Holed up in the Ivory Tower Too Long (A Discussion of a
Recent Article by Researchers)
.JPG) |
Light fixtures function as attractive nuisances to night-flying insects. Therefore, no more light fixtures than necessary should ever be employed to illuminate parking areas. In the parking lot shown above, light fixtures were placed closer together than needed for folks to safely navigate the area. |
ALL TEXT AND PHOTOS © Marlene A. Condon
On March 8, 2023, the Independent Media Institute published a paper, “5 Surprising Things That Could Be Preventing Your Yard from Serving as a Wildlife Sanctuary”. It’s credited to scientists Doug Tallamy of the University of Delaware and Daniel Klem of Muhlenberg College, and Jim Cubie, a consultant to the Muhlenberg College Center for Ornithology.
https://independentmediainstitute.org/earth-food-life/
While these researchers seem to
think they are informing folks of things they probably haven’t thought about,
the reality is that not one of the five “things” listed should come as a
surprise to anyone because they’ve been talked about in the media for
many years. This article proves that scientists in ivory towers are often
completely out of touch with the realities of the everyday world.
For example, the first action
the authors suggest people take is to ban cats from the area. I myself
mentioned predation by cats in my Daily Progress column as long ago as
September 2000. More recently, in my blog post of January 26, 2022, I wrote
that “The more people there are, the more cats there are. Cats take a
tremendous toll on birds, as well as other critters.” I cited the American Bird
Conservancy that has been ringing this bell for decades.
https://abcbirds.org/program/cats-indoors/cats-and-birds/
But the fact of the matter is
that no matter how often it’s suggested to people, far too many cat owners will
never make the effort involved to keep cats indoors, and they certainly aren’t
going to do it for the benefit of wildlife.
Then there are the folks who
maintain feral cat colonies and have convinced government to allow this
disservice to wildlife. In law, cats (and dogs) are now viewed as if they are
human, often with more rights than people! So, if Drs. Tallamy and Klem, and
Jim Cubie think their list is going to suddenly bring about a change in human
behavior, they are going to be sorely disappointed.
Second, these writers (while
providing a shout-out to Dr. Klem’s new book, Solid Air/Invisible Killer:
Saving Billions of Birds from Windows) discuss bird/window collisions. Almost
two decades ago, in 2004, I wrote that birds would pay the price for the glass
towers architects envisioned for the new World Trade Center to replace those
that came down in the terrorist attacks of September 2001. I’ve written about
numerous buildings that would kill birds—all to no avail because no one else
clamors for consideration of our wildlife. So, the buildings go up anyway
because, truth be told, most people just don’t care much at all about wildlife
if it means they need to change what they desire.
Third, you are told “to manage
pests without pesticides”. Wow, this statement from Doug Tallamy, who shares
with readers of his first book, Bringing Nature Home, that he sprayed
the “invasive” plants on his new property and has never truly discouraged people
since from using these poisons. In fact, I feel he’s to blame for the
tremendous increase in herbicide usage in this country—Rachel Carson’s warnings
from her 1962 book, Silent Spring, be damned. By applying the phrase
“biological pollution” to so-called invasive plants, he stigmatized these alien
plants to encourage the uninitiated to take action. Yet these plants are quite
useful in our environment (please see, “Invasive Plants: Friends or Foes?”—https://indefenseofnature.blogspot.com/2023/01/), and certainly better for our environment than the poisons
people use to get rid of them.
Strangely, these authors then go
on to suggest that people employ “safe and effective products with the active ingredient Bacillus thuringiensis
israelensis, or BTI for short. It’s deadly to mosquito larvae but harmless
to all other living things [emphasis mine], including
bees, butterflies, caterpillars, fireflies, dragonflies, and humans.” Dr. Tallamy, an entomologist, surely knows
that this statement is patently false.
BTI will kill insects that are
closely related to mosquitoes. Since when is it okay to kill nontarget species?
And anyway, the link these authors provided (above) takes the reader to a site
selling mosquito dunks that are recommended for “rain barrels, bird baths, tree
holes, elevator shafts, planter reservoirs, rain gutters, etc.” Honestly? People should concern themselves
with tree holes?! Isn’t Doug Tallamy the man who’s supposedly concerned about
bird numbers dropping precipitously because of a lack of insect food?
But he’s okay with killing
immature mosquitoes in the natural world where birds, salamanders, and
reptiles could get sustenance from this food source. No one should encourage
folks to try to kill off every mosquito out there by concerning
themselves with tree holes and other such natural features that feed wildlife
with mosquito larvae. Is it any wonder people don’t want ephemeral wetlands
around, and poison or drain those that are nearby?
