CONDON’S CORNER—Out of Touch with Reality

© 2026 Marlene A. Condon All Rights Reserved

 

 [Published October 8, 2026, by The Daily Progress, the daily newspaper of Charlottesville, Virginia and The News Virginian, the daily newspaper of Waynesboro, Virginia]

Out of Touch with Reality

When I was considering going to graduate school, I thought about perhaps studying climate and weather—which seemed more necessary to everyone’s everyday life—than to become the astronomer I had planned on being since the age of seven. Thus, I visited the local climatologist at the University of Virginia to discuss this idea with him.

 

We had a long discussion, which included a revelation (to me) about what climatologists need to consider when deciding what to tell everyone about expected future weather. He informed me that even if a severe drought was expected, you could not just put that information “out there” as it could seriously affect the economy.

 

Predicting a drought typically causes share prices to rise because traders become concerned about probable reduced crop yields and fewer livestock raised. This reaction in the commodity markets typically causes the prices for grains and cattle to increase, and because no one considers driving prices up to be a good thing, climatologists needed to be careful about what they reported to news outlets. This revelation bothered me because it could mean not being completely above board with all of their knowledge, a situation that I considered dishonest and thus appalling.

 

I consider our current weather forecasts to follow this same type of deceitful practice. I live west of Charlottesville and my yard has only received 21 inches of precipitation for the first nine months of 2026. That’s a good 15 inches below the amount that formerly was expected by now to be on course for getting a yearly total of 48 inches. Yikes! Yet the Virginia Drought Monitor [https://www.drought.gov/states/virginia] claims the area where I live is simply “abnormally dry”, which is an outrageous understatement.

This stream, down the road from where the author has lived for four decades, does not typically go dry. The fact that it is doing so in 2026 is significant and scary.

 

In reality, most of the streams in my area have completely dried up, not just back, including one on my road that I have never seen go dry in the 40 years I’ve lived in this location. This highly unusual occurrence suggests everyone living here needs to restrict water usage so our wells don’t go dry. People need to do their best to limit evaporation of soil water from their yards by keeping longer blades of grass, or better yet, flowers, shrubs and trees to keep water in the ground longer. (Yes, plants use water, but not as much as the Sun can take away.)

 

Yet just this morning, I saw two mowers unnecessarily cutting vineyard grass that wasn’t so tall as to be a problem in any way. (Large estates often get mowed every week, whether grass has grown or not). Later I heard mowers in two other directions, and when my husband got home in the afternoon, he reported seeing two trucks hauling lawn mowers at one of the country stores about three miles from where we live. As if that weren’t bad enough, as he continued his drive home, he saw a third truck hauling a lawn mower leaving our area.   

 

In other words, precious little thought is given to conserving our ground water by keeping it shaded by grass, which is also evident along the main roads in this area. People maintain a cut swath of plants all along their properties at the roadside. It’s all well and good to limit the growth of plants on curves so drivers can see if there’s oncoming traffic or people walking or bicycling on the road, but no, I’m talking entire roadsides cut short simply out of a misinformed sense of “neatness”. And, as you may realize, our highways are maintained similarly, which means we are talking about hundreds of miles of land exposed to sun and drying out.

 

But it’s not just the weather folks who play loose with facts. Consider the Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR). Those folks are in charge of maintaining our wildlife populations, yet we’ve been overloaded with White-tailed Deer for numerous years now and the DWR apparently doesn’t see this as a problem. But it is!

Booming numbers of deer easily destroy not only home gardens, but also natural areas, which means they exert a huge influence over the health of the environment for both humans and wildlife.

These mammals eat plants, which means their booming numbers easily destroy not only home gardens, but also natural areas. When plants are wiped out, there’s no food for other critters, from insects looking for nectar or pollen to birds searching for fruits, berries, or nuts and/or insects that can only be found where there exist plants for them to feed upon. The overpopulation of deer desperately needs to be addressed because our birds are disappearing in no small part due to starvation and/or a lack of nesting sites as deer clear areas of native trees and shrubs.

 

And this provides a good reason for the Department of Parks and Recreation in Charlottesville and elsewhere to STOP getting rid of nonnative plants they consider “invasive”. First of all, these plants often only appear “invasive” because the deer have paved the way for them to fill areas the deer depleted of native plants. Another reason they often seem “invasive” is because most people don’t landscape properly.

