Newsletter

<div class="ck-content"><h3>Plants, Not Guns, from Nancy Lawson</h3>I recently discovered naturalist and nature writer <a href="https://www.humanegardener.com/">Nancy Lawson</a>, author of T<a href="https://www.humanegardener.com/the-book/">he Humane Gardener</a> ("Plants are the solution to everything."). I know, I know, late to the game. I am so focused on removing invasives, I really don't make enough of an effort to learn from others. Gonna try to fix that. I noticed that she has a Newsletters section on her website, full of really wonderful information and inspiration. Nancy has generously given me permission to “reprint” some of her newsletter content. Find below the first of these, on a topic of great concern to many folks in the Triangle area: how do we stop the over-population of deer from eating all our native plants?Real solutions to habitat loss and destruction start with plants      I opened my Washington Post this morning to find yet another tired tirade about deer that was long on rants but short on solutions. Titled “I Bought a Gun—and I Intend to Use It,” the column acknowledged humanity's role in disrupting ecosystems. But the writer never once mentioned any positive action he would take toward preventing or mitigating his own contributions to habitat loss and destruction.Do deer, rabbits, and other mammals eat plants at the Humane Gardener headquarters? Absolutely. Do I shoot them? No. I don’t shoo them away either. And yet the plants still grow, each year inviting an increasing number and variety of birds, butterflies, and other animals. Our oasis even hosts threatened native bee species.We follow a number of different strategies to coexist with deer, nurturing habitat that sustains them and also safeguards young plants. Logs and stumps create natural barriers around vulnerable wildflowers and saplings; chemically defended species limit herbivory on more tender plants behind them; and thorny shrubs serve as prickly protectors and nurse plants of young trees.In <a href="https://www.humanegardener.com/wildscape/">Wildscape</a>, I explore the importance of some of these lost natural features and highlight interviews with scientists like ecologist Richard Broughton, whose research has revealed that thorny plants such as blackberries and hawthorns enable oaks and other trees to escape browsing even in areas with high deer densities. You can find the full Q&A with Broughton on my website, as well as an article about how brambles have protected vulnerable trees in my habitat (like the volunteer redbud, shown here, that sprouted among black raspberries).See also my piece on gardening with deer, which includes a handout listing recommended plant species and resources:<a href="https://www.humanegardener.com/qa-bring-back-the-brambles/">Bring Back the Brambles: A Q&A with Richard Broughton</a> <a href="https://www.humanegardener.com/when-plants-protect-plants/">When Plants Protect Plants: Lessons in Rewilding</a> <a href="https://www.humanegardener.com/gardening-for-deer/">Gardening for Deer</a><h3>What A Plant Knows - they see, too!</h3>If you haven't already run across it, check out the book <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_a_Plant_Knows">What A Plant Knows</a> by Daniel Chamovitz. You will never look at or think about plants the same again. From Wikipedia:<blockquote>Chamovitz introduces each of the vital human senses (all except taste) and explains its meaning for humans as contrasted with its function in plants. There are no noses or eyes as such in the plant world, but there are organs and responses that mimic our physiology. Much like how humans smell food, plants too have chemical receptors that bind to very specific gaseous chemical compounds.</blockquote>I mention this book, because I just read the following in The Guardian's article about the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/sep/12/ig-nobel-prize-goes-to-team-who-found-mammals-can-breathe-through-anuses">2024 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony.</a> The Ig Nobel prize: the irreverent accolades given for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think”.This caught my eye:Ig Nobel Prize for BotanyGiven to Jacob White in the US and Felipe Yamashita in Germany for reporting evidence that the South American plant Boquila trifoliolata can <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8903786/">mimic the leaves of plastic plants</a> it is placed alongside, leading them to conclude that “plant vision” is a plausible hypothesis.