CONDON’S CORNER

An Over-developed World Doesn’t Support Wildlife

 

© Marlene A. Condon 2026 All Rights Reserved 

  [Published July 9, 2026, by The Daily Progress, the daily newspaper of Charlottesville, Virginia and published July 11, 2026, by The News Virginian, the daily newspaper of Waynesboro, Virginia.] 

Black Knapweed (Centaurea nigra), a native plant in Europe, is one of the best plants for surviving drought conditions and also feeding insects, such as this Common Buckeye butterfly.  

“An Over-developed World Doesn’t Support Wildlife”

 

I’ve been an observer of the natural world for—literally—as long as I can remember. My very first memory is of walking along the city sidewalk with my older sister as she pushed a baby carriage containing our baby brother. As he is two and half years younger than I am, I know I must have been approaching the age of three as it was springtime—the time of my own birth—and my brother had been born at the end of the previous year. 

 

The city sidewalks were busy with large red-and-black ants going about their own lives as we went about ours. I possess many such memories of my earliest years of life as I seem to have been born with an avid interest in nature.

 

I’m now several decades beyond my youth and I have never lost my fascination with this aspect of life. Consequently, I possess thousands of photos I’ve taken of the natural world that attest to the attraction of nonnative plants to our wildlife. Thus, the push to rid our environment of alien plants is quite concerning to me.   

 

If our world wasn’t so developed (covered over with buildings and roadways) to accommodate humans, we wouldn’t have an abundance of alien plants populating human-disturbed areas (e.g., road margins where the nutritious and friable topsoil has long since been removed and poor subsoil left behind).

 

The reality is that the “intent” of nonnative plants is to keep the environment working as it should. Alien plants fare better in such areas (generally speaking) than native plants that have been here for millennia.

 

Native plants do best in the rich, built-up-over-centuries soil that preceded the arrival of Europeans and folks of many other nationalities, whereas many so-called invasive plants do well in the nutrient-poor soil left over from construction, roadside-grading, winter-salting of roads, highway department-mowing along roads, deposition of vehicle-exhaust chemicals, etc., etc.

 

Thus, we are lucky that humans transported—intentionally or not—alien plants to our land because we would instead have bare ground following development. Unlike the topsoil that is removed or despoiled by development, subsoil can support far fewer organisms (such as bacteria and earthworms), which is the reason it’s less fertile than the soil that would normally sit above it.

 

No matter what town you live in nowadays, you are bound to see development taking place to rob yet more land from the local critters. Consequently, the only way to help wildlife survive is to turn homeowners’ properties into nature-friendly gardens that can well support our local fauna. But do you see that happening? Not much.

 

Instead, you still see most homeowners mowing huge swaths of lawn that not only pollute the environment, but which also may serve only to support our overpopulation of deer—yet another current huge environmental problem. Consider that deer prefer to eat native plants (although they eat many nonnative plants as well) and you have to wonder why there isn’t a big hue-and-cry from native-plant enthusiasts for the government (i.e., the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources) to cut down the deer herd immediately to sustainable levels.

 

After all, how can anyone expect native plants to survive when we have a surplus of native deer to eat them? Yet the popular narrative continues to be that “invasive” plants are the biggest problem facing native plants, even though so-called invasive plants look invasive only because they fill areas cleared of native plants by mankind or deer.

 

This situation—in which the basic problem of too many deer is not addressed first—is very similar to what’s been happening in the Chesapeake Bay since the early 1960s. Throughout all of this time, our scientists have kept replanting native submerged grasses into a body of water that has, all along, remained hostile to the growth of these plants. The fact is that without first reducing the destructive consequences of sediment and nutrient pollution entering the Bay—thanks to what people are doing upstream—native grasses simply cannot possibly thrive there.

 

Likewise, the scientists’ answer to native-plant decline on land is also to tell folks to keep planting more native plants despite the untenable growing conditions of depleted soils, an overabundance of deer, and often, year after year now of drought or near-drought. One could say that a dearth of critical thinking appears to be ongoing in Virginia with no sign of this situation getting better anytime soon.

 

Consider that so-called invasive plants can be downright life-saving. They can survive not only our degraded physical environment, but also drought—both of which have become much more commonly occurring—while still feeding our wildlife. 2026 is the perfect time to be taking this truth into consideration.

