Subject: Blackberries
Date: Oct 19 08:15:15 2002
From: Mike Patterson - celata at pacifier.com


If you're looking to maintain native sparrows and manage
against blackberry we are finding a diverse mix of the
following is probably representative of what sparrow habitat
(probably) looked like before vast areas of human caused
disturbance became vast areas of blackberry monocultural.

There are a couple issues, of course. Good sparrow habitat
has dense unmanaged growth which goes against the landscape
planners sensibilities and many property owners control issues.
There are going to be times of the year when it's not "pretty"
and while many of the these species can be managed by hand
with pruning and trimming, they are not as resistant to chemical
controls as blackberries, scot's broom and other invasive
species which means that establishing them in an area already
infected with invasives is labor intensisve.

Evergreen Huckleberry (Vaccinium ovatum)
Salal (Gaultheria shallon)
Kinnikinnick (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi)
Black Twinberry (Lonicera involucrata)
Red Elder (Sambucus racemosa)
Saskatoon (Alelanchier alnifloia)
Salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis)
Thimbleberry (Rubus parviflorus)
Douglas Sprirea (Spirea douglasii)
Current (Ribes sp.)
Willow sp (whichever Salix is the common native)
Oregon-grape (Mahonia sp.)
plus a good NATIVE grass seed mix

GMunger140 at aol.com wrote:
>
> Thanks to Allyn for the analysis of the issue related to application
> of glyphosphate to kill Himalayan blackberry. It would seem that the
> real issue to get concerned about is what is going to happen to the
> area in following years. If it is going to be replanted in some sort
> of typical institutional landscaping that will require persistent
> applications of fertilizer, pesticides and herbicides and has little
> habitat value, then keep the blackberry bramble and enjoy the
> blackberry pies and jam and blackberry cobbler, and let the robins
> have some berries too. Children's Hospital may be amenable to
> suggestions about replanting the area with more native plants or at
> least planning a landscape that doesn't require intensive management
> and maintenance, and will not be a source of fertilizers, pesticides,
> herbicides for years to come. Maybe that would be a more fruitf! ul
> arena for discussion with Children's Hospital, and any number of other
> local institutions and maybe even some of our neighbors or maybe even
> in our own yards.
> Garet Munger
> Seattle

--
Mike Patterson
Astoria, OR
celata at pacifier.com

A child who becomes acquainted with the birds about him
hears every sound and puzzles out its meaning with a cleverness
that amazes those with ears who hear not.

-Neltje Blanchan

http://www.pacifier.com/~mpatters/bird/bird.html