Invasive species, a thorny issue

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The invasive species issue is about as thorny as a multiflora rose.

First off, nobody wants a bunch of Oriental plants taking over our land. Not that we have anything against the Orient, but you wouldn't guess that when considering the great number of plant and animal species with names referring to the far east. There are Japanese honeysuckle, Chinese yam, Oriental bittersweet, Chinese lespedeza, Japanese hops, Japanese switchgrass, Korean clover, Japanese beetle, Asian beetle and Asian carp.

For years I believed the taxonomists decided to name their most despised species after their most despised cultures and those were the cultures of Asia. The adjustable monkey wrench is so easy to use even a monkey can use it. But I understand the French refer to the tool as the derogatory English wrench, presumably because they figured even a simple Englishman could figure it out.

In fact, as I learned on a field trip with plant biologists at Rim Rock Wednesday, the Asian climate is very similar to ours, but our region lacks the species that keep the plants population levels in check. So it is normal for the Asian plants to thrive here. The western states have a similar climate to eastern Europe so their invaders have names like Russian olive.

At the same time, Asian countries have their own invasive species such as goldenrod, which they may well call American goldenrod or, more likely, Stupid American goldenrod between sneezes.

Incidentally, kudzu flowers smell like grapes.

So nobody likes for our native plants to be choked out. The thorns come in when debating priorities. How much management is too much? And is the problem really serious enough to warrant burning and application of unnatural herbicides. In some cases, yes. I've seen fields so overcome with autumn olives nothing beneath their canopy can grow. Deer have trouble navigating through them. I've bushwhacked trails through autumn olive and Japanese honeysuckle using handsaws, chainsaws and weed trimmers only to see them back just as impenetrable the following year. The problem has reached the point I'm afraid only bulldozing, landscape-scale burning and extensive herbicide application will bring the field back from the control of the autumn olives.

At the same time I know the thicket of autumn olive provides essential cover for young deer, quail, rabbits and snakes. So I must determine my priority, to clear the land to meet my desires, greatly damaging the level of biodiversity within it for at least a few years or leave it be to evolve at will which is a lot less work and is also somewhat satisfying knowing the wildlife benefit from the fruits and shelter of the jungle. I suppose my decision will ultimately be a selfish one: If the stuff gets in my way I'll get rid of it. Currently, it's not in the way and I'm lazy.

On public land the issue is another story. On the one hand, nobody wants to see our natural areas disrupted by plants that hamper biodiversity. On the other, burning and spraying is a lot of work and costs a lot in labor if it doesn't solve the problem permanently, which it likely never will.

Natural areas are supposed to be natural, not tended gardens, but they are also not supposed to be left to be overcome with Autumn olives, either. To spray or not to spray? The only natural herbicide I know of is the kind that got me in trouble when Mom's flower bed started to die.

I want there to be flowers in glade natural areas. I also want there to be elegant cedar trees and dwarf oak trees. I don't want there to be autumn olives, because one autumn olive leads to dozens of autumn olives in a few years' time. There must be a balance between the extremes of do nothing and burning on a massive scale, but those smarter than I will have to figure out what the solution.

I can't even maintain a two foot wide trail in the field. Maybe we can put our heads together and make a unified wish for a cheap blight.