<blockquote>Here, we demonstrate that plant vision possibly via plant-specific ocelli is a plausible hypothesis. A simple experiment by placing an artificial vine model above the living plants has shown that these will attempt to mimic the artificial leaves. The experiment has been carried out with multiple plants, and each plant has shown attempts at mimicry. It was observed that mimic leaves showed altered leaf areas, perimeters, lengths, and widths compared to non-mimic leaves.</blockquote>This is astonishing, and reminds me of the wonders of our world that we must save:And, by the way, when I read things like this, what I don't say to myself is “Let's do more research and find out more!”Generally I feel like:<ul><li>We know enough now to understand what we must do: stop the killing of non-human life, and start the healing of our planet.</li><li>Every time humans “do research” they consume more resources and kill more non-human life.</li><li>Going forward, energy consumption, manufacturing, etc. should all be prioritized around healing our planet. </li></ul><h3>A baby sycamore rescued</h3>Headed back to the north bank of Morgan Creek determined to clear out more of the massive Dahurian Buckthorn that's been growing there for decades. After the hard work of recent weeks, it's not a solid 10 minute walk along the access road to get past all the creek banks we've already cleared. That feels really good.So, I climbed the embankment and here's what confronted me:<div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=15fRTqtauR9eURvNZ9La8mK_2ptbPGF36&sz=w600-h400" alt="REPLACE"></div>Buckthorn right in front of my face. A big tree leaning to the right - that's a box elder that is still alive, just barely. And beyond that the creek. Which you can't see, because in between are many big buckthorns, criss-crossing and forming a solid canopy that lets almost no sun through.Which is why when you enter dense buckthorn areas like this, there is often nothing at all growing on the ground itself. No sun.Well. So. I cut down the buckthorn at the top of the embankment so I could even make my down towards the creek. At which point I saw:<div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1Ar7W-r4ZFJof6pjHO7YzjZuUWDlE1r6S&sz=w600-h400" alt="REPLACE"></div>The lighter areas on the left are the only spaces through which can see the creek, not that you'd recognize it as such at this point. So I went out to the bank, and started cutting and working my way back towards the embankment. After cutting a half dozen big ones, I noticed a different leaf shape & color….and OMG it's a baby sycamore! <div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1dD-biRdXMyZ8p3sNoVX0B6rXf-7oQ9QX&sz=w400-h600" alt="REPLACE"></div>Perhaps 5 feet tall. It managed to survive in this mess of buckthorn, probably because there was a small gap in the canopy that let in some sun.Folks, I live for these moments. At this point, my top priority in the world became removing all the buckthorn around said sycamore without damaging it, and rescuing this tree. Without damaging it: such easy words to write. I'd already cleared out the buckthorn to the east of the sapling. But on the other side there were lots of buckthorn that could easily fall on it after they were cut. Worst of all was a really big buckthorn (as in a 10" diameter) that was towering over the sycamore. How could I cut that nasty thing down without it crushing my lovely native tree?If I had one or two volunteers with me, it would be a bit easier. But I was by myself. So, well, I worked really slowly and carefully, carving off pieces of the biggest limbs, desperately trying to get them to fall to the side of the sycamore. Whew. It worked. In the picture below, the big buckthorn is to the right, with its main limb down behind the sapling.<div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1asJ6j8BG1drU6AAL4HjAK88xEVUaXKTB&sz=w600-h400" alt="REPLACE"></div>The biggest danger neutralized, I was able to work more quickly to provide full sun to the sycamore:<div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1KJAk4Qk8iyQhhubI7jQjDocpguD1DVtt&sz=w400-h600" alt="REPLACE"></div>An afternoon well spent. And as I tell “my” volunteers, the impact of these two hours of hard labor will reverberate for years - decades! - to come. <h3>And a teaser for next week's newsletter….</h3>The 2024 Great Stilt Grass Pulls at Brumley South<div class="raw-html-embed"><img src="https://drive.google.com/thumbnail?id=1a2pAEGs7LBctWDRPv_9fAFX5t1xUjH0h&sz=w600-h400" alt="stilt grass"></div></div>