Weeds of the World

This post may be controversial to some. Others may wonder what I am going on about. If you find yourself wanting to write me an irate comment - please don't. I am not unaware of the reasons behind the violent and toxic ways invasive weeds are being dealt with. I am not ignorant of the argument that in order to protect our last native species we must blast invaders with military-like destruction. I just happen to disagree.

As I look out onto my food garden and herb beds, I see plants not native to my area. Well, maybe corn is native to North America and potatoes to Peru does that count? Why? The drive to exterminate "non-natives" really rubs me the wrong way. People who spend their weekends or careers causing the mass destruction of green plant stands make me worry. One look at American history and you can see why the whole argument sounds hypocritical. Where is all this talk of non-natives when we grow our food crops each year? Eucalyptus trees are not native here. Should we cut down 100 year old trees in San Francisco's Balboa Park which are critical habitat for monarch butterflies because of some completely arbitrary determination of what is native "enough" and what is not? If you are interested in hearing the other side of the native vs. non-native argument please see the book Invasion Biology: Critique of a Pseudoscience by David Theodoropoulos. It may open your mind a little.

I find it difficult to hate a plant, let alone want to rip it out with my bare hands and pour toxic chemicals all over the land to eradicate it. Burdock, Star Thistle, St John's Wort- these are all on the hit list of nativists. Star Thistle covers vast acreage in my area. It spreads quickly on any disturbed soil. But the bees love it, which is why it was introduced in the first place, and I find it prevents erosion. I think it may also be medicinal since it has such a strong bitter flavor and slightly sticky feel like artichoke. If some livestock are forced by hunger to eat it, especially horses, they may get "chewing disease" and some may die. This still doesn't make me want to kill it. I know that it serves a purpose.

Burdock and St. John's Wort are extremely powerful and helpful medicines. To eradicate them because one ruins wool and the other may make white cattle photo-sensitive is completely short-sighted. I believe it's money related as well. This "war on weeds" is pushed by companies that manufacture herbicides and supported by farms and cattle ranchers who don't want to try other forms of land management. And who are we to say one plant has a right to be here but the other doesn't?

Permaculture does not push the introduction of non-native species. However many of the world's most useful plants are not native to my area or yours. The way we as permaculturists go about it is this: First we see if there is a native plant that will fulfill our requirements. If not, then we look for a plant that is not known to wander or be greedy. Then if both of these fail, we simply look for a plant to help fill the niche. In places where it rains a lot and doesn't freeze hard, plants have much more of a tendency to move about. But still I think it needs to be pointed out that plants only move into areas that have been left imbalanced and damaged by human interference first. An intact and healthy environment does a good job of keeping foreign plants at bay. Only when humans have come in and completely disturbed a place by extracting gravel from waterways for example, or logging indiscriminately in a forest, does an invasive species move in. And I think they have every right to do so. We muck it up by taking what we want and ripping a hole in the system and they come in to mop up what really is our mess.

In a place like mine, so many things hold a plant in check that perennial invasives are not much of an issue. And I am already surrounded by a vast sea of invasive annual weedy grasses. But I do believe in the use of pioneer species to help slower growing native plants get a foot hold. And I intend to use them, invasive or not in other aspects of zone 1-4. Our land is so far out of balance, so far away from where it may have been prior to foreign settlement, that the only way to increase fertility and bio-diversity now is the use of non-native plants.

We must remember, all plants whether labeled invasive or not, slow down if not halt soil erosion, improve soil structure, increase humus, clean the air and release oxygen. All plants by their nature help our environment. Do I pull out plants from time to time? Yes I do. But the broad scale, organized extermination of certain plants is not wise. And given all the other challenges of the global environment, I think it would be smart to rethink this tactic.