<div dir="ltr">The opeds you sent links for are beautifully written, Marielle.<div><br></div><div>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. </div>
<div><br></div><div>A week after the Klinkenborg oped, the NYT published another oped entitled "Overpopulation is not the problem", which disparages "trained natural scientists". </div><div><br></div>
<div>Does the Tecnu for poison ivy also work as a prophylactic for the soul when encountering invasive ideology on the internet?</div><div><br></div>
<div>
<div><br></div><div>Steve</div><div>NewsCompanion.com</div><div>PrincetonNatureNotes.org</div></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Sep 16, 2013 at 3:31 PM, Marielle Anzelone <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:beachplum@gmail.com" target="_blank">beachplum@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div><div><div>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.<br>
<br>
"When NYC Bloomed" <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/03/25/opinion/20110326-opart.html?ref=opinion#1" target="_blank">http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/03/25/opinion/20110326-opart.html?ref=opinion#1</a><br>
<br></div>"Mountain-mint Broke My Heart" <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/15/opinion/mean-streets-for-staten-island-mountain-mint.html" target="_blank">http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/15/opinion/mean-streets-for-staten-island-mountain-mint.html</a><br>
<br></div>"Greedy Gardeners"<br><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/15/opinion/greedy-gardeners.html?ref=opinion" target="_blank">http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/15/opinion/greedy-gardeners.html?ref=opinion</a><br>
<br></div>
The most recent was widely shared. I got lots of emails from folks who were mad about my pro-native stance.<br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br clear="all"><div><font size="1"><span style><font><br>
<br>_______________________________</font><i><br><font size="1"><font face="Times New Roman" color="#333333"><span style="font-size:9pt"><i>New York Times contributor<br>
</i> <br>
- Opinion -<br>
"When New York City Bloomed" <a href="http://nyti.ms/esSlb6" target="_blank">http://nyti.ms/esSlb6</a><br>
"Mountain Mint Broke My Heart" <a href="http://nyti.ms/RSUXim" target="_blank">http://nyti.ms/RSUXim</a><br>
<br>
- City Room series - <br>
Autumn Unfolds: <a href="http://nyti.ms/uHyprz" target="_blank">http://nyti.ms/uHyprz</a><br>
Spring Time: </span></font></font></i></span></font><span style="border-collapse:collapse;font-family:Georgia,'Times New Roman';font-size:x-small"><a href="http://nyti.ms/GCEzOE" target="_blank"><font color="#333333">http://nyti.ms/GCEzOE</font></a></span><br>
</div><div><div class="h5">
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Sep 14, 2013 at 3:36 PM, kathi mestayer <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:kschachinger@gmail.com" target="_blank">kschachinger@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div style="word-wrap:break-word">Here's the letter to the editor I sent last Sunday....in a huff.<div><br><div>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.<div>
<br><div>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 <i>don't</i> 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."<br>
<div><div><br><div>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. <br>
<div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br><div><span style="text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-variant:normal;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;line-height:normal;border-collapse:separate;text-transform:none;font-size:medium;white-space:normal;font-family:Palatino;word-spacing:0px"><div>
<div style="font-size:14px">Kathi Mestayer</div><div style="font-size:14px">KMA Consulting</div><div style="font-size:14px">105 Gilley Drive</div><div style="font-size:14px">Williamsburg, Va 23188</div><div style="font-size:14px">
<a href="mailto:kwren@widomaker.com" target="_blank">kwren@widomaker.com</a></div><div style="font-size:14px"><a href="tel:757-229-6575" value="+17572296575" target="_blank">757-229-6575</a></div><div style="font-size:14px">
<a href="tel:757-229-9396" value="+17572299396" target="_blank">757-229-9396</a> (fax)</div></div><div style="font-size:14px"><br></div><div style="font-size:14px">"There are 10 kinds of people -- people who understand binary and people who don't."</div>
<div style="font-size:14px">- Anon.</div><div><br></div></span><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div><div><div><div>On Sep 14, 2013, at 2:57 PM, Stephen Hiltner wrote:</div><br><div dir="ltr">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 <a href="http://newscompanion.blogspot.com/2013/09/going-negative-on-natives-new-york.html" target="_blank">rebuttal</a>. 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.<div>
<br></div><div>Does anyone remember a NY Times oped that extols the benefits of native plants and habitat restoration? Surely there must be some.<br><div><br></div><div>Steve</div><div><a href="http://NewsCompanion.com/" target="_blank">NewsCompanion.com</a></div>
<div><a href="http://PrincetonNatureNotes.org/" target="_blank">PrincetonNatureNotes.org</a></div></div></div></div></div>
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