This is Grace Allen at the Whittier Narrows. She has worked there for quite a number of years as a docent. The day I took this picture, she said she did not want to take the children out on the walks anymore. Her eyes were filled with tears. The Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation Department said there were too many weeds (mustard, specifically) and so they were going to eradicate them.
There are ways to eradicate 'weeds' that are successful but, most are not so successful. And, some methods are just plain stupid. This is a story about stupidity.
LET"S START WITH ANOTHER STORY, FOR EXAMPLE...
Invasive weeds are just that... invasive. Once they take hold, it's nearly impossible to remove or extricate from the environment. The first introduction does not mean a non-native CAN establish themselves into a new habitat, because it usually takes several introductions and the right conditions for a 'weed' (plant and animal) to become part of the terrain. Insects, snakes, rats, fish, cats, goats, pigs, cows, dogs, birds can be 'weeds' in sensitive places all over the world, and thanks to humans.
Just last week in Australia, they went after a toad - which they introduced ON PURPOSE (!) to save their sugar industry from ruin in 1935. (Cane Toads, an Unnatural History, by Stephanie Lewis, Dolphin/Doubleday, 1989) The sugar cane, (Saccharum officinarum) really a weed introduced as a 'crop', that can be an important cash crop (like it was for Cuba) was devastated by a beetle.... a beetle that was a native to Australia on the weeping fig trees. But, because of the high sugar content of the sugar cane, S. officinarum was FAR MORE enticing. The native beetles became the pest. And, in 1930 the population of the native beetles peaked and then the farmers went to the government for help; the Bureau of Sugar Experiment Stations in Brisbane. The farmers tried fumigation and other toxic stuff... Nothing worked!
Well, a famous entomologist of the time, wrote a paper about the special wonderful qualities of the Bufo marinus, or what is now called, the cane toad, to eating lots of beetles. Well, as the story goes, the Australians 'planted' lots and lost and lots of toads BUT found that they did not eat the beetles! like they were told they would!!!... In fact, they found the toads to be ineffectual at eating the beetles..... It was something about beetles flying and toads didn't.... But, the toad ate everything else. And those animals that ate the toads died of the toxins excreted by the toads.... Poor Australia. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cane_toad)... and then there were the rabbits... (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbits_in_Australia)
WHAT HAS CANE TOADS HAVE TO DO WITH WEEDS AT WHITTIER NARROWS????
Well, what the above story deomonstrates is that we - humans .....and even humans with degrees, publications and POSITIONS in agencies like... LOS ANGELES COUNTY, PARKS AND RECREATION can be really really stupid.
CHECK THIS OUT...
Here we have the area around the walk way where Grace and other docents take the little children through the Nature Center. There are weeds... but then, again, weeds happen when you have humans around. But, under Grace's hand, there are very few and the natives are quite happy and fecund.
Here is the area behind Grace (that made her cry) form June 2, 2008, covered with this stuff, called, Erosion Control Blankets.
Further up the trail... on June 2, 2008.
This next image was taken August 11, 2008... notice the little sprouting weeds under the blankets?
On September 15, 2008 behind the parking lot.... evil things started to push up from the soil!!!!
OH!!! NO!!!! (Just like in the movies don't you think?)
Then in October 20, 2008 we realized STINGING NETTLES were pushing up through the netting and the EVIL MUSTARD was coming up around the sides!!!! AHHHHHHH!!!!
By March 14, 2009 ALL OF HADES BROKE OUT!!!!
Now, after lots of little children walking past this really ugly stuff and trying NOT to to touch the nettles (which raise a blistery bumpy rash especially on tender skin of children!!!) (YEAH!! RIGHT!! Go ahead and try to stop them from touching the horrible plant!), 'regular' people started asking,.. "what IS that STUFF? AND WHY WAS the COUNTY PARKS AND RECREATION DOING THIS????
So, to answer EVERYONE"S QUESTIONS ... do you know what they did? I bet you can guess.... They made sign. No, they made several. So typical.
... And they placed them where all the little children and their teachers would walk...
I bet these signs were expensive....
Stupid. FUNNY! But, stupid.
The Mustard species are non-native, and, one would suppose, invasive, since even the Old Californio vacqueros called rounding up cattle from the washes 'running the mustard', but these mustard bosques seem to have supported cow-and-other-critters habitat well, so is it really harmful? ...While nettles are harmful natives. They and poison oak (and other busy objectionables, like thistles [foreign] and jimsonweed [worldwide]) might be partly dug out from trail areas, with efforts made to replant the space with nice natives, from fairly large nursery oaks and ashes that would become mighty, to tufts of dense things like Coyote Mint or the no-real-thorns kinds of Opuntia. The naughty natives could be left to grow in some places along with EDUCATIONAL signs that would specifically warn and point out identifying features, along with first aid advice--including co-plantings of traditional healing herbs like impatiens.
ReplyDelete