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[Bill Jones <billj AT harborside.com>]

Don Bowen wrote:

> 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.
>  
Does it make the headlines when a non-native plant resists burning, or 
when a native bursts into flames readily?

> 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.
>
>  
There's no tumbleweed here, but I'm familiar with it.  How many miles 
away does the problem have to be happening in order to require changing 
your behavior as a result of it, to warrant a reactionary law against it 
in your locale?  500 miles?  1000 miles?  One state away, in the case of 
the Oregon statute?  That land mass (Oregon plus the states touching it) 
would be the tenth largest country on earth, if it were one, roughly.

As to the motives of botanists, there's no equivalent of the Scientific 
Method in the realm of ethics; the Scientific Method just deals with 
factual aspects.  Botanists are just as likely to form their values from 
their mother's knee, their professors, or their own self-interest, as 
anyone else.  I'd never really thought of it much, but nativism will 
provide fantastic new opportunities for field botanists.  Not only will 
the imagined re-emergence of previously unknown natives offer 
hypothetical chances of new plant discoveries, but there will also be 
many new jobs for inspectors to come to my property and ensure my 
compliance with draconian laws.  Another thing to consider is that 
botanists are often employed by these agribusiness industries, whose 
mission it is to shift the blame from their own clear cutting and 
overgrazing operations (nearly always monocultures) onto us.

I'm sure none of this would be happening if not for the fact that every 
agribusiness interest will tell you that same exact sentence, with the 
name of the "weed" changed: we can control all the other weeds with weed 
killer, but we actually have to hire people to go out and remove weed X, 
or spend money and lose productivity in some other way.

Bill
S. Oregon coast