 

Yards and playgrounds and other such recreational areas should be mostly filled with plants to create habitat for wildlife. That is the main reason plants keep trying to come up where nothing is growing. A bare bit of earth is a complete waste of a precious resource—land that should be supporting plant life for wildlife so dependent upon it. But removing plants to then replace them with other plants, doesn’t feed our wildlife for some time. Consider an e-mail I received the afternoon I was writing this article, in which Releaf Cville imparted this wisdom: “Preserving existing trees is even more important than planting new trees, which can take 15-20 years to provide the benefits of existing trees.” 

 

When “government-sponsored” deer are depleting native plants and local government agencies, such as Parks and Rec, are depleting nonnative plants, what on Earth is supposed to feed our critters?

 

It’s high time for folks to contact their government officials to tell them to stop managing the landscape in a manner that is so truly out of touch with reality. 

 

 

CONDON’S CORNER—Especially During Drought, Everyone Should Limit Water Usage  

© 2026 Marlene A. Condon All Rights Reserved 

 [Published September 24, 2026, by The Daily Progress [the daily newspaper of Charlottesville, Virginia] and on September 26, 2026, by The News Virginian [the daily newspaper of  Waynesboro, Virginia].

Water is not only essential for wildlife to drink, but also for critters to keep clean. Here, a Tufted Titmouse takes a bath, but if your water pan is too deep for insects to access for a drink, help them by putting in a rock they can use to safely approach the water.

CONDON’S CORNER—Especially During Drought, Everyone Should Limit Water Usage

 

By the beginning of spring this year in Western Albemarle (the area where I reside), we were already in a serious drought. We had gotten only 6.2 inches of rain (according to my rain gauge) through the end of March—a paltry figure when compared to a normal of 12 inches in preparation for our growing season.

 

Time was when Virginia would average about an inch of rain per week each month, or 48 inches per year. Sadly, that is no longer true, with most years falling short of that number. Yet the 21st century has seen local meteorologists abandon the usual 48-inch number, settling instead for a 42-inch yearly rainfall average for the Charlottesville area.

 

Though we have weather records dating back to before the 1900s (courtesy of the astronomical observatory located atop Observatory Hill [O-hill] on the UVA campus), TV weather presenters have chosen to focus only on precipitation data averages over the last 20 years—thus arriving at the 42-inch number by eschewing a century's worth of O-Hill precipitation info that says the number should be closer to 48.

 

As a result, an unknowing public has been misled into thinking that 42 inches is “normal” and not a problem, but when the true average annual rainfall is supposed to be closer to the historical 48 inches, the natural world knows there is a problem, even if you don’t. Trees in our neighborhoods and forests are dying as most of us have never seen before in our lives, making abundantly clear how dry this area has become.

 

Still, one would never have known we were facing an extremely serious shortfall in the amount of moisture we should have received. Despite the continuing lower-than-normal amounts of precipitation for the months of April and May (not to mention June and July), people began to put up new pools and prepare garden soil to receive seeds or transplants.

 

Was this a display of baseless optimism or of sheer ignorance regarding how the environment works? As the drought continued, folks should have realized they should forego their gardening and instead purchase food from the grocery store or farm outlets.

 

Believe me, as a lifelong gardener, I fully understand how much better garden-fresh food is on the palette. But when water is in short supply and food is available elsewhere, it becomes a basic necessity to conserve your water for drinking and personal hygiene. And while I certainly understand the desire to cool off in a pool, filling it with water that’s in short supply is probably not the best use for it. 

 

Even our new governor exhibited no real concern about the drought, telling folks they could water their lawns, etc., every other day instead of conserving all water for the more important functions of personal cleanliness and maintaining a supply of drinking water. Of course, the governor may well be personally using reservoir water, which perhaps seems unlikely to her to run out when these deep “bowls” are full. But multiply one person by the many who are using that reservoir water, and you should realize that even reservoirs aren’t unlimited.

 

For those of us who live in rural areas and depend upon well water, we could easily fall short of what we need. Wells only have access to the amount of water that has managed over many years to accumulate far below the ground surface. Considering that since 2002, Virginia has often fallen short of the usual annual amount of precipitation its environment requires to sustain itself, even well water should be conserved as much as possible.

