[MPWG] Re: [PCA] TV: David Mizejewski on the Today Show
Patricia_DeAngelis at fws.gov
Patricia_DeAngelis at fws.gov
Fri Jul 16 13:30:21 CDT 2004
"But more importanly, I firmly believe that we can't have a single
approach if we're going to have any success in conservation."
Hear! Hear!
Patricia S. De Angelis, Ph.D.
Botanist - Division of Scientific Authority
Chair - Plant Conservation Alliance - Medicinal Plant Working Group
US Fish & Wildlife Service
4401 N. Fairfax Dr., Suite 750
Arlington, VA 22203
703-358-1708 x1753
FAX: 703-358-2276
Working for the conservation and sustainable use of our green natural
resources.
<www.nps.gov/plants/medicinal>
|---------+------------------------------------------------->
| | "David Mizejewski" |
| | <mizejewski at nwf.org> |
| | Sent by: |
| | native-plants-bounces at lists.plantconse|
| | rvation.org |
| | |
| | |
| | 07/16/2004 02:00 PM |
| | |
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>----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| |
| To: <robert.dana at dnr.state.mn.us>, <native-plants at lists.plantconservation.org>, |
| <plant at plantconservation.org> |
| cc: Debra Raley <RALEY at nwf.org>, Lori Ward <LWard at nwf.org>, |
| flockster at hotmail.com, Craig Tufts <TUFTS at nwf.org>, scarab at u.arizona.edu |
| Subject: Re: [PCA] TV: David Mizejewski on the Today Show |
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
Thanks Robert. To respond to your last question first, yes, my book
does address the issues you bring up (although primarily it's more of
how-to type book that is relatively light reading, so it's not a
in-depth discussion of these issues).
I have to politely, but completely, disagree with your assessment of
wildlife/native plant gardening and its role in conservation. It is
through the garden that many people first start to appreciate the
wonderful diversity of native plants and wildlife that they didn't even
know existed, even if they can't completely replicate that diversity in
the garden. That's why National Wildlife Federation created the
Backyard Wildlife Habitat program 31 years ago and why we've stuck with
it. I talk to folks all the time who've gotten involved in the program
and who tell me that they had no idea that butterflies needed specific
host plants, or how important locally native berry-producing plants are
for birds during migration, until they actually started planting and
obeserving in their yards. As conservationists, by accepting the
convential landscape of lawn with a few ornamental exotics, we miss out
on a key opportunity to educate people literally right in their own
backyards. Reaching people at home is huge in terms of education - think
how many people in just your neighborhood would attend a workshop on
sustainable landscapes vs. the number of people out there actually doing
some gardening. There are maybe a dozen of the former and hundreds of
the latter. Multiply that across the country. That's why opportunities
like my Today Show appearance are huge and relavant for conservation -
I'm going to be delivering a strong conservation message wrapped in the
package of a something most Americans are more interested in: a pretty
garden.
In addition to the educational benefits, there are clear conservation
benefits to wildlife-friendly gardening, and not just for the wildlife.
Encouraging use of locally native species and reduction of lawn
significantly, if not totally, eliminates the need for long-term and
wasteful supplemental watering of the landscape. The same goes for
chemical fertilizers that run off into natural wateways and (ironically)
destroy healthy soils. Similarly, you can't have a healthy wildlife
garden if you use pesticides.
Learning to identify and eliminate invasive exotics in your yard helps,
in a small way at least, to keep them from further spreading into
natural areas. More importantly, it also keeps gardeners from buying
and planting the invasives that are still commonly available
commercially, or new potential invasive exotics that haven't yet
infiltrated. An educated consumer makes an impact, which is imporant
since most invasive exotic plant species were introduced into North
America for gardening purposes - I've read statistics as high as 75%.
And you'd be surprised how passionate people who started out as backyard
gardeners get about issues like overuse of chemicals and invasive
exotics - and get involved locally protecting and restoring natural
areas as well as altering political behavior to support conservation
initiatives.
All of these things do add up to an appreciable conservation benefit,
especially when many people in one area are doing them (NWF has a
community Wildlife certification element to encourage this as well).