“Leatherleaf Mahonia” (Mahonia bealei) is considered “invasive” in Albemarle and Augusta counties (among some other counties in Virginia), even though it’s not that commonly seen. Its flowers feed honeybees foraging in February when they may be the only blooms open, and its fruits feed birds (such as the female Northern Cardinal seen here) in late spring.    

I live in western Albemarle where we’ve received barely 50% of the amount of rain we should have received for the first five months of the year. The plants had continued to look good only because the weather had been on the cool side.

 

But now, as I write this article, we are experiencing hot summertime weather even though summer has not even officially begun and it’s already been 11 days with nary a drop of rain locally. Neither native plants nor animals do well under these conditions, the plants struggling to survive and unable to make fruits or seeds to feed wildlife.

 

On the other hand, nonnative plants often do fine under hot, overly dry conditions. My yard has many perennial Black Knapweed (Centaurea nigra) plants, the flowers of which feed numerous butterflies, bees, and insects of many kinds. Two Glossy Abelia (Abelia x grandiflora) shrubs do the same all summer along with my two Mimosa trees (Albizia julibrissin) that also attract Ruby-throated Hummingbirds.

 

I can’t stress enough that every yard should contain a mix of native and “invasive” plants to help our wildlife to survive. Current environmental conditions simply do not allow for environmental propaganda that is not based in fact.

 

The choice is yours to make. Choose unwisely and we lose many critters forever.

 

 

CONDON’S CORNER

THE RIBBON OF DEATH FOR PLANTS—AND ANIMALS TOO 

© 2026 Marlene A. Condon All Rights Reserved

[Published June 9, 2026, by The Daily Progress, the daily newspaper of Charlottesville, Virginia and published June 11, 2026, by The News Virginian, the daily newspaper of Waynesboro, Virginia.] 

Nonnative trees, such as this Ailanthus altissima, and even shrubs marked for destruction with ribbons in western Albemarle will further decrease wildlife numbers by making it ever harder for our critters to find food as native plants die due to drought.   

 

The Ribbon of Death for Plants—and Animals Too!

  

I walk several miles almost every day. Sadly, one day recently, I discovered someone had been through the area where I live and had put ribbons around nonnative woody plants along the roadway and along the borders of some properties.

 

The ribbons obviously signified death for the marked plants, courtesy of Governor Spanberger’s recently passed bills against so-called invasive plants that nativists (people who support a policy of only allowing native plants to be sold or grown in this country) had pushed for.

 

But these ribbons of death also signify death for our native wildlife. Our critters require plants to provide food for them and to give them a place to reproduce and to take cover in.

 

Yet, as many of our native plants have begun to die off, thanks to human-caused climate change which has resulted in many years of drought or near-drought that these plants did not evolve to tolerate, people are working hard to leave our wildlife in dire straits by removing the very plants that could aid our critters. Truth be told, eliminated so-called invasive plants are usually not immediately replaced with native plants, which is just as well because they would probably just die in the poor soil and dearth of rain anyway.

 

The first native trees to start going were the Red Oaks (Quercus spp.) followed more recently by Chestnut Oaks (Quercus prinus)—both species that had filled the void after the American Chestnut trees (Castanea dentata) mostly died out due to a fungal blight. A lot of dead and partially dead oaks, as well as ailing oaks, are now out there, many lying on the ground because their roots shriveled, thanks to drought.

 

Next, Eastern White Pines (Pinus strobus) began to fail and fall over, and more recently, Tulip Poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera) trees have started to look terrible, with many dead limbs still attached on what had been lovely huge, fully foliaged trees.

 

Oaks supply food in the form of acorns for deer and squirrels, and some species of birds. Many caterpillars eat the leaves. Our white pines provide an evergreen canopy that allows wildlife to find year-around cover while its cone seeds feed both birds and mammals in late summer to early fall. And our Tulip Poplars feed hummingbirds and numerous species of insects for at least a month in late spring with their flowers that create seeds for mammals and birds to eat throughout the winter months.

The loss of these trees is a very serious and concerning problem, yet it’s a problem that won’t be fixed (but instead worsened) by getting rid of alien plants. Far too often, people remove nonnative plants but don’t replant, not that they could necessarily do so successfully anyway.

