Welcome to my world! I've probably pulled up a dozen 'tree of heaven' seedlings this week! Have you pulled one up yet? When you break the stem, it sort of smells like rotten peanut butter.
I really appreciate this piece, Dan. As an environmental writer, I've tried to disentangle the problematic division between native and exotic myself. First the bad news: this dogma is very deeply entrenched in traditional conservation practices, and the entire discipline of invasive species biology has a perverse incentive to maintain what is becoming an increasingly useless distinction.
The good news is that a growing chorus of academics and sciene writers (Emma Marris and Fred Pearce are particularly good) are shining a light on the entirely arbitrary nature of such classification. Academic Mark Davis one wrote to me that, "There are no moral imperatives in ecology." Its likely our hand will be forced to revise our thinking about "nativeness" as more and more species expand or contract their ranges as a result of climate change.
I admit that until about a year ago, I didn't understand what all the native plant hubbub was about. I'm somewhat better informed now, and it saddens me to see that this issue, like so many others, can be polarizing. Some of those advocating for more native plants have become zealots to the point of demanding that all non-natives be removed from a landscape. They make no distinction between invasive and non-invasive species. I have a lot more energy for tackling invasives run amok in our garden than for purging our space of flowering perennials that just happen to have been introduced at some point in the past.
I had heard of Tree of Heaven. It sounded like another beautiful exotic that would not survive our tough Northern Vermont winters. However, after reading your post, I found it listed in Vermont Invasive Species list and found 4 Vermont sightings of it recorded on the INaturalist APP. So it is here. I am making a feeble effort to combat buckthorn, which I see everywhere now that I know what it looks like. It is a handsome bush/tree. I heard it is used for hedges in England. The county forester tells us that we can expect to lose all our large Ash trees to Emerald ash borer in the next 5 to 10 years. They make up 20% of the trees on our property. We will never get rid of the buckthorn and we will not be able to save the ash. Alas, this reads as a metaphor of our current state of national/world affairs. I will keep my eye out for Tree of Heaven.
We may yet come to depend on these robust, resilient immigrants.
Many came to those shores with no dream, rather horror and trauma. And the creation of that US of A depended on those robust and resilient people from the get go!
Welcome to my world! I've probably pulled up a dozen 'tree of heaven' seedlings this week! Have you pulled one up yet? When you break the stem, it sort of smells like rotten peanut butter.
I really appreciate this piece, Dan. As an environmental writer, I've tried to disentangle the problematic division between native and exotic myself. First the bad news: this dogma is very deeply entrenched in traditional conservation practices, and the entire discipline of invasive species biology has a perverse incentive to maintain what is becoming an increasingly useless distinction.
The good news is that a growing chorus of academics and sciene writers (Emma Marris and Fred Pearce are particularly good) are shining a light on the entirely arbitrary nature of such classification. Academic Mark Davis one wrote to me that, "There are no moral imperatives in ecology." Its likely our hand will be forced to revise our thinking about "nativeness" as more and more species expand or contract their ranges as a result of climate change.
Like you, I explored my own discomfort through the lense of "invasive" lizards in South Florida: http://www.rangerlarry.com/sneaking-suspicions/foreign-lizards
Keep up the great work!
I admit that until about a year ago, I didn't understand what all the native plant hubbub was about. I'm somewhat better informed now, and it saddens me to see that this issue, like so many others, can be polarizing. Some of those advocating for more native plants have become zealots to the point of demanding that all non-natives be removed from a landscape. They make no distinction between invasive and non-invasive species. I have a lot more energy for tackling invasives run amok in our garden than for purging our space of flowering perennials that just happen to have been introduced at some point in the past.
An interesting article on non-native trees https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/gardeningadvice/9790453/Non-native-trees-are-not-the-enemy.html
I had heard of Tree of Heaven. It sounded like another beautiful exotic that would not survive our tough Northern Vermont winters. However, after reading your post, I found it listed in Vermont Invasive Species list and found 4 Vermont sightings of it recorded on the INaturalist APP. So it is here. I am making a feeble effort to combat buckthorn, which I see everywhere now that I know what it looks like. It is a handsome bush/tree. I heard it is used for hedges in England. The county forester tells us that we can expect to lose all our large Ash trees to Emerald ash borer in the next 5 to 10 years. They make up 20% of the trees on our property. We will never get rid of the buckthorn and we will not be able to save the ash. Alas, this reads as a metaphor of our current state of national/world affairs. I will keep my eye out for Tree of Heaven.
We may yet come to depend on these robust, resilient immigrants.
Many came to those shores with no dream, rather horror and trauma. And the creation of that US of A depended on those robust and resilient people from the get go!
But I get your point 😜