Over the last few decades, I have met a lot of very lovely people who are freaky enthusiastic about native plants.1 As much as they seem to powerfully advocate a positive thing, I must confess that I have now been down this road so many times that, when I encounter somebody advocating native plants, my stomach twists into a knot. I often choose to change the subject in an effort to keep the conversation friendly.
When I first heard of arguments about native plants, I could not comprehend how there could possibly be anything to argue over. If there are such strong advocates for native plants, it seems that there must be another group that is against native plants. How can anybody advocate against native plants? It turns out that nobody is doing that. It’s just that the “pro native plant” campaigns wish to kill the competition. Not just on their property, but on all property.
I think the argument for native plants (or, more accurately, against non-native plants) is that there used to be all these different spots with interesting stuff growing. With international travel and trade, seeds have been introduced from all over the world such that all places everywhere are losing their botanic distinctiveness. The corollary to that is that a lot of species that used to do well here are being crowded out by species that do even better here.
Native to When?
It is my impression that here in Montana, a plant is considered “native” if it was growing here before white people showed up. Although there were some white people popping in around 1743, it seems that we draw the line at 1804, when Lewis and Clark came through. Native Americans moved a lot of seeds around before white folks got here with their seeds, but I’m willing to let this go when selecting the official native plant date.
I suppose the passion for native plants could be a sort of guilt thing: white people brought a bunch of seeds here, and those plants are overwhelming the plants that were already here such that the cool plants that were here before could go extinct without a bit of intervention.
A lot of folks want to repair the problems caused by their ancestors, so a date is selected. Everything before that date is “native” and things that showed up after that date are “non-native.” Crisp and clear.
Of course, there were plants that showed up before 1743 that were invasive and a nuisance. A great example is the Douglas fir tree.2 White people looooove the Douglas fir tree. It’s great for building stuff we like to build. The folks who were living here before 1743 didn’t care for it. They would burn it out. It kept trying to take over land that was growing food. Oh, sure, they found uses for it, but they also worked to get rid of it in spaces where it was a bother. Maybe there have been some people who think that the date for “native” should have been before the Douglas fir tree showed up.
Past Invasives Are Now “Native.” When Will Current Invasives Become “Native”?
At one point in time, there were no Douglas fir trees. Then they showed up and sort of wiped out lots of other species of cool stuff. Now they are labeled “native.” No white people involved. There are similar stories for nearly all plants. Species come and species go. Survival of the fittest. Granted, when human beings with their fancy boats and explorer boots came along, this whole process was dramatically accelerated.
I want to do a bit of a mental exercise: I want to embrace the spirit of the native-plants movement and look at what plants are here today that would have made it here even if the whole white-people-acceleration thing didn’t happen. After all, this whole succession thing is happening all the time. Birds and other critters help. Wind can carry seeds dozens or hundreds of miles. And the Native American people spread seeds – accidentally and on purpose!
Maybe half the plants that are currently being sprayed because they are deemed non-native would get a note from Science saying something like “Please don’t kill dandelions anymore, we decided that they would have made it here by now due to wind and birds and Native American people. So we added it to the ‘native’ list. Thanks!”
The Shifting Definitions of “Noxious Weeds”
The concept of the “noxious weed” started with the idea of plants that could be toxic to farm animals. Animals know instinctively to avoid these plants, but if you fence an animal in, and they run out of good food, they will experiment with whatever plants are left. As long as your animals have plenty of food, there is little value in removing “noxious weeds.”
The term “noxious weeds” was adopted by the government and expanded to include any plant that somebody found annoying, even native plants. Usually, they are volunteer plants that do better than the planted monocrop. The theory is that if you claim a plant is threatening your crops, you can make the plant illegal. Then you obliterate it, force your neighbors to obliterate it, and then it won’t be a problem anymore. In theory. That said, some seeds will wait in the soil for a hundred years before germinating…
Lots and lots of people have added their favorite pet-peeve plants to the list. I once read a list of plants that were a mix of “noxious weeds” and other plants that are legally required to be eliminated. As I read the list, I recognized nearly half of the plants as extremely beneficial permaculture plants.