Areas filled with supposedly “invasive” plants are almost always areas that were somehow depleted of nutrients and good tilth (i.e., the physical condition and structure of the soil), which is why native plants did not naturally fill the area back in.

 

Thus, is it really wise then to remove alien plants that can grow there and perform the same functions that native plants are able to do in less-impacted areas, such as maintain soil stability and feed wildlife? People need to learn to look at the big picture, not just a small slice of it.

 

Recently I was taken to task for suggesting that alien plants perform the same functions as our native plants. What seems to be lost on folks is that plants function the same the world over and, in fact, usually have relatives elsewhere.

 

That’s the reason I’ve found our native Eastern Tent caterpillars feeding on Multiflora Rose shrubs (Rosa multiflora, originally from eastern Asia, China, Japan, and Korea) along the road where I live. Preferring trees and shrubs in the Rosaceae family, they can feed successfully on plants not originally found in North America.

 

The person who complained about me also claimed that “the literature concludes that invasives decimate soil functionality” and that “invasives cannot heal depleted soil and their presence will further deplete soil.”

Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca, seen here) is the best food plant in our area for Monarch butterfly larvae, thanks to its huge size that provides plenty of food in the form of leaves. 

 

Nothing disproves false science like reality. When I moved to the land I’ve now lived on for 40 years, the land had been cleared around my house, meaning the rich topsoil had been removed. While I added amendments to areas where I would plant flowers and to the area where my 2000-square-foot fruit and vegetable garden would go, I did nothing to the west side of the yard other than to plant a row of Autumn Olive shrubs (Elaeagnus umbellata) because I knew they were extremely beneficial to our wildlife.

 

Indeed, all these years later, these plants still provide nectar and pollen for bees and other insects in spring, fruits for mammals and birds in late summer, and winter buds for squirrels and migratory birds (e.g., White-throated Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos) during the winter. The truth is that this nonnative shrub species—now banned from sale in our state, thanks to folks who don’t know better—is the absolute best wildlife plant anyone could imagine. No other plant—not even native plants—comes close to providing food practically year-around to such a huge variety of wildlife.

In a yard filled with Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) as well as nonnative plants such as Lantana camara (seen here), a Monarch butterfly finds plenty of places to lay its eggs as well as plenty of blooms from which to get nectar for itself.

A large empty space remained in between my food garden and the Autumn Olive shrub line, which I left to itself. I added no soil amendments or fertilizer; I simply watched what took place through the years. And guess what? Today I still have my original Autumn Olive shrubs, but that large empty space over time began to hold numerous native plants, such as a Persimmon tree (Diospyros virginiana), American Euonymus (Euonymus americanus), Coralberry shrubs (Symphoricarpos orbiculatus), and a wonderful collection of native wildflowers, such as Indian Hemp (Apocynum cannabinum) and Large-flowered Leafcup (Smallanthus uvedalius) —all of which came in on their own and exist to this day!

An intimate view of how a Monarch caterpillar feeds on a Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) leaf.

I’m sure people wonder how I can so adamantly defend the use of so-called invasive plants, and now you know. My knowledge is always derived from first-hand experience that obviously cannot be denied. 

 

 Condon’s Corner

With native trees dying, it’s time to embrace “invasive” plants

© Marlene A. Condon 2026 All Rights Reserved

[Published May 14, 2026, by The Daily Progress, the daily newspaper of Charlottesville, Virginia and published May 16, 2026, by The News Virginian, the daily newspaper of Waynesboro, Virginia.] 

 

Oaks have been dying for many years now, and more species are following suit, such as White Pine (Pinus strobus) and Tulip Poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera). If you expect to feed and care for our wildlife, grow plants erroneously called “invasive” and fight new restrictions placed upon doing so.

The Daily Progress newspaper of April 16, 2026 included this article headline: “Outpacing evolution: Scientists using DNA to battle climate change”. Apparently, scientists have given up on getting people to change their ways to avoid climate problems brought about by our extensive employment of fossil fuels.

Instead, they’ve decided it would be “easier” (don’t believe it) to completely alter the genetic blueprint for the estimated one million species facing extinction so these creatures can tolerate climate extremes, disease, and drought. In other words, man has finally begun to think of himself as God, the Almighty. (The hubris!)

