Subject: -Holly Trees (DEGRADE) bird habitat
Date: Feb 25 15:04:55 2004
From: Rob Conway - robin_birder at hotmail.com



Tweets,

Though I applaud Stewart's dedication and willingness "to contribute to the
preservation and restoration of the natural environment for the birds and
all other organisms" I would suggest that doing so does not require
absolutely sticking to a "native plant" regime. There are quality well
tested non-native plantings that are effective at creating bird-friendly
environments. Also, contrary to Stewarts report there ARE testing regimes
for invasiveness of a given plant species (these involve seed production,
seed viability, seed (and vegative) transport effectiveness, etc).
Responsible nursuries do test before introductions.

As for irradication of "bad" species I'd advise giving special consideration
to plants in your yard. A mature tree (good or "bad") can add as much as
$20,000 to the value of a property - some much less but all mature specimens
are an asset. I'm all for wiping out every bit of English Ivy, Scotch
Broom, Himalayan Blackberry and other highly invasive species and would
suggest that the best spent efforts for habitat restoration would start with
these guys. The nearly complete irradication of all native North American
grasslands (due to introduced species) is also a huge problem - another
place to "contribute". Worrying about whether a particular cultivar or
hybrid is of the native species for plants that are minimally (if at all)
invasive is an effort that I would judge to have minimal return. Things
have gotten better with the nursery industry, bird friendly gardens can use
non-native species, and there are multiple considerations to be made
(including property values) when making decisions around removing
vegetation. The all native route is great and I support it 100%, but it is
not the only responsible choice.


Rob Conway
Bellevue, WA

robin_birder at hotmail.com





>From: "Stewart Wechsler" <ecostewart at quidnunc.net>
>Reply-To: ecostewart at quidnunc.net
>To: <habarnes at earthlink.net>, <lostriver at completebbs.com>,
>"tweeters" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
>Subject: RE: -Holly Trees (DEGRADE) bird habitat
>Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2004 21:17:00 -0800
>
>In the dialogue of the advisability of killing a Holly shrub and not
>mistaking it for a native Oregon Grape (Mahonia sp.) another tweeters
>subscriber writes:
>
>"Hummingbirds love Mahonias ... We have planted a Mahonia 'Charity' in our
>yard recently, and will be ordering some 'Arthur Menzies' ..."
>
>On buying named cultivars of Mahonia:
>
>Yes, hummers like Mahonias, but if Tweeters subscribers want I wouldn't
>buy just any Mahonia species or varietal
>Mahonias. Not all Mahonias (considered a subgroup of the genus Berberis by
>some) are our native Oregon Grapes. There are about 70 species worldwide.
>Only 2 of them are native to western Washington. A third also occurs in
>eastern WA. If the Mahonia varieties mentioned are actually the correct
>species, i.e. M. nervosa or M. aquifolium, they are still aparantly
>cultivars, which are normally less "natural" and are likely not to be from
>local genetic sources. It is generally better to use local, wild gene
>stock
>for locally appropriate native planting.
>
>Nurseries that specialize in selling new and exotic species make trips to
>other parts of the world with similar growing conditions to collect new
>plant species and varieties to grow here. It is exactly this kind of
>moving
>of organisms around the world that is responsible for a good deal of
>degradation of natural environments and continuing extinctions around the
>world. Many of you just read about two pacific Island birds that were just
>declared extinct. Introductions of non-native species are the biggest
>reason that a large percentage of island species of the world have gone
>extinct. Some nurseries now claim to test these plants for potential
>invasiveness, but there is no such test. While some species will have
>greater potential for becoming the Starlings of the plant world, there is
>no
>guarantee that something they bring over from a place like Korea, with
>similar growing conditions won't spread here. If it does spread it almost
>surely will replace native organisms. It could well be that one of the 67
>species of Mahonia from another part of the world, that has never made it
>to
>Washington, would survive better here than our native species. Our beloved
>insects are less likely to be adapted to using them and our beloved birds
>could have less food and our native Mahonais or other plants could be
>out-competed and set on the path towards extinction along with the other
>organisms adapted to co-exist with the declining or lost natives.
>
>The native plant society has a website (wnps.org) that includes nurseries
>that specialize in native plants. It is also sometimes possible to salvage
>plants that are in a site scheduled for bulldozing or to grow them from
>wild
>cuttings. If you want natives and have the patience to grow them from seed
>you can easilly collect the seeds of many kinds from nature. A common
>guideline for that is not to collect more than 5% of the seed from a given
>area and not to collect seed of endangered species. Seeds of both native
>Oregon Grape species - Mahonia nervosa and M. aquifolium are easy to find
>in
>the wild. Just pick the ripe berries (nervosa start to ripen in August,
>aquifolium start to ripen in late June, but uneaten berries may be found
>any
>time of the year), eat them if you'd like (they're usually a bit sour - but
>older berries are less so) and spit the seeds into a container.
>
>Stewart Wechsler
>West Seattle
>mailto:ecostewart at quidnunc.net

_________________________________________________________________
Find and compare great deals on Broadband access at the MSN High-Speed
Marketplace. http://click.atdmt.com/AVE/go/onm00200360ave/direct/01/