Lipstick on a Pig: Native Plant Organizations and Herbicide Companies
Herbicides are generally recognized as the best way to get rid of unwanted plants. A lot of native-plant organizations receive a lot of love (in the form of actual dollars) from herbicide companies. Weed boards also get a lot of support from herbicide companies. The laws against weeds are often lobbied for by herbicide companies. Granted there are exceptions, but as a general rule of thumb, this is the case.
I know that whenever I hear of a native-plant organization, my first thought is “funded by herbicide companies” or “lipstick on an herbicide company.” The same goes for weed boards – just looking for an excuse to spray some product. The weird thing is that a lot of these organizations are nonprofit organizations.
They love the Earth by poisoning it.
Getting rid of the non-native plants is a huge task. Billions of dollars? Trillions? It isn’t something that you would just do one time. It would be something where it would be a massive task and then it would take that much again every ten years to maintain it. It will never end, but as long as the war wages on, herbicide companies will keep making money.
Myth: Native Plants Will Perform Better in Your Area
If this were true, why do we have any concern over non-native plants threatening native plants?
Native-Plant Enthusiasts Eat Only Native Crops, Right?
I’ve met some people who are so passionate about native plants that they insist that anything that is non-native should be removed. When I try to ask what percentage of their diet is from native plants… well, it takes a while to get a clear answer, but so far the answer appears to be, nearly universally, less than 1%.
I would like to suggest that people living in town with a quarter of an acre plant a permaculture food system. Native-plant people tend to take that same piece of land and plant 100% native species, which is fine. The problem I have is when they get angry at other folks for not doing the same.
I like to think that if people nurture a permaculture food system on their quarter of an acre, they might, someday, be able to grow half of the food that they eat. I think that this might save two acres of farmland that would otherwise need to grow their food. That two acres could be left as wild land which, hopefully, will include a lot of native plants.
One Person Managing 20,000 Acres vs One Person Managing 10 Acres
I’ve heard that the majestic Russian olive tree is no longer allowed to be sold in Montana. There is concern that it is displacing native plants. My impression is that it is growing in places that are nearly devoid of any plant life, and it basically creates an oasis so other plants (including natives) can get started.
I have talked to three plant experts who are certain that it is good to put Russian olive on the noxious list, but I never did understand what the downside is – other than “it is not a native plant.” I talked to six other plant experts and they seemed to be confused as well.
My thinking goes like this: It is a tree. If you don’t like it, a chainsaw will fix your problem. It’s not like the tree will run away while you are chasing it with a chainsaw.
This makes me think that there are some people who are powerful advocates of native plants AND they own 20,000 acres (~8000 hectares) AND they have paid some enormous amount of money to cut down the Russian olives (because they are not native) and the Russian olive trees come back. So, naturally, they want to make sure there are no Russian olive trees growing within a hundred miles so that they might possibly be able to reduce their non-native-tree-cutting budget. After all, if you are one person with ten acres (~4 hectares) and you don’t like Russian olive trees, you can cut them down pretty quickly. You can use the wood for firewood or make a hugelkultur bed for other plants.
The Pow Wow Grounds in Elmo, Montana
I was once invited to the Pow Wow Grounds in Elmo, Montana, to give permaculture advice. While giving my advice, they told me that they had received advice from a native-plants person – the suggestion was, of course, all native plants. I told them I thought that would certainly be interesting. I told them that, because of all the work involved, the cost for all native plants would be about 1.1 million dollars to set up and $200,000 per year to maintain.
I then proposed that they do permaculture on most of the property and have a small area that would be established and maintained as “common plants growing in this area in 1804.” This plan would cost about one tenth of the all-native plan to implement, and it would cost nearly nothing to maintain.
I went on to point out that when mullein came to the area, the Native Americans found 17 different uses for this plant.3 I would think that, for all the plants that arrived through the centuries, Native Americans found uses and found a way to live with the changes. It would seem that Native Americans embrace all of nature and do not exercise a bigotry based on some arbitrary date. For the record, my philosophy appeared to be well embraced.