In Defense of Nature

 

Missing the Forest for the Trees

A male Eastern Towhee perches on a radio tower enveloped by an Autumn Olive shrub—perhaps the best wildlife plant there is as it feeds numerous species of pollinators, birds, and mammals.

ALL TEXT AND PHOTOS © Marlene A. Condon

 

There’s much publicity nowadays that misinforms people about the need to create a wildlife habitat in which 70% of the plants are native. A major focus is often on getting folks to grow trees—in particular, oak trees. Why? According to Nancy Hazard, a member of a group called “Greening Greenfield [Massachusetts]”, “Oak is king. Oaks host over 400 different species of moths and butterflies.”

 

https://www.recorder.com/Ecological-difference-39423618

 

This deceptive “fact” (which comes from entomologist Doug Tallamy, whose tally for caterpillar species that feed on oaks was 557 in 2017, according to the National Audubon Society) is repeated often in gardening columns, making people think that any oak they grow in their yards is going to feed hundreds of species of moth and butterfly caterpillars.

 

https://www.audubon.org/news/new-research-further-proves-native-plants-offer-more-bugs-birds

 

The reality, however, is that this number represents the sum of Lepidopteran species that feed upon the entire genus of oaks across the country, of which there are at least 90 species. In other words, if you plant a White Oak (Quercus alba) in your yard, it’s not going to feed nearly as many caterpillar species as you might think.

 

Why the focus on tree-caterpillar species anyway? The study that supposedly proved that at least 70% of the plants in a yard should be native for the benefit of songbirds was based upon the foraging habit of Carolina Chickadee parents getting food for their chicks. These small birds mainly feed their young tiny caterpillars that they find on forest trees (their ecological niche) which, by definition, consists of native species.

 

Although Doug Tallamy and his coauthors, student Desiree Narango and ornithologist Peter Marra, concluded in their original paper that the Carolina Chickadee requires native trees (which should have been obvious even without a study) to reproduce successfully, their observations are now employed by virtually every garden columnist and TV gardening personality to mean all bird species require 70% of the plants in people’s yards to be native. But this contention was not proven by the study everyone references, and therefore Narango, Tallamy, and Marra should have set the record straight by now.

 

https://indefenseofnature.blogspot.com/2020/10/a-carolina-chickadeegrasps-tulip-poplar.html

 

However, these scientists do not seem to comprehend or value the larger picture because they are so focused on only a fraction of it. They’ve been missing the forest (the rest of the environment) for the trees (especially those oaks).

 

Dr. Narango “believes that her results provide convincing evidence that planting native is in a bird lover’s best interests. ‘The trees [our color-banded chickadees] were going to were covered in warblers, tanagers, and orioles,’ she says. ‘They’re basically telling us what these other birds want.’”

 

https://www.audubon.org/news/new-research-further-proves-native-plants-offer-more-bugs-birds

 

Yes, the chickadees were telling her what warblers, tanagers, and orioles want because these species are birds of the forest, as is the chickadee. To assist such birds requires that your yard and every yard around you must become forest, something highly unlikely to occur in urban/suburban areas.

 

Additionally, this newly minted scientist fails to recognize that the forest habitat of these species is not what all other birds want. If everyone made their yards forestland, we’d lose our common backyard species—Eastern Towhee, Northern Cardinal, Brown Thrasher, and Song Sparrow, to name a few—that require shrubby habitat, not forest. Sunny shrubland with herbaceous plants and woody shrubs supports far more diversity of insect life than forest, including an abundance of mammal, reptile, salamander, and bird species. And truth be told, numerous nonnative shrubs and herbaceous plants support these organisms very well.

 

https://www.marlenecondon.com/

 

For the greatest diversity of life forms, our landscape cannot consist solely of forestland, which is what Tallamy, Narango, Marra and their followers are pushing for, even though they don’t seem to know it.

 

NATURE ADVICE:

If most of your plantings are already native species, that’s great—if they provide the proper structure necessary to create good wildlife habitat. Problems arise when people feel they are obliged to get rid of fully mature nonnative plants, especially by way of pesticides, even though the resulting bare ground or young (immature) newly planted native plants will not be useful for a long time to come.

Alien plants can provide habitat for shrubland bird species, whether it be by providing nesting sites, food (fruits/seeds), or cover. It’s a huge mistake to destroy habitat that functions perfectly for shrubland birds. Please don’t be swayed by the harmful information perpetuated not only by the media, but also scientists who dare not speak against a popular thought, even though it is wrong.