Subject: Re: Would you consider eliminating the crows? From: "Bill Robinson" <roseguy@gte.net> Organization: Date: Tue, 26 Jun 01 10:31:10 Message-ID: <MOD$010626.19243@rec.gardens.ecosystems>
What a great post!
A discription of a good backyard ecosystem but with events
in which the good guys are often done in by the bad guys. That
is the way of nature. It is also the way of society and
relationships. It is tempting to want to kill off the crows
because of their apparent bad behavior but it's a dog eat dog
world and crows have a right and a need to survive as well.
I find it easy to be charitable towards nature until I come face
to face with a slug and then I cut'm in two with my clippers and
think almost nothing of it. Most of us have our own ideas of bad
guys but I recognize the problem.
Michael Pollan's "Second Nature" is about this issue and it's a
very good read. His core thesis is that the gardener is at his best
when his gardening reflects the ways of nature. He sees the garden
that is left entirely to the ways of nature as a God forsaken weed
patch. He sees the garden turned over completely to the gardener as
an ecological disaster. He wants gardener and nature as partners.
Pollan would want you to think like a crow and like those who must
try to survive with the crow and to treat each as friend.