You can see the acceptance of our situation by other news stories, too, such as an AOL story that told us, “As the planet warms, scientists burn homes to figure out how to best protect them in wildfires.” Even more concernedly, some scientists are putting a positive spin on what’s happening: “Five ecosystems transformed by climate change give birth to new, sometimes even richer worlds.” [From an ad for a PBS program]

And then, AOL recently published, “Climate doom and gloom? Try laughing instead. Activists embrace joy in the fight to save Earth”. If only it were a laughing matter, but here in Virginia, it isn’t.

On April 9 of this year, abc7News printed an article about Virginia’s recently elected governor, Abigail Spanberger, signing bills to create “4 laws to combat invasive plant species in Virginia”.

Gov. Spanberger signs 4 laws to combat invasive plant species in Virginia

The article states that the bills will “protect the state's land, water, and wildlife.” It quotes executive director, Laurn Yatkor, of Blue Ridge PRISM, an environmental group “that helped draft three of the four new laws.”

She’s quoted as saying that “Invasive plants are one of the most urgent and under-recognized threats to Virginia’s pollinators, songbirds, livestock, waterways, tree canopy, and recreational parks,” She goes on to say, “The scope and the scale of the problem are vast, and it will take a village to repair the damage done and ensure a healthy environment for future generations.”

But where’s the factual information to support these statements? None exists because nothing could be further from the truth. Removing so-called invasive plants will only deplete desperately needed food and habitat for our critters and doom them to the extinction people supposedly are trying to avoid.

When you truly want to do what’s best, you take the time to make sure you understand the problems, rather than simply repeating dogma put forth by numerous groups who don’t actually know how the environment works.

We are told that these “new laws aim to support long-term solutions that are more effective at prevention and species management. Specifically, it illegalizes the planting of invasive species along state highways, expands the Noxious Weeds List, incentivizes local jurisdictions to raise funds to control invasive species, and gives state agencies the ability to use volunteers to control invasive species on state lands.” Yikes.

What are the alternatives to planting “invasive” species along our highways? For numerous decades, Virginia insisted upon nonnative lawn grass as the only plant to be used there, despite the huge cost—monetarily and environmentally—to keep it mowed regularly throughout the growing season. Yes, grass had to be kept cut due to societal expectations for this type of plant, which you can see all around you locally as you drive by the vast majority of yards.

Even now, with the number of mowings reduced to twice a year, we still spend an enormous amount of money on Virginia’s almost 60,000 miles of interstate, primary, secondary, and frontage roads.

But the beauty of leaving these strips to do their own thing throughout much of the growing season is that a huge number of nonnative wildflowers have moved in, creating beauty and interest for the traveler. Now this scenery will be replaced by native plants that are not going to thrive along interstates. After numerous decades of constant mowing, the soil has been compacted, which is not conducive to native plants that have mostly evolved within forests of loose, rich soil.

Common sense should tell you that the best plants for degraded habitats are, therefore, plants known as “invasive” because they do so well in areas where the land would otherwise be quite barren because native plants would struggle. In point of fact, the term “invasive” is a prejudicial word meant to fool people into believing these alien plants are somehow “bad” and thus should be hated and removed.

And, adding insult to injury, nonnative plants are usually removed with pesticides that poison the ground, the plants they’re used on, and any organisms that happen to be upon the plants when the pesticide is applied.

Yet, in truth, so-called invasive plants are actually critically vital saviors, not only for our wildlife but for our native plants! Over the course of time, nonnative plants rebuild the soil so that native plants can one day return. And, in the meantime, they feed and/or provide nesting sites for our wildlife so they can survive.

Indeed, we should be grateful for alien plants that can grow in degraded areas instead of denigrating them out of prejudice based upon ignorance that’s been taught from elementary school on up for some decades now. And to think such useful plants are now going to be added to an official “noxious weeds” list, a name that is exceedingly pejorative and is probably employed to slyly implant the idea in people’s minds that they should feel contempt for alien plants.

But should they? Absolutely not. So-called invasive plants feed Virginia’s insects and hummingbirds with nectar or pollen and songbirds with fruits or seeds—a truth native-plant folks are loathe to accept.

