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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Re: chestnuts

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  • From: Heron Breen <breen@fedcoseeds.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Re: chestnuts
  • Date: Sat, 19 Jun 2004 11:28:48 -0500


Ginda and others, I think the most important lesson from the Chestnut is one
of
our perspective. That perspective is one of Nature not knowing enough, not
being
perfect, and at the same time our economy pushing her threshholds beyond any
realistic expectation. As a younger person, I know my generation is facing
the
spectre of complete enviromental collapse in the next fifty to one hundred
years.
Many of us have pursued degrees in ecology, wildlife management, and botany
related fields only to find Industrial Ag and Timber interests contolling the
entire infrastructure of research and funding. A piddling 250,000 dollars was
given by the feds to TACF, while millions will be spent to build more museums
in
our already disney-land like capital. Lobbying and fighting hard are our only
real
options, as without miracles and chance will any work on such small funding
levels
combat SOD and invasive species as well as pollution-caused die offs. I would
ask
all of us to stop buying camps in rural areas, lakes etc, to stop driving
thousands of miles for vacations and to work right where we live, a trait I
see
much honored by NAFEXers, us all dabbling in our backyards. Saving our
backyards
and our developed surroundings is a great place to start, while we leave
nature as
much breathing room. A great saying was once: Well, we have 10% wilderness
left,
precarious as it is in that amount. Let's leave that 10% alone. This was
forty
years ago by the then president of the Sierra Club. How much remains depends
on
the continuing redefinition of wilderness, I suppose.
Truly telling of our human perspective of nature are the hillsides of stumps
following the spread of the Chestnut blight. Those forests were stripped, not
because they were dead but because they were infected. Every neighborhood
tree
that was remotely ailing was removed, with the justification that it might
spread
to others. Needless to say timber companies had a field day, cutting
everywhere,
even inside national parks, taking not just the chestnuts I would add. Those
millions of trees, if left alone, would've yeilded at least hundreds of
resistant
or immune trees. Now, this same philosophy of Timber harvest is being used
for
hardwood borers, hemlock borers, and soon SOD. While fire suppression
eliminates
natures culling mechanism, habitats erupt with new and unknown dominant
species,
and the gene pool of the forests will take untold centuries to reselect two-
hundred foot tall pines, if ever.
WE must find a way to speak for the trees, forgetting timber quality or
edibility
for a moment. Nature spent thousands of centuries creating what we had. Maybe
we
can spend a few million dollars to save what's left. Start calling your
senators
and congress people. I don't think it would be greedy to ask for a couple of
BILLION to do some real work with TACF. Maybe that would get us geared up for
SOD.
Heron Breen
On Fri, 18 Jun 2004 20:55 , list@ginda.us sent:


>>
>
>Or not pessimistic enough. i have been googling "sudden oak death' and
>it seems that chestnuts are probably susceptible, too. As are beech
>trees. This might be worse than chestnut blight. US sites don't
>mention chestnuts, since there are so few of them here. But British
>ones do.
>
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