Lawn Culture

Everyone loves a beautiful, freshly cut green lawn, well, almost everyone. More and more people are moving away from the traditional large grass covered areas, opting instead to use more trees, shrubs, and other plants, and they are “going native” with the varieties.

I suspect that this trend will continue, as water use restrictions and environmental laws begin to effect the amount of water available for lawn use, and the allowable nutrient “run off” produced by traditional lawn care. Certain lawn nutrients may eventually be severely restricted, particularly the amount of phosphorous, due to it’s negative effects on lakes, ponds and waterways. Such restrictions are inevitable unless we learn to self regulate. It is only a matter of time.

Most of our traditional lawn grasses are not native, and therefore require extra water and nutrients to thrive. While they do produce oxygen and process water fairly efficiently, the extra nutrients, pesticides, and other excesses may make them a less practical practice than in the past.

Landscape Cultures

Traditional landscapes, with their heavy use of exotic plants, are also losing favor. Most of these non native plants require more water, more fertilizer, and more insecticides than their native counterpoints.

There is also a biodiversity issue involved. Who would have ever suspected that so many of the popular landscape plants from the middle of the last century would have taken on the role of environmental terrorists? The Japanese Silk tree, commonly called Mimosa, the Chinaberry, the Chinese Tallow, and a variety of Asian privets are now more prevalent in our woodlands, than in the home lawns where they were once used as landscape plants. Thought to be safe, and non invasive at the time, they have now become a serious threat to native biodiversity throughout the lower half of the country. Which of the currently popular exotics will become problems? It is hard to know, but just because they do not appear to be invasive now, does not mean that they won’t gain a foothold later.

Why is this a problem?

When invasive species gain a foothold in our forests and waters, they tend to eliminate the native competition, much of which is needed to support native wildlife. If a native plant preferred by pollinators disappears, the pollinator may move on. This gives the non native an even stronger foothold. It also means that the insects which pollinate food crops may be gone as well.

Studies have shown that the nutrient value of most of the non native species is less than that of the native varieties, particularly for native wildlife. As these exotics take over more and more territory, the native wildlife populations sometimes get hungry, and move on. These are just a couple of the hundreds of reasons why biodiversity should be considered when devising a landscape strategy. It is not just an issue in some remote forest or jungle, it is a problem on the home front as well.

The Native Alternatives

The fact is, that our traditional ways of dealing with our outdoor habitats are responsible for a number of environmental problems such as water quality and biodiversity, and over use of pesticides. With growing awareness of these effects, many are choosing to take a different path.

Native Habitats

Native habitats, or, backyard habitats, are viable alternatives to traditional lawns and landscapes. Rather than imposing our will on the environment, we simply allow the native environment to do what it does best, with our assistance. In the long run, there is less fertilizer, water, and pesticide needed. The native varieties are acclimated to the native environments, and native soils, and are resistant to native pests. After the initial installation or modification, there is much less labor involved. It is a cheaper, easier, more environmentally friendly form of landscaping.

Invasive plants in East Texas

Biodiversity services, that is, natural biodiversity services as opposed to human efforts to control aspects of the environment, are the services that nature in a given location supplies to itself. Included are such things as pollination, soil replacement, self fertilization, microbial activities for self composting, planting, and the self production of self sustaining fungal activities to name only a few. These activities themselves are dependent on the continued biodiversity of a given region. They are self sustaining only as long as each element in the environment remains intact, and productive.

Placing values on services provided by nature

Much is now being written on the valuation of the services, that is, the pricing of the services that nature naturally provides in sustaining itself, and the value it provides with regard to the effect of it’s continuation, or loss on the lives and productivity of human beings.

Following are a few of the elements that should be considered in this valuation:

• Food production benefits of preserving natural biodiversity services

As an example, consider that new crops for food production are being discovered on a fairly regular basis, and this needs to continue in order to meet growing global demands for food, and changing global climatic conditions. These are lessons that humans should have learned during the little ice age. As weather conditions change, crop viability changes as well, longer winters mean shorter growing seasons, requiring food crops which can be grown and harvested within those limitations.

