into brown expanses of dead flower stalks for nine months out of the year. One in particular - the artichoke thistle - has roots so large and extensive that a small stand of them (never reaching more than 5 feet tall and dying back to the root each year) can, and have, outcompeted hundred year old oak trees, killing them from lack of moisture. Tell me THAT has a positive effect!
I think we all know who the most invasive species are. >:(
I don’t generally give people St. John’s Wort as a primary treatment for chronic depression. Although I’ve heard it helps, I think chronic depression requires more extensive healing. However, it does work great for seasonal or temporary depression, among many other things.
To answer your question, there’s actually many medicinal varieties of St. John’s Wort (Hypericum) that are native to the U.S., and I think every continent. The one we usually use is Common St. John’s Wort Hypericum Perforatum. I haven’t found the native ones in the Northwest, either because my botany isn’t up to par, or because those damn beetles ate them all.
My favorite native remedy for chronic melancholia is what the famous Lakota Heyoka, Crazy Horse used: Go wild and fuck up your oppressors!
Yes, there are indigenous remedies for depression, depending on the depression. I like to use a combo of rose and monkeyflower for trauma/abuse related depression, + skullcap if nerves need nourishing. Or devils club for adrenal fatigue depression, or chickweed for slow/stuck depression, or… Well , there are so many. Even birch, sometimes, and then there’s flower essences.
[quote=“Mugwort, post:7, topic:1313”]
My favorite native remedy for chronic melancholia is what the famous Lakota Heyoka, Crazy Horse used: Go wild and fuck up your oppressors! [/quote]
hah! ;D
I talked to a guy who farms oysters in Willapa Bay (without chemicals), who says the invasive, non-native spartina grass makes more places to live for more animals, while most of his corporate neighbors spray all kinds of chemicals right into the water in an attempt to keep it down/wipe it out. He told me they all want to introduce a set of rules (that somehow include the spraying–???) for “organic” (or maybe they called it “sustainable”, I can’t remember) shellfish farming to justify their actions and make it all sound “environmentally friendly”.
Like Mugwort said earlier, I often wonder when I see humans jump in to “solve the problem”. Does the bay know how to “solve the problem”? Or does the bay just see change.
Someone mentioned a hillside covered with brown thistle for part of the year. I wonder what comes next there? What will grow and who will live on the hill after the thistle? Surely the hill knows.
The other day I saw a film that showed pea shoots dancing. We don’t usually see them dancing, because it happens too slowly.
Dandelions are pretty awesome for eating and medicine.
On the other hand I am not a big fan of purple loosestrife which is taking over the midwestern wetlands. It is driving out a lot of species that could be used for food such as cattails and highbush cranberry. I suppose it is a fairly selfish quip, but if I had to depend on those foods, I would be pretty ticked off that this one plant somebody thought was pretty once was going to kill the ecosystem I depended on, and in turn, kill me.
Himalayan blackberry is a good example of a non-native species that provides both food and shelter for animals but is seen as a problem and poisoned in mass quantities in the northwest.
Some species though are quite destructive. Japanese and Giant Knotweed are taking over large swaths of riverbank in oregon rivers, overtaking all other plants, undercutting the riverbank with its extremely shallow root system, and choking out trees that shade the river. It provides neither food nor shelter for animals.
By no means should pesticides be dumped on the plants. Solving one problem by creating another is absurd. But natural methods should be used, the root systems can be dug out and the plants will die if starved of sunlight for a season. Sorry if i seem a bit preachy here, this issue is a big one for me.
yeah, i’ve gone from totally anti-non-native plants, to only selectively anti-invasives. i haven’t seen a good reason to not pull up herb robert (which i understand generally invades healthy forests).
Japanese Knotweed shoots are edible and good, and they’re just starting to shoot up here in the Pacific Northwest. Pick them before they’re a foot tall and just boil them for 15 minutes, and they’re good to go. They taste kind of rhubarby. I often see ones that have been nibbled by forest critters.
A week ago, I hiked up in a flood plain where a river blasted through a patch of Knotweed, and they seemed to hold the soil pretty good. I hike up rivers every day for work and see many patches of Knotweed, but I don’t think it’s as big a deal as most people. Surely, they shouldn’t have introduced this species which even the Japanese consider vigorous and obtrusive, but it’s here to stay, and lets learn from it what we can.
More importantly, I’d like it if people would ask they’re local ecologists and CREP contractors not to spray toxic herbicides near our rivers to try to control this species.