 

We are almost through our seventh month of the year and we have had less than 14 inches of rain when, by the end of the month, we should have gotten 28 inches. Consequently, I’ve watched as the local streams have begun to dry up, some completely while others are drying back towards their source.

 

While it hasn’t been unusual for some of the streams in my local area to completely dry out whenever local rainfall doesn’t hit the mark, some of the streams I’ve seen drying up this year are ones that usually don’t do so. In other words, we are so low on moisture that all of the streams are drying out, which is a very bad sign, not only for well users, but also for those who depend upon reservoirs. Deficient rainfall amounts are not going to keep them filled either. And this isn’t even to mention how tough this is for our wildlife.

 

As our environmental conditions continue to be altered by climate change, it’s crucial that everyone conserve water, whether you’re obtaining water from a reservoir or a well. And it would certainly assist our wild critters if you’d put out a pan of water for them, too. 

 CONDON’S CORNER

MOTHER NATURE INSISTS WE USE STANDARD TIME YEAR-AROUND

© 2026 Marlene A. Condon All Rights Reserved 

 [Published September 6, 2026, by The Daily Progress, the daily newspaper of Charlottesville, Virginia]

 

MOTHER NATURE INSISTS WE USE STANDARD TIME YEAR-AROUND

 

Any day now, the Senate may get around to voting for making Daylight Saving Time (DST) our year-around reference for living our lives. That would be a huge mistake in many ways, and constituents need to let their senators know their thoughts as quickly as possible (or send this article to them with a personal signed note). Herewith some facts for you to take into account before putting your fingertips to the keyboard or your pen to paper.

 

Consider how hot the Earth has become, thanks to climate change. On the day I am writing this essay, the weather forecast is calling for a high temperature of 96 degrees today and 99 degrees tomorrow. In fact, temps in the 90s have been the norm this year, and who’s responsible for so many hot days? People.

 

The burning of fossil fuel (oil), the cutting down of trees, and the manufacturing of goods to lead our lives all have contributed to this intense warming. As it’s highly unlikely that these aforementioned activities are going to be altered anytime soon, it’s critically important to consider the effect of DST versus standard time (EST in my time zone) upon our activities.

 

As the coolest part of the day is early morning, that is the best time to, for example, get outside to work in the yard or to exercise in summer. At this time of year, both DST and EST allow an opportunity to get such things done early. But come the colder temperatures of fall and winter, the time standard you are on makes much more of a difference.

 

Fall and winter under DST means one can’t begin most outdoor tasks or activities until the Sun rises, which can be quite late. If you have a job, you won’t be able to get outside to get your tasks done before work, and as we move into winter, you also can’t get them done after work because the Sun will be setting quite early by clock-time.

 

Additionally, DST forces children to wait for school buses in morning darkness, which makes their welfare more of a concern. Drivers can’t see them as well if they enter or walk along the street.

 

Perhaps hardest of all for adults who work and children is having to wake up in morning darkness to get ready to start the day when our natural inclination is to be sleeping until the Sun is up.

 

In summer when it’s natural for just about everyone to want to stay up as long as the Sun is shining, it’s more difficult to get the sleep our bodies require to function properly and healthfully. People who don’t get their required number of hours (7-9) of sleep tend to live less long than those who do.

 

Consider this article at ScienceDaily that was published on January 10 of this year, “Sleeping less than 7 hours could cut years off your life”.

 

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/01/260108231414.htm

 

“Researchers analyzing nationwide data found that insufficient sleep was more closely tied to shorter life expectancy than diet, exercise, or loneliness. The connection was consistent year after year and across most U.S. states. The takeaway is simple but powerful: getting seven to nine hours of sleep may be one of the best things you can do for long-term health.”

 

It’s not unusual for very young children, who are so full of vim and vigor, to often resist taking a nap during the day, though when required to do so, they will usually fall asleep. Even as young adults, we are not fully aware of the importance of rest so it’s understandable we want to just stay awake as long as possible instead of getting our required sleep.

 

And thus, the reason it is so terribly vital for our senators to vote in our best interest, which means to vote “no” for year-around DST that makes us lose vital sleep in summer. They should instead work to bring about a vote for maintaining standard time year-around, and do away with the nonsense of making their constituents change their clocks twice a year.

Mother Nature’s demand for standard time year-around is neither arbitrary nor capricious, which is to say it is not a stipulation lacking serious purpose, but rather one based upon absolute biological necessity.

