[MAIPC] Rebuttal of NY Times anti-natives oped by Klinkenborg

Wed Sep 18 06:37:41 PDT 2013

The opeds you sent links for are beautifully written, Marielle.

Since writing my rebuttal of Klinkenborg's NYT piece, I've since discovered
just how intensive is the attack on native plant advocates, at least on the
west coast. Websites like DeathOfAMillionTrees and the San Francisco Forest
Alliance, which appear to be run by the same group or individual, are
sophisticated cherry picking operations that rival the climate denial web
presence (WattsUpWithThat, etc.). For instance, if you google Doug Tallamy,
who has researched the extraordinary diversity of insects that feed on
native vs. nonnative plants, you'll find a milliontree post is #11 in the
google search. It twists Tallamy's research results to argue against
distinguishing between native and nonnative plants. This is not mere
naivete at work.

A week after the Klinkenborg oped, the NYT published another oped entitled
"Overpopulation is not the problem", which disparages "trained natural
scientists".

Does the Tecnu for poison ivy also work as a prophylactic for the soul when
encountering invasive ideology on the internet?

Steve
NewsCompanion.com
PrincetonNatureNotes.org

On Mon, Sep 16, 2013 at 3:31 PM, Marielle Anzelone <beachplum at gmail.com>wrote:

> The Times opinion eds publish pieces that provoke. I am an op-ed
> contributor myself and all my pieces are in support of natives. It is
> fashionable of late to be anti native plants though.
>
> "When NYC Bloomed"
> http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/03/25/opinion/20110326-opart.html?ref=opinion#1
>
> "Mountain-mint Broke My Heart"
> http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/15/opinion/mean-streets-for-staten-island-mountain-mint.html
>
> "Greedy Gardeners"
> http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/15/opinion/greedy-gardeners.html?ref=opinion
>
> The most recent was widely shared. I got lots of emails from folks who
> were mad about my pro-native stance.
>
>
>
> _______________________________*
> New York Times contributor
>
> - Opinion -
> "When New York City Bloomed" http://nyti.ms/esSlb6
> "Mountain Mint Broke My Heart" http://nyti.ms/RSUXim
>
> - City Room series -
> Autumn Unfolds:  http://nyti.ms/uHyprz
> Spring Time:  *http://nyti.ms/GCEzOE
>
>
> On Sat, Sep 14, 2013 at 3:36 PM, kathi mestayer <kschachinger at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Here's the letter to the editor I sent last Sunday....in a huff.
>>
>> Would that it were so....that the fact that our categories of "native"
>> and "nonnative" have become fuzzy around the edges makes the distinction
>> irrelevant.  Or that the arrival of europeans on the continent is the
>> baseline.  The fact is that "native" plants are those that share an
>> evolutionary history with other species (not just one or two) in a
>> particular region or area.  It's true; nonnatives are not all invasive.
>>  But none of them have the kind of habitat value that natives, as a group,
>> have.  Native species are like environmental puzzle pieces; in a given
>> area, each native is a piece of that puzzle in that place.  Nonnatives may
>> be attractive, they may have some habitat value, and they may not spread
>> out of control.  But they don't fit in the puzzle, and therefore, they
>> don't contribute nearly as much as the puzzle pieces that fit.
>>
>> I remember being at a conservation landscaping conference in northern
>> Virginia a couple of years ago.  Someone asked one of the speakers what she
>> should say when a homeowner asked, "Why is it so important to plant native
>> plants?"  The speaker answered, "It's not because of what we know....it's
>> because of what we *don't* know.  We can't possibly understand all of
>> the ways that the species in a given area interact with, support, and
>> predate, each other.  So we plant natives because we do know that they are
>> going to fit right in to a very complex system."
>>
>> Finally, the fact that there is little that we can do about it doesn't
>> make it okay to do nothing.  This is a problem for people who fight battles
>> even though they don't think they can really win.  It's because it's worth
>> fighting anyway.
>>
>>
>>
>> Kathi Mestayer
>> KMA Consulting
>> 105 Gilley Drive
>> Williamsburg, Va 23188
>> kwren at widomaker.com
>> 757-229-6575
>> 757-229-9396 (fax)
>>
>> "There are 10 kinds of people -- people who understand binary and people
>> who don't."
>> - Anon.
>>
>>
>> On Sep 14, 2013, at 2:57 PM, Stephen Hiltner wrote:
>>
>> For anyone irked by Verlyn Klinkenborg's Sept. 7 oped in the New York
>> Times, in which he argues against distinguishing between native and
>> non-native species, I've researched and written a point by point rebuttal<http://newscompanion.blogspot.com/2013/09/going-negative-on-natives-new-york.html>. I
>> also mention two previous NY Times opeds dismissive of native plants, by
>> George Ball and Sean Wilsey, and provide background information on the
>> incident that prompted Klinkenborg's oped--the proposal to thin eucalyptus
>> from a forest in San Francisco.
>>
>> Does anyone remember a NY Times oped that extols the benefits of native
>> plants and habitat restoration? Surely there must be some.
>>
>> Steve
>> NewsCompanion.com
>> PrincetonNatureNotes.org
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