[PCA] TV: David Mizejewski on the Today Show

[Robert Dana]

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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