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  • From: list@ginda.us
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] black locust
  • Date: Sun, 16 Mar 2003 09:20:06 -0500

Earthworms eat leaf duff, and turn it into a finer soil with very different moisture-retaining characteristics. People have measured the depth of duff before and after earthworms reach a site, and the difference is significant. There are a number of native plants that prefer to grow in deep duff - mostly forest understory shrubs and wildflowers, which may be endangered by the spread of earthworms into their habitat.

On the other hand (and here I wax political) I am not sure that the future will consider our current attempts to maintain "intact" ecosystems wise. Things change. Even without global warming, environments change due to plant succession, local droughts or cold snaps or fires, the natural spread of widely adapted plants, the accumulation or degradation of various soil nutrients (rain leaches stuff, tectonic activity adds stuff) etc. There's a fairly serious theory that the climate and ecosystem of most of Africa was dramatically changed by the introduction of rinderpest (a measles-like disease of cattle) which wiped out the herds and wealth of the locals on the eve of European colonialism, and all those game reserves are preserving a recent phenomenon.

I wonder if the best way to preserve some populations of interesting plants or animals that are not widely adapted might be to transplant them to new habitats, and if we ought to value local genetic diversity over "native". Especially as we stand at the brink of what looks to be a major change in many local climates - should we be predicting where redwood will thrive in 50 years and start nursing populations there? Or importing swallowtails to new stands of pawpaws?

Ginda Fisher

On Sunday, March 16, 2003, at 08:08 AM, Dylan Ford wrote:

Rick Valley-
I heard long ago that honeybees and earthworms are alien to
North America, imported by European colonists, and as such are harmful
elements in our ecosystems, but I have never really understood the case
against them. Can you (or other Nafexers) spell out the harm they do,
especially the earthworms?
It's a little more obvious with the honeybees in terms of
competition for resources, but I must admit that I can't figure out on my
own how earthworms are, as you put it, "destroying our ecology from the
ground up".
Now slugs, on the other hand...

dylan ford

----- Original Message -----
From: "Rick Valley" <bamboogrove@cmug.com>
To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Sunday, March 16, 2003 1:22 AM
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] black locust


Here in Oregon, Black Locust is not native. Yet although the tree grows
well
here, it is not a big problem as far as being invasive. Deer will eagerly
consume what they can reach. As far as I have seen, it does not eliminate
other vegetation.
And, thank the lord, it does not invade wet prairies like Pear does here,
or
hybridize with native species, polluting the gene pool, as Apple does
here.
(Should cut 'em all down and burn 'em!) Too bad though, that it feeds
those
wretched, nectar usurping non-native honeybees, which are nothing but the
invertebrate shock troops of biological imperialism. Them and the
earthworms, which are destroying our ecology from the ground up.
It is the only rot-resistant wood that is feasible to grow here to harvest
size in your lifetime. I have successfully used it in agroforestry systems
for years now. Properly seasoned, the wood is in demand for boat building
and furniture (indoor and out) The wood is not difficult to work green,
and
as a beam, it's about the strongest you can get in N. Am. There was a
group
in NY state promoting Black Locust forestry, which put out 1 issue of a
"Black Locust Journal" but I don't know what happende to them. I recommend
*Black Locust: Biology Culture and Utilization* (Proceedings of the Intn'l
Conf.) '91, MSU, East Lansing, Mich. There's a New Mexico Locust too,
which
has at least one local population of good timber form. As far as
fenceposts,
it far outlasts oak.

BUT -- plant them where you can mow around the area. They will sucker
from the roots and are very invasive. And, the posts are hard to drive
staples into; I expect it would be hard to drive nails into black
locust lumber.
You can drill and screw it just fine; I get staples into it OK, and
sometimes I drill and drive nails through and clench them- works great. I
only get suckers after felling a tree, or after cutting a root (which I
sometimes do purposefully to spread a grove)

-Rick in Benton Co. OR








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