Subject: re: non-natives

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 24 Oct 1997 08:01:59 -0400 (EDT)

In a message dated 10/22/97 7:02:28 PM, [email-masked] wrote:

>The issue of introduction of non-natives is an interesting one, and brings
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>up the "both" thing again, because viable solutions don't likely exist at
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>either extreme (as is almost always the case).
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>On the one hand, many cases exist of aggressive non-native species or
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>varieties wreaking continent-wide havoc. Carl Goebel's example of Europeans
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>in the "New World" is as strikingly-sobering as any example could be...
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>numerous other well-known cases abound, both in and out of the plant world.
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>On the other hand, few -- ok, none -- of us today subsist on plants and
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>animals native to where we now live. In many-if-not-most locations this
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>would no longer even be possible due to habitat destruction and loss of
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>genetic diversity (as well as loss of the indigenous knowledge systems
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>which made such locally-based subsistence possible). Blanket statements,
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>but safe ones.
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>Further, we have already complicated the matter by seeding most continents
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>with a huge diversity of non-native plants, both agriculturally (as
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>intended species and their attendant weeds), and for landscaping our
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>cities. And many existing "wilderness" areas are now populated by plants
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>which may be native, but were not locally indigenous before widespread soil
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>degradation -- as with pioneering juniper and mesquite in degraded areas
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>(western 2/3 of state) here in Texas, USA. 
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>It's thus -- perhaps sadly -- too late for purity with regard to native
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>plants, and at the same time it can be truly-destructive to ignore the
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>issue altogether. There must be a painfully-narrow balancing point in the
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>middle somewhere. In the meantime, it's probably useful to keep in mind
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>permaculture's respect for diversity, together with April Sampson-Kelly's
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>definition of an aggressive weed (paraphrased... sorry, April): "A weed is
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>a plant that doesn't respect diversity".

I have to agree with Jack.  I doubt that 1 percent of the
participants/readers in this list under the age of 50 have ever seen an
entire ecosystem.  Where degradation is advanced or where obviously empty
nitches exist, a truely experienced permaculturist may decide that
introduction of exotics is important.  Remember that in North America, north
of the Mexican center of diversity, even corn, beans, tomatoes, etc. are
exotics.  How many people in Massachusetts and Michigan want to confine their
vegetables to Jerusalem artichokes and cranberries, with crab apples (here
and there, not wide spread), juneberries, and blueberries, wild, as the
principal fruits--maybe some paw paws and even a few persimmons testing the
northern extent of the range in Michigan. Oh, yes and brambles.  Try living
on American chestnut as your staple as people did when everyone lived on
natives in those regions.  No cabbage, broccoli, carrots, potatoes, etc.
 Even the native peoples brought in exotics, e.g. the Three Sisters, and
moved plants way out of range, e.g. certain grapes, apios, etc., when they
liked them.   

There are of course enough horror stories to go around.  These are especially
severe in island ecologies which more often than not are of a relatively
narrow genetic base (except where there have been land bridges in the past.)
 Some of the horror stories aren't so bad as people think.  Gorse, in New
Zealand, for example, closes out sheep and cattle which are the ecologically
destructive exotics.  Native bush comes up through gorse, given a chance,
tarting with NZ teatree, and re-establishes all the quicker for the nitrogen
nudge.  When the bush closes over, the gorse melts away.  Exotic animals are
always a big risk, it seems to me, and this particularly applies to
domesticated carnivores, though goats, sheep, and cattle can wipe out entire
ecologies by eating the photosynthetic base away, too.

In my view, the bottom line is that a few weeks of training in permaculture
does not qualify anyone with the knowledge, let alone wisdom, to move species
around.  We need a system of looking to elders for this, and frankly we don't
have one.  At least, if we keep all the issues before us, we can make better
choices, fewer mistakes.  However just one mistake can be catastropic.  On
the other hand, when one sees bare hillsides in Appalachia denuded by cutting
and acid rain, it is easy to correctly conclude that a lot more kudzu is
required.

For Mother Earth, Dan Hemenway, Yankee Permaculture Publications (since
1982), Elfin Permaculture workshops, lectures, Permaculture Design Courses,
consulting and permaculture designs (since 1981), and now correspondence
courses via email.  Next starts in Oct. 1997. Internships available.
Copyright, 1997, Dan & Cynthia Hemenway, P.O. Box 52, Sparr FL 32192 USA
 [email-masked]  

If its not in our food chain, we're not thinking.