 CONDON'S CORNER

Everyone Should Have A Mimosa Tree

© Marlene A. Condon 2026 All Rights Reserved 

  [Published July 28, 2026, by The Daily Progress, the daily newspaper of Charlottesville, Virginia and published July 30, 2026, by The News Virginian, the daily newspaper of Waynesboro, Virginia.] 

After you drive by sprayed and now yellowed Mimosa trees around Charlottesville, you might want to contact the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors. Please let them know it’s not smart to destroy limited food sources for wildlife (bees, butterflies, moths, caterpillars, birds, and mammals) in developed areas where food is already in short supply, thanks to the human obsession with “neatness”.

Everyone Should Have a Mimosa Tree

On June 9, I happened to be on Hillsdale Drive in Albemarle County where I was extremely dismayed to see that most, if not all, of the Mimosa trees had been sprayed and were now yellow. Thanks to Governor Spanberger’s recent signing of four bills into law that will supposedly “work to prevent and manage the spread of invasive plants across the Commonwealth”, someone had apparently gotten right out there to spray poisons on Albemarle County property to kill these trees that are considered “invasive”.

 

[Note: I tried for weeks to find out from local government officials who had performed this task but was never provided an answer.]

 

https://www.29news.com/2026/04/12/four-bills-targeting-spread-invasive-plants-signed-into-virginia-law/

 

Lauren Taylor, executive director of Blue Ridge PRISM, claimed in this same news release that “people are recognizing the harms that these [invasive plants] are causing to our farms, to our parks, to our waterways, to our own backyards, and to the wildlife that we cherish”. However, the truth is more akin to these folks simply having a bad case of selective botanophobia, in which they believe alien plants are harmful or dangerous to our world.

 

https://worldlawyersforum.org/news/four-bills-targeting-spread-of-invasive-plants-signed-into-virginia-law/

 

Ms. Taylor went on to say that “Invasive plants are all around us and they are causing harm to the things that we love”, which refers to them “negatively impacting our children’s future and our grandchildren’s future — and removing invasive plants, controlling invasive plants is really key to our quality of life and the quality for people’s future.”

 

However, the truth is far different from this assessment, and everyone can see it for themselves. All you need to do is open your eyes to your environment to ascertain whether these plants are helping our wildlife to survive in the degraded areas where people have planted mainly lawn grass and a few shrubs or trees here and there.

 

If you truly care about our wildlife, I urge you to contact Blue Ridge Prism, Governor Spanberger, the Department of Conservation and Recreation, The Department of Wildlife Resources, and any organization spouting this misinformation regarding so-called “invasive” plants. [Contact information is provided at the end of the photo section below.]  Tell them plants seem “invasive” only because they can grow in the many degraded areas that people create in which native plants struggle to survive. 

Herewith a small sampling of the critters that could have been helped by those Mimosa trees that were sprayed with herbicides that are not only dangerous to the plants, but also to any insects, birds, or other critters that were on those trees when this action was taken.

 

Make no mistake about it, the destruction of those Mimosa trees—and many other such non-native plants—is literally an environmental crime against nature.

The day-flying Hummingbird Moth was much more common years ago than it is now, perhaps because of Mimosas being sprayed with pesticides that are poisonous to our insects.

 

A Spicebush Swallowtail butterfly obtains nectar at Mimosa blooms.

A long, healthy-looking caterpillar on a Mimosa lets you know it’s been feeding on this tree for some time and is doing well.

An inchworm (caterpillar) on a Mimosa illustrates the diversity of life that makes use of this non-native plant.

A Gray Squirrel grabs a Mimosa seed pod from which it can get the nourishment it requires to maintain health. 

An Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly feeds itself at Mimosa blooms while providing beauty to the observer.

A female Northern Cardinal feeds upon Mimosa seeds in the author’s backyard.  

CONTACT INFORMATION:

 

Blue Ridge Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management (PRISM), PO Box 119, White Hall, VA 22987

 

Governor Abigail Spanberger, Phone: 1-804-786-2211 Main address: P.O. Box 1475 Richmond, VA 23218

 

Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, 600 East Main Street, 24th floor,| Richmond, VA 23219-2094 | 804-786-6124

 

Virgina Department of Wildlife Resources, https://dwr.virginia.gov/contact/, Phone: 804-367-1000

 

CONDON’S CORNER

An Overdeveloped 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.