Thank you for your generous assessment of my work on behalf of blameless non-native plants. You and Nikki have made good use of my work. I am very glad that you both carry on with this important work.
Thank you for letting us know about this work. I'm looking forward to diving in on the piece regarding deforestation and climate change, a subject that gets too little attention.
Thank you both so much! It feels hopeless sometimes, trying to protect and defend plants who think and feel, as Zoe Schlanger writes in her wonderful book about plants, "The Light Eaters," and which many of us have discovered by learning from them. Those wanting to kill them are so fanatical that they are willing to endanger their own lives and other species with their carcinogenic poisons, as well as increasing temperatures and catastrophic fires, which are the result of cutting down trees. Some of these people mistakenly believe they are helping "native" plants, but others, with the most power, are those who are getting rich off the nativist industry, either from tree butchery or selling poisons.
They use a lot of tricks to confuse and silence us, including giving "scientific" proof to back up their lies and myths, but I'm thinking that those with the most power might not even know the species of the plants they are exterminating or even the species they claim to be protecting. Our personal experience is put down but their biased "studies" are considered fact. (I will never forget a friend who was trying to get a green card by working for a company whose sole purpose was to scientifically prove that it was completely safe to live near toxic waste incinerators in poor African-American neighborhoods and her MD was used to back up their fake data. "Scientific fact" goes to the highest bidder.)
We can learn so much by observing as well as loving nature, and never accepting being told we are "anthropomorphizing" when we respect plants and animals as being able to think and feel as we do. In a very stressful situation (long story) some years ago, I communicated with Poison Oak in a way that resulted in all Poison Oak, regardless of the individual or location, stopped harming me when I touched them. I since teach people how to recognize them in all their forms that change with the seasons, from their brilliant autumn colors to their dormant sleeping time (when they still can cause serious rashes if touched), to bright green new growth, to their sweet tiny flowers, and then dear little berries that so many animals eat.
Thank you both for helping people learn to treasure and love the plants, wherever they are from!
We are told that Eucalyptus are not good for anything but are simply destructive. Yet, they feed so many birds, including Hummingbirds and Monarch Butterflies, and may be what could be saving the precious Monarchs from extinction. I learned from a friend that the Eucalyptus trees near her home saved her home from the 1991 Firestorm, and, from watching Eucs, I learned that they do not spread, which we are told they do. I also learned, by watching, that they are the preferred trees for large raptors, like Eagles and Hawks, to nest in. (Again, from observing, I think it's because they have a very open growth pattern so the fledglings have room to make mistakes without dying from hitting branches.) Also, because they grow very tall, they can bring down so much fog drip on hills that the ground beneath them can stay wet year round, which is incredibly important in the Bay Area where it often feels like a drought.
Too many people are afraid of nature. There is so much to learn if we dare to love nature and be open to the plants and animals around us, and especially those who we are told to fear and hate. Some of the plants and animals I most love and the most feared and hated, for no rational reason.
Thank you for your generous assessment of my work on behalf of blameless non-native plants. You and Nikki have made good use of my work. I am very glad that you both carry on with this important work.
You're very welcome! And your work really deserves the acknowledgement.
Thank you for letting us know about this work. I'm looking forward to diving in on the piece regarding deforestation and climate change, a subject that gets too little attention.
Thank you both so much! It feels hopeless sometimes, trying to protect and defend plants who think and feel, as Zoe Schlanger writes in her wonderful book about plants, "The Light Eaters," and which many of us have discovered by learning from them. Those wanting to kill them are so