But more importanly, I firmly believe that we can't have a single
approach if we're going to have any success in conservation. Obviously,
species protection and protection/restoration of wilderness and other
relatively undisturbed areas is critical, as are strong environmental
protection/ laws (neither of which you can have without an educated
public, either). But the reality is that the human footprint on the
landscape is huge and is only going to get bigger. The sheer amount of
land in private holding or that has been altered (or will be) by human
activity will dwarf the amount of land we can hope to protect and
preserve - if it hasn't already. We'd be missing a huge conservation
opportunity if we didn't try to educate those who have control over what
happens in our cities, suburbs and private property to help them make
informed decisions that help our communities actually have a positive
environmental impact. Human dominated areas don't have to be "dead
zones" in terms of conservation - and indeed they can't be just given
the sheer number of acres already in human use. There's no way we can
save enough wild areas to save more than a small percentage of the
world's species. I'm not suggesting by any means that gardens are going
to save the world or that it's an either/or scenario, but failure to
factor them into the equation is missing both a key educational
opportunity as well as a crucial piece of the conservation puzzle.
Thanks for sparking a great discussion!
David
******************************************
Backyard Wildlife Habitat Program
******************************************
David Mizejewski
National Wildlife Federation
11100 Wildlife Center Drive
Reston, VA 20190
(703) 438-6499
fax 703-438-6468
www.nwf.org/backyardwildlifehabitat
>>> "Robert Dana" <robert.dana at dnr.state.mn.us> 07/16/04 12:58 PM >>>
Call me a grinch, but I'm having a hard time understanding why anyone
thinks that gardening has much to do with conservation. Most gardens
will last only so long as people keep them going--without continuing
maintenance they will quickly be taken over by the numerous exotic
"weeds" that are so comfortable in human-dominated landscapes. In their
often naive enthusiasm (abetted by commercial vendors) folks are
planting "natives" helter skelter, even well outside their natural
ranges. This creates problems for us trying to conserve the plants where
they naturally occur as it becomes more difficult to deal with the
challenge of demonstrating that the occurrence is really natural and
not a garden escape (or an intentional planting). There is also the
specious challenge that since we can plant things why worry about
conserving natural habitats anyway. People rarely have any idea what a
tiny fraction of the species richness of natural communities is present
in gardens (or "restorations"). In my view, the whole wildlife gardening
business just diverts energy from what we really need to be doing for
conservation.
I'll be interested to see whether these issues get any discussion in
the book.
Oh, good luck, Dave!
Robert
*************************************************************
Robert Dana, Ph.D.
MN DNR
Natural Heritage and Nongame Research Program
500 Lafayette Rd, Box 25
St. Paul, MN 55155
651 297-2367
Email: robert.dana at dnr.state.mn.us
*************************************************************
>>> Plant Conservation <plant at plantconservation.org> 7/16/04 10:40:07
AM >>>
Just FYI.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2004 11:39:55 -0400
From: David Mizejewski <mizejewski at nwf.org>
To: David Mizejewski <Mizejewski at nwf.org>
Subject: Today Show this weekend
Dear Friends and Colleagues - I wanted to let you know that I'm going
to
be making my debut on national television this weekend. I'll be
appearing on the weekend edition of the Today Show this Sunday (7/18)
between 8:30-9 a.m. to promote my book and National Wildlife
Federation's Backyard Wildlife Habitat program.
The book is called "Attracting Birds, Butterflies and Other Backyard
Wildlife." It's all about sustainable gardening, native plants, and
of
course all of the cool critters (not just birds and butterflies) that
can share your yard. Check it out on NWF's bookstore at the URL below
(it's also available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble).
https://m1.buysub.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10701&storeId=10701&productId=14713&langId=-1&parentCategoryId=10067&topCategoryId=10066
Wish me luck!
Dave
******************************************
Backyard Wildlife Habitat Program
******************************************
David Mizejewski
National Wildlife Federation
11100 Wildlife Center Drive
Reston, VA 20190
(703) 438-6499
fax 703-438-6468
www.nwf.org/backyardwildlifehabitat
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