These new laws meant to “help” wildlife will instead shepherd its demise. If you own property and truly care about our critters, my advice is do not follow the recommendations of government agencies and groups like PRISM who influence them. Stand up for what is truly best for our environment.  

 

Condon’s Corner

Feed the Birds, But Educate Yourself First

© Marlene A. Condon 2026 All Rights Reserved

Suet blocks help a variety of birds, such as this Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, to obtain the calories they need for survival. © Marlene A. Condon 

[Published March 31, 2026, by The Daily Progress, the daily newspaper of Charlottesville, Virginia, and April 2, 2026, by The News Virginian, the daily newspaper of Waynesboro, Virginia.]

Over the years, wildlife professionals have frowned upon people who feed birds and perhaps other kinds of wildlife in their yards. The reasons for this attitude are many.

 These folks worry about the spread of disease when birds are constantly in close contact with each other. They also are concerned that folks will provide food meant for people that may be unhealthful to wildlife.  Additionally, these animals could then become habituated to humans and over time act aggressively towards people when they want food. If that situation occurs, the animals would then need to be killed. (Wildlife removal services must destroy critters taken away.)

Yet the reality is that birds and even wild mammals could use a bit of human help these days. You don’t need to look far to see that we have covered the land with office and apartment buildings, grocery and other kinds of stores, or houses with yards that are mowed and “cleaned up” so much that no natural foods exist for our wildlife.

Making your yard inhospitable to as many critters as possible should never be viewed as good because our environment depends upon wildlife to keep it functioning properly for our benefit. People often overlook this reality.

We need plant eaters to limit the numbers of plants so the plants will not be overcrowded and become diseased.  We require predators to limit the numbers of other kinds of animals, so they are not overcrowded, which also leads to disease. And we need a variety of plants to serve as food themselves for wildlife or to make seeds or fruits for critters to eat.

It’s not difficult for folks to assist wildlife, though. Most yards are landscaped with only beauty in mind, but choosing trees and shrubs that also support wildlife provides the additional interest of getting to view such critters right outside your windows! It’s not hard to find out which plants support wildlife; any local library will have a section of books on this subject. [The Nature-friendly Garden: Creating A Backyard Haven for Plants, Wildlife, and People was written by me and I provided the photographs for it.]

 

Thus, we need to invite wildlife to our properties so our environment can function well, but we also need to help these critters to be safe while there, by—for example—limiting bird collisions with windows.

 

I once worked in a building with large office windows lining both sides and both stories of the workplace. The inside offices were small, so many of them ran down each side of the building, and each and every office had a very large window to bring light inside. Worse yet was the huge glass-way lining the walkway that led to the upstairs library.

Sky and trees around the building were reflected in all that glass, so it wasn’t the least bit unusual to find dead or injured birds on the ground alongside the building. The United States Geological Survey [USGS] estimates that “up to two billion birds are killed each year in the United States due to collisions with glass…”

https://www.usgs.gov/labs/bird-banding-laboratory/science/bird-window-collisions

According to the USGS website mentioned above, simple, inexpensive, and attractive ways exist “to help prevent any type of bird collision by making windows more visible to birds...For low-cost, temporary methods, individuals can make and hang a paracord bird curtain or create decorative patterns using tempera paint and stencils…”  Please visit the site for much more information.

 Also, the threat of cat predation on wildlife has continued for innumerable decades, but it shouldn’t be such a difficult problem to fix. It’s simply a matter of keeping cats indoors instead of letting them roam freely outdoors. It’s puzzling that people who supposedly care about their cats would insist that they should be allowed outdoors when the threat of their pet being run over and killed is extremely high. When I was growing up, neither cats nor dogs were expected to be kept inside, and indeed, several of the cats in our family were killed in just this manner.

 A little education would go a long way towards people knowing what human food is safe and healthful for wild animals to eat. For example, unwanted food (such as fat from cooked meat) needn’t be wasted. It could be put outside at dusk so that mammals won’t associate the food with humans. And regarding birds, the threat of disease at feeders can be dealt with by urging folks to clean feeders weekly, and to take them down for a week or more should disease present itself.

Feeding wildlife in our overbuilt environment can aid rather than harm these animals, but it’s extremely important that it be done properly. Please take time to learn how to best assist wildlife, so you can rest assured your efforts have been helpful, not harmful. 