• Biomedical benefits of preserving natural biodiversity services

Other considerations are such things as biomedical research. How do we place a specific value on a thousand acres of pristine forest with regard to the potential discovery of new material of value to human beings as it relates to human health, or discoveries of value to industry? This also reaches into the area of human health on other levels. A decrease in the numbers and varieties of available species to host a pathogen, may cause the pathogen to mutate in order to survive in another species, and a decrease in biodiversity may mean a decrease in the predators available to destroy disease carrying insects and vermin.

• Pest Control benefits of preserving biodiversity services

Preserving species has a direct impact on insect populations. It has been determined that 99% of crop destroying, and disease carrying insects can be controlled by natural predations, by such normal biological controls as birds and bats. This service, that nature provides free of charge, can be adversely altered by severe changes in a regions biodiversity.

• Shade and evapotranspiration which also helps to preserves local climates through water cycling.

The earths vegetation uses vast amounts of water, which are then transpired through foliage, and evaporate back into the atmosphere. This not only purifies the water, and cools the region, it also has an effect on regional weather patterns, some of which are needed for the local environments continued health and production.

• Water and air filtration.

We all know that plants “breathe” carbon dioxide, and “exhale” oxygen and water. Vegetation is our most efficient air scrubber, cleansing the air that is needed to support animal life, and storing away carbon.

• Breaking down of waste products and production of soil nutrients

The necessary ingredients for breaking down plant and animal wastes exist in abundance in nature, and are needed for continued soil nutrient production, as well as soil stability.

• Erosion control

The control of erosion on the planet is largely a function of plant life. Both the tops and the roots of vegetation prevent water from washing soil away. The quantity of rainfall on the earth each year is so high, that it could completely cover the worlds entire landmass. Regional vegetation is the most efficient control for the erosion that this huge quantity of water would otherwise cause.

• Crop and forest pollination

Both the pollen that is needed for pollinating crops and forests, and the creatures needed for performing the pollination are produced as a result of biodiversity. This process is necessary for the sustainability of crops and continuation of of the process. When invasive vegetation destroys the biodiversity of a region, the native pollinators may decide to leave the region to seek more appropriate vegetation.

• Replanting and plant migration

The diffusion of a plant species from an area of greater concentration, where it has less chance of getting the sunlight needed to grow to maturity, to an area of lesser concentration, where it can become established, to a great extent depends on the diverse animal life present. Mammals and birds in particular, help to spread seed to new locations. If the area lacks the diversity needed to maintain such species, they will move on. This, then leaves the plant species with little means of locomotion aside from wind and water.

• The value of nature for natural beauty

This is one of the truly undervalued aspects of the service that nature provides. It may be a little ethereal,  but it is important psychologically. Imagine a world without it!

Sustaining sustainability

The primary concern should be the continuation of these services, without which all other potential gains are lost.

Preserving biodiversity for advancing science.

There are more reasons for preserving regional biodiversity than for discovering new medications and food crops. Even on this account, there is more than what we can glean at the present. Looking into the future, and the way that various localized species interact and evolve in a given set of parameters such as physical location, and micro climates, has much to offer. The current tools for scientific investigation, are themselves evolving, and as they evolve, supplying a consistent, purely native setting to study is very important.

In our quest for new and practical genetic material of interest, we need to remember the fact that if these areas do not remain stable in their biodiversity, future benefits will be lost. After all, what good would further advances in scientific methods do, if there were nothing left to study?

• From a practical stand point, what we must do, is identify the problems. In our ecosystem in the Southern United States, that will be invasive exotic species.

• We must Isolate the problem to prevent any further spread.

• We must eradicate the problem using the most effective means, with the least impact to the rest of the habitat.

• We must prevent future infestations.

Biodiversity services for preserving natural biodiversity services

Non native Asian Privet invading East Texas