Not to mention that people
could be minimizing mosquito numbers without even using BTI dunks. Mosquitoes
lay their eggs in still water where eggs remain moist and larvae that hatch out
can feed on organic matter. Therefore, if a bird bath is dumped and refilled
daily, or at least every other day, neither eggs nor larvae could survive.
Even minus mosquitoes, you
should be practicing this hygienic maintenance of your bird bath so that you
provide only fresh water for the health of any animals that drink from it.
And roof gutters should be kept free of debris so that all water can
drain away rather than pooling there.
Fourth, the researchers want you
to turn off your outdoor lights because they “are a major cause of insect
declines, particularly the moths that create the caterpillars that feed the
birds.” If you are a regular reader of this blog, you probably know I’ve been
writing about this problem at this site, as well as for years in newspapers and
my book, The Nature-friendly Garden, that was published in 2006.
Did Doug Tallamy mention this
problem in his book, Bringing Nature Home, that was published a year
later? No. He used a nighttime map of the United States (page 28, Advance
Reading Copy) to make his point that a lack of native trees due to conversion
of “natural areas to developed landscapes” was the explanation for ever-decreasing
bird numbers.
He wrote that moths need native
trees to produce caterpillars, rather than recognizing that we were losing the
moths themselves due to the abundance of lights shining in that photo.
Moths hanging around lights don’t survive to lay eggs; hence, no caterpillars
for birds. This entomologist completely missed the more impactful significance
of that nighttime photo.
The last two points made by
these three writers—not mowing in the evening so as not to kill toads and
raising the mower blade to mow over a Box Turtle—are rather nonsensical in
today’s world and thus puzzling as to why they were included.
First, most people employ lawn care services that don’t send employees to cut grass in the evening anyway. Second, lawns these days—whether cut by homeowners or lawn care services—are cropped so short that toads and Box Turtles are highly unlikely to reside in such a barren environment. Even if a turtle showed up, the person mowing should be able to see it in such short grass. However, the probability of even seeing one of these reptiles that are native only to the eastern part of the United States is low because this species is much in decline.
Considering that the authors are decades late to the party themselves, it’s rather amusing that they would take aim at a “major wildlife organization [that] recently published a long article about the benefits of native plants, including detailed descriptions of how to select, buy and plant them...[yet] only the final closing paragraph mentioned protecting birds from window strikes—and this article was an exception.”
They go on to say that, “Most articles promoting native plants say nothing
about protecting the wildlife those plants will attract to your yard.” Considering
that Professor Tallamy—who’s been preaching to the choir about growing native
plants and eliminating alien ones (especially those deemed “invasive”) for
virtually the entirety of his more-than-a-decade of activism—has only recently
begun to bring up this subject himself, it’s rather ludicrous that he chooses
to deride others.
Tallamy, Klem, and Cubie finish their article with, “We need to change the narrative so we aren’t leading our wildlife to death traps. If we don't plant and protect simultaneously, we have actually conserved little.”
In other words, these
scientists really believe they are the very first to recognize
the “ecological traps” they’ve listed. Are they just egotistical, or didn’t
they bother to search public media? Either way, this paper—in its condescending
tone and presumptuousness—paints scientists in a very unflattering light.
NATURE ADVICE:
Personally, I would take
anything written by Doug Tallamy with a grain of salt. Though many people gush
with adulation for this scientist, I’ve found his knowledge of the natural
world (including his specialty, entomology) to be lacking. Consider that this
article claims mosquito dunks are harmless to all
other living things—when they most definitely are not—and that he’s an
entomologist (someone whose career is studying insects) who did not
recognize the extreme harm being done to insects by the excessive
lighting shown in the nighttime photo he chose to use in his book. It’s a
truism that when someone doesn’t possess comprehensive knowledge of the subject
he’s discussing (in this case, nature-friendly gardening), he can’t possibly
provide sound advice. In my opinion, Doug Tallamy’s woeful ignorance of the
natural world in its entirety is why he’s been leading people down the wrong
garden path, and he obviously is still doing so as he attempts to make amends
for previous oversights.
DISCLAIMER:
Ads appearing at the end of
e-mail blog-post notifications are posted by follow.it as recompense for
granting free usage of their software at the author's blog site. The author of
this blog has no say in what ads are posted and receives no monetary
compensation other than the use of the software.