 

 

CONDON’S CORNER

We Must Face the Environmental Reality of Our Energy Usage

© Marlene A. Condon 2026 All Rights Reserved

[Published February 24, 2026, by The Daily Progress, the daily newspaper of Charlottesville, Virginia.]   

While in grade school, I lived in an area with a large municipal park. Named Forest Park, it contained caged wild animals in addition to picnic tables and other amenities for people to enjoy. Schools brought children there for end-of-the-school-year picnics, but I never truly enjoyed myself.

 

The housing conditions for the more intelligent animals were truly deplorable, the worst being that of a lone Polar Bear (Ursus maritimus) housed in a ridiculously small cage. The poor thing could do nothing all day except pace back and forth or cool off in summer in an equally ridiculously small pool within the cage. Even as a child, I found it hard to understand how people could be so oblivious to the cruelness of such conditions.

 

It broke my heart to watch that bear, but I felt helpless to do anything about its inhumane situation. I don’t know what became of it, but perhaps today I can somewhat make amends by writing about the plight of its Arctic “relatives” that now face poor survival odds due to global climate change.

 

Polar Bears depend upon floating sea ice to catch seals, their main food source. Unfortunately, the Arctic has warmed so much that ice floes do not last long enough for the bears to catch sufficient food to build up their fat layer. Without adequate fat on their bodies to provide needed nutrition throughout the year, bears die.

 

Thanks to the burning of fossil fuels (such as coal and oil that our current president wants the country to return to using), polluting gases that contribute to global warming are emitted. The burning of gasoline in internal combustion engines releases carbon dioxide that traps heat in the atmosphere, and as its concentration increases, we get rising global temperatures. The result is more frequent and intense weather events, as well as rising sea levels, all of which impacts our lives and that of our wildlife.

 

You might think driving an electric car gets you off the hook for causing environmental problems, but although electric-powered vehicles significantly reduce greenhouse-gas emissions compared to vehicles using the traditional combustion engine, you must consider the entire lifecycle of the electric engine, including resource extraction and manufacturing to electricity generation and battery disposal.

 

The environmental cost of manufacturing the battery requires the mining of lithium, cobalt, nickel, and manganese, employing much energy and contributing to wildlife-habitat degradation and water pollution. The energy-intensive refining of these materials increases their carbon footprint, and if your electric vehicle is charged using electricity generated primarily from coal-fired power plants, the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions is probably minimal or non-existent.

 

We need electricity to live comfortably and gas-or-electric powered vehicles to get to work and other activities, but some folks contribute far more than is really necessary to climate change by enjoying luxuries they could easily live without.

 

Some people shop every day to buy fresh food, rather than plan ahead and shop for several days’ worth of groceries at a time. Life is more demanding when you need to spend time planning ahead, and you may need to adjust your menu choices because some things need to be fresh and used almost immediately. But isn’t it worth doing?

 

I’ve seen able-bodied people drive to their mailbox when they could instead do their body good by walking to the end of their not-very-long driveway. Parents are often seen in winter sitting in their heated cars with their children to save them from the “hardship” of waiting outside in their driveway for a few minutes until the school bus arrives.  (Throughout my elementary-to-high school years, I needed to walk down the road—no matter how freezing or snowy the New England weather—to catch the school bus, and I survived.)

 

And, the most egregious practice for many years now is that of parents driving their children to and from school every day rather than having them take the bus!

The best way to minimize climate-change impact is to minimize as much as possible the use of gas-or-electricity-powered vehicles in addition to minimizing as much as possible other uses of electricity.

 

Consider the energy-efficient light bulbs people have been pushed to use. Many people feel it’s okay to leave them burning all day and all night, which not only wastes energy, but also attracts insects during the warmer months of the year that end up starving to death.

 

In point of fact, anything that uses energy should be turned off (and unplugged, if possible) when not necessary to be on, such as computers and associated equipment, such as printers and scanners. Although computer updates are often set to come in overnight, the reality is that they can be gotten the next day when you are done using your computer.

 

Consider reality and act accordingly.

 

 

CONDON’S CORNER

Nature’s Best Hope: “Invasive” Plants

© Marlene A. Condon 2025 All Rights Reserved

[Published January 27, 2026, by The Daily Progress, the daily newspaper of Charlottesville, Virginia and The News Virginian, the daily newspaper of Waynesboro, Virginia.]   

