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  • From: Don Bowen <don.bowen AT earthlink.net>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Don't feed your bees on rhodies, laurels or azaleas
  • Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 16:33:41 -0700

Driving through Nevada I heard a radio program that was discussing a real problem they are having with a non native grass. They called it Cheat Grass but the fire fighters are calling it gas grass. It seems that it is invasive and was introduced by Russian Immigrants. The problem is that it is prolific and during fires is almost explodes and can spread a fire very quickly. It is also one of the first to come back after a fire, crowding out other plants, setting the stage for the next explosive wildfire. They are studying ways to eradicate the stuff.

Then there is always that other Russian import and noxious weed, Russian Thistle, better known as Tumbleweed. I have also heard what the Missouri DNR does if they find Twessle (sp) on your property. It was a plant imported to use in the wool industry.




Don Bowen Awl Knotted Up KI6DIU
http://www.braingarage.com
My travel journal
http://www.braingarage.com/Dons/Travels/journal/Journal.html

I am omnivagant.
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Subject: Re: [Homestead] Don't feed your bees on rhodies, laurels or azaleas
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Don Bowen wrote:



In the mid fifties it was given free to farmers to plant as wind breaks. Now it is a weed. There are many examples, it is not just granola eating hippies who fight this, it is real scientists who know the down sides.



Don Bowen Awl Knotted Up KI6DIU

I remember parting company with the ideologues 25 years ago in botany class. I guess I was just too old to be churched. I remember standing in the shadow of a tamarisk tree with my botany teacher, trying to emulate his own learned response, hanging his head in disappointment over seeing a non-native, all the while trying to hide my enthusiasm, and above all to avoid exclaiming "what a cool shrub!"

Science does not have an ethical component, despite 20th-century attempts to create one, first in the social sciences and now in the biological. Science just means knowledge, limited to the 5 Ws. The nativist ideology that's come to be adopted, during the years since science abandoned ethical neutrality, might just as well been one of pragmatism, if people like plant technologists and horticulturists had been in charge, instead of field botanists.

I do agree with your statement in another email that plant introductions are not to be taken lightly. But remember, we're arguing over whether I should be allowed matches, not over whether one should deliberately start a fire. So I'll probably take steps to avoid introducing garlic mustard, since it's a shade lover, and could conceivably make it through a summer deep in the woods.

Bill
S. Oregon coast




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