[PCA] TV: David Mizejewski on the Today Show
Bonnie
bjc13 at metrocast.net
Fri Jul 16 16:45:48 CDT 2004
Hello David, Robert, et al,
I too must disagree with your (Robert's) viewpoint. I do not work for
NWF or any other conservation agency, but then again maybe I do...I work
for myself and one is as a garden designer and consultant. I focus on
small gardens for the backyard gardener and promote/enlighten/educate
them on the use of native plants, invasive species, ecological gardening
practices and pollinator conservation. The consultation piece is that I
prefer to work with people who want to do their own gardening but need a
design, advice, invasive identification on their property or other
help. By offering this service, I have the opportunity to have a
direct influence on them.
I see the home gardener as key to these issues, especially the
invasives, which is one of my personal passions. Those very gardeners
run the market. If an uninformed Ms/Mr. Smith goes to her local
nursery, sees they are selling Japanese barberry, burning bush, shrub
honeysuckles she may very well buy them due to their "quick cover"
(honeysuckle), "lovely fall foliage" (burning bush) and "purple, dwarf"
plant (barberry cultivar) that is touted by the nursery person.
However, if an informed Ms/Mr Smith goes to that same nursery she/he may
ask why they are selling them. They may also ask for natives plants and
if the nursery does not know and/or cannot accommodate them...well, they
will go elsewhere (and should make that known to the nursery owner - not
just staff).
I was just asked today to do a talk (I do local presentations) on native
and invasive plants for a garden club. I will be reaching between
30-40 people at that one alone. They will tell friends and neighbors
what they have learned - and on it goes. I do believe that once the
awareness is there it can only grow. Like recycling. Once you begin,
you usually do not stop once you understand the effect it has on the
environment. I also find that when someone does learn something new
(usually about their beloved burning bush - big here in the northeast)
they ask more, in order to understand more, and they will get quite
excited about it - just as I did when I first became involved with these
concerns many years ago. One of my most rewarding moments was at a talk
last year at a local garden club plant sale. The woman had come to my
talk to see what she could plant on her property. She came up to me
afterwards to say that she had planned to plant the entire perimeter of
her property (rural area in NH) with burning bush (Euonymus alatus spp.)
and had NO IDEA of its invasive tendencies and will plant native
species instead. Another woman said "Oh, I will NEVER get rid of my
burning bush" but I knew that in the long run the first woman had more
strength in her neighborhood and the market than the second woman who
would soon be left behind.
So not to belabor the point, I think every individual who we can reach
is one more footstep in the long walk to a better informed public - like
most anything worthwhile it is one step/person at a time.
Bonnie Caruthers
Thyme & Tiarella
Strafford, NH
Bonnie Caruthers
Thyme & Tiarella
Strafford, NH
David Mizejewski wrote:
>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
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>native-plants mailing list
>native-plants at lists.plantconservation.org
>http://lists.plantconservation.org/mailman/listinfo/native-plants_lists.plantconservation.org
>
>_______________________________________________
>native-plants mailing list
>native-plants at lists.plantconservation.org
>http://lists.plantconservation.org/mailman/listinfo/native-plants_lists.plantconservation.org
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>native-plants mailing list
>native-plants at lists.plantconservation.org
>http://lists.plantconservation.org/mailman/listinfo/native-plants_lists.plantconservation.org
>
>
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.plantconservation.org/pipermail/native-plants_lists.plantconservation.org/attachments/20040716/908e5bcb/attachment.html>
More information about the native-plants
mailing list