 

People’s desire to “sanitize” the natural world is highly destructive because it destroys habitat for wildlife. Additionally, when all of the shrubby undergrowth along a stream is cleared away (as seen here), the owner is likely to suffer loss of soil due to erosion in a severe rain event.

Recently a number of posts were made on the Virginia Bird List-serve (a website where birders comment on anything having to do with birds) regarding quite a decrease in the numbers of birds seen this fall. One woman, from the Mount Vernon area of Fairfax County, commented that she had been noticing “this for several months now, particularly the local birds. Numbers are way down. I am hoping that the abundant natural foods are more enticing to them, but I have lots of oak trees, beech trees, winterberry holly and native perennials and shrubs that should be drawing the birds to my yard.  They are just not here…”

If you realize the important roles birds play in our environment, such as helping to limit plant-feeding invertebrates as well as excess numbers of plants by eating their fruits or seeds, the above comment that birds “are just not here”—despite supposedly ideal plant conditions in the commenter’s area —should frighten you. Even more concerning is that a dearth of avian species confirms what I’ve been observing for decades now: a dearth of insect species for them and other animals to feed upon. And it’s not only animal life, but also plant life that impacts our critters’ ability to continue on.

Over the past several decades, more years have been drought-stricken, meaning plants don’t get the amount of water they need to survive and reproduce well. This situation greatly affects native plants because they evolved under better conditions of adequate rainfall for their needs. 

Additionally, the overpopulation of deer in Virginia that has been the case for many years means too many plants get eaten by them, not only depriving birds of food, but also cover where they can sleep, roost, and nest.

Without sufficient food and habitat, many kinds of wildlife cannot reproduce as it should and is, therefore, bound to die off. Indeed, each passing year has made clear that not only do we have fewer and fewer birds, but also many other kinds of animals.

The only saving grace that has helped our wildlife survive this long is the presence of so-called invasive plants that people love to hate. Many of these plants are not (yet) eaten by deer, and they can survive the drought conditions that have become so prevalent these days. Yet even these plants can hardly make a go of it, thanks to a majority of people weed-whacking and mowing every last bit of land they own. I live in a rural area of western Albemarle where homeowners not only limit plants on their properties, but also all along roadways, ditches, and old fence rows. Needless to say, this type of “sanitizing” occurs in suburban and urban areas as well.

Poor people and wildlife both suffer the ravages of sanitization. “Waste places”, which should more accurately be seen as natural areas, allow plants and animals to eke out a living, just as those with limited incomes do in trailer parks. Precious-few wild areas exist anywhere to support wildlife, just as precious-few living arrangements are now available for those with small incomes.

Both are viewed in the same disparaging way, as if both are a blight in need of "renewal". But please note: As a poor college student dependent upon grants and work-study programs, I myself lived in a trailer, which was conveniently located near the university I attended. I’d have to say those were some of the best years of my life as I worked to make my dream of getting a college degree come true. And, living in a rural area, I was able to continue my life-long learning about the “weeds” wildlife lived upon.

For a long time now, schools have been teaching children that “invasive” plants are very bad and should be eliminated. When these children become adults, they learn to use pesticides to remove the plants and, consequently, poison the environment. They work at places like Charlottesville Parks & Rec, removing “invasive” plants practically year-around, leaving precious little food or cover behind for birds and other critters.

If native plants could survive in today's world of altered environmental conditions, they—instead of alien plants—would already be growing there. Unfortunately, people have embraced this nonsensical obsession with getting rid of so-called invasive plants that can survive drought and poor soil conditions and thus assist our wildlife to keep it alive. 

I’ve always grown both native and nonnative plants on my property. I’ve witnessed what has happened over the past half a century and have recognized the true value of “invasive” plants. Read most of the articles I’ve had published over the past 35 years and you’ll see my photos of many kinds of creatures making use of the very plants people insist upon removing.

Environmental circumstances have changed, making it terribly difficult for native plants to do well. The anti-invasive-plant movement has done far more harm than good, which means wildlife numbers will continue to drop as long as people adhere to this false dogma.

There can be no denying that Nature’s best hope in a human-degraded world are so-called invasive plants.