North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[martha_davis@highstream.net]

Donna &/or Kieran schrieb:
> Cats may take their toll, but the humans are doing more than their fair
> share.   What's really reduced the quail population in Tennessee is fescue,
> they say that it's so thick that baby quail can't move around in it.  The
> other thing, that really gets me, is the damned weedeaters.  People move out
> in the country and try to make their entire yard look like a carpet,
> including cutting all grass and weeds right up to the road.  They have nice
> smooth expanses which would be convenient for watching wildlife, if only
> there were any wildlife left to watch.  Sure, deer and rabbits eat grass,
Donna comments are certainly well taken.  Another movement that addresses some
of these concerns in a more pallnnned ecological way in the permaculture
movement and forest gardens.  They are often a planned ecolofical system
including fruit plants and nuts, but also other food plants and insetariary
plants etc etc.

Martha


 > but quail need bugs and weed/grass SEEDS, which aren't produced when
> everything is kept 2" high.
>     Another thing that gets me is the horse population.  Used to be that
> horse lovers would have one horse.  Now they have 4 of them, in the same
> space.   The horses not only eat everything down to the ground, but they are
> dependent on lots of hay and grain.  I hardly ever see anyone actually ride
> one of the creatures.
>     If you stop and think about it, most NAFEXers increase species
> diversity.  Certainly compared to the average American lawn, we create more
> green stuff at different heights, creating both cover and food.  At our
> place, the soil was so terrible in the cleared area that few species of
> weeds would grow.  Now the soil is better over an acre or so, and we have
> provided a great deal of food to the voles, flying squirrels( they like
> tomatoes), chicken snakes (they like eggs) hawks and owls (they like
> chickens), cardinals (they like chicken feed, and peas pecked fresh from the
> pods) and a multitude of birds that like blueberries.  A bit of controlled
> predation is not a bad thing, especially as so many wild predators are gone.
> The real enemy for birds is loss of  food and habitat.  I remember someone
> years ago commenting that after bug zappers became a fad, they heard and saw
> far fewer birds.    Donna