In Defense of Nature

Non-native Trees May Help the Environment

Enlargement of photo below of leaf-footed bug 

 Native leaf-footed bugs, closely tied to ash trees that are being pesticided against Emerald Ash Borer, will be killed along with the alien borers. We should be keeping nonnative Princess Trees to help our leaf-footed bugs to survive.

ALL TEXT AND PHOTOS © Marlene A. Condon

 Originally published in The Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Virginia) on August 24, 2022

 

One day I observed fresh stumps of Paulownia tomentosa (commonly known as Princess Tree) along a roadway. I knew why the trees had been cut down: they’re from Asia. Current dogma (a set of beliefs people are expected to accept without any doubts, and which they normally do accept without question because of peer pressure) insists these trees be gotten rid of because they’re not native to the United States.

 

I had observed these specific trees for many years. In spring, the lovely large bell-shaped lilac flowers had fed numerous pollinators, the first group of insects to be recognized as disappearing from our world—due largely to habitat loss.

 

The alien Princess Trees had allowed pollinators to find food where none would otherwise be forthcoming because lawn comprised the landscape to one side of the trees and a river flowed past them on their other side.

 

Additionally, American Goldfinches and other seed-eating birds were aided by the fertilization of the Paulownia flowers that then produced pods of tiny seeds that fed them during the harsh cold days of winter. And native sap-sucking leaf-footed bugs (taxonomically classified as Family Coreidae) are found regularly (singly and in mating pairs) on Paulownia.

 

Now, however, the impacted area won’t provide food for any of these animals. In a world of dwindling insect and bird populations due to habitat replacement by development, it’s not helpful to further reduce habitat by removing wildlife-friendly plants along a somewhat wild waterway.

 

Habitat basically refers to the array of physical and biological resources in an area that allows the survival and reproduction of a variety of species. If numerous kinds of critters are surviving and reproducing well somewhere, then the area meets the definition of habitat.

 

Only a confused environmentalist could insist upon getting rid of certain plants simply because they are non-native and don’t always feed native leaf-eating insects (such as caterpillars)—the main reason for the push these days to rid the environment of alien plants.

 

People don’t realize that the natural world must meet the needs of all kinds of critters, not just this subset of arthropods. When government officials and environmentalists are swayed by such limited and unsound thinking, much harm befalls numerous species of wildlife.

 

For example, as I walk along roadways in winter lined with Japanese Stiltgrass (Microstegium vimineum), I invariably see dozens of migratory Dark-eyed Juncos and White-throated Sparrows feeding upon the seeds of this foreign species that readily grows where the soil has been compacted by years of highway-department mowing.

 

Knowing these birds would be affected, I was saddened one late-summer day to see an area of stiltgrass pesticided along someone’s property. The landowner’s concern about this much-despised alien species resulted in needlessly adding poison to the environment: Stiltgrass can be controlled, if desired, by mowing it in late summer before the flowers go to seed.

 

Sixty years ago, employing pesticides was anathema to environmentalists after author Rachel Carson pleaded for folks to prevent a silent spring, devoid of birdsong. Nowadays, however, much government money is being spent to rid the natural world of plants quite helpful to wildlife because of the erroneous environmental narrative that pesticides and bare ground are less harmful than alien plants.

 

However, our wildlife needs food and shelter now, not tomorrow. Native plants put into the ground today will take years to develop into a functioning ecosystem.

 

Without critical reasoning, better judgement, and making the effort to study the merits of alien plants, we will continue our scorched-earth policy and all manner of wildlife will simply continue to disappear—something we simply can no longer afford.

 

 

NATURE ADVICE:

 

Before buying into the pervasive myth that alien plants are useless to wildlife, take time to observe them. You will probably be surprised by what you discover.