We are ‘sow’ local

About 40 people attended a meeting last week at the Eureka Springs Community Center to hear compelling reasons to share the planet instead of continuing down the current path of human activities causing extinction of one-to-seven species per day.

The program sponsored by Northwest Arkansas Master Naturalists (NWAMN) was billed, “Restoring habitat to prevent the loss of biodiversity, the importance of native plants and removing invasives.”

Lilia Beattie, who teaches biology at Northwest Arkansas Community College and Master Naturalist classes, said as humans claim more of the earth’s surface every day, that creates habitat loss that can lead to the extinction of species.

“What right do we have to claim all of the earth for ourselves at the expense of other species and of future human generations?” Beattie asked. “Which species will get to call Earth home in four hundred years?”

Beattie, who is from Hawaii, said in some areas of Hawaii, bamboo is all that grows for miles and miles. “We have bamboo starting to spread around here,” she said.

She said the number one threat to biodiversity is habitat loss. That can be caused by development for housing, agriculture and forestry, but another big factor is invasive species, usually those introduced from another country or ecosystem. Invasive species include plants, insects, mollusks like zebra mussels, and fungi. The USDA estimates there are about 50,000 non-native species in the U.S., with 4,300 considered invasive.

Beattie said often non-native plants don’t have natural controls such as insects, diseases and herbivores to control their growth. That can result in plants such as kudzu and bamboo taking over land where no other plants can live. Non-native invasive species usually don’t provide any food or habitat for insects, birds or other wildlife.

Some of plants are deliberately imported for horticultural beauty, but escape from gardens. There are also non-native stowaways on goods being transported into the country. Water hyacinths are a huge problem in Florida, clogging navigation channels. Locally, parrot feathers that probably were dumped from an aquarium are so widespread they make it difficult to move a boat through portions of Lake Leatherwood.

Zebra mussels transported by ships around the world are causing problems by being filter feeders that consume large portions of plants and animals that form the base of the food chain. They can damage boat engines and foul beaches.

Beattie said another reason for concern is that humans are dependent on the food chain, just like anything else. When non-natives don’t provide food for insects and birds, it can lead to a decline in pollinators and in baby birds that depend on caterpillars for food. Pollinators are responsible for fertilizing about 30 percent of the food crops in the world.

“People cringe when they see their garden munched,” Beattie said. “But if you see munched leaves, it’s a good sign. You aren’t trying to grow showy leaves, but food for butterflies and birds. You can choose to create eye candy or plants to attract pollinators.”

Beattie said there is not enough wild habitat left to provide food and habitat for all the non-human species, so people need to help by having gardens that are free of non-invasive plants and have plenty of pollinator plants.

Glenda Moore spoke about preserving habitat for mesic woodland spring ephemerals. She said spring ephemeral wildflowers depend on sun before tree leaves come out in the spring. Non-native plants like bush honeysuckle that leaf out earlier than native varieties deprive the spring ephemeral wildflowers of the sunlight they need to blossom and survive. Some ephemerals found locally are wild geranium, bird’s foot violet, yellow trout lily and bloodroot.

Moore said the bush honeysuckle is one of the worst invaders, but that it hasn’t yet reached the dense proportions seen farther north.

“Get them out right away,” Moore said. “We could nip this is the bud. Here it is just starting. Other places have given up because it covers so much land. This is one of our bigger threats we can take action on.”

Moore has volunteered to help remove invasive species at Black Bass Lake, and the local plant groups are planning more efforts to destroy invasive species like bush honeysuckle, particularly when they are located on public lands.

Moore said when you learn more about the threats to the environment, it can become overwhelming. She said there might be nothing most people can do about environmental threats caused by big corporations, but people can devote time to removing non-native plants from their land and public lands, and replacing them with natives.

A third speaker was retired Greenpeace scientist Pat Costner, who spoke about non-toxic methods to remove invasive, non-native plants.

“First of all, don’t put them in, buy them or sell them,” Costner said.

Manual control methods she discussed included pulling by hand, pulling with weed wenches, cutting and stripping the plant, cutting and covering, cut, drill with ½ in. holes and fill with Epsom salt, girdling or ringing, grubbing or digging out, covering with cardboard and mulch, and mechanical removal with mowing or using a bush hog.

Thermal methods can include prescribed burns, solarization, tarping, flaming, steaming, and hot water and hot water foam. Natural herbicides can include vinegar at 5-10 percent for smaller weeds and 20 percent for larger weeds. Two other natural herbicides discussed by Costner include essential oils and corn gluten meal.

Prescribed grazing with goats is another alternative.

For more information about membership or events for the Northwest Arkansas Master Naturalists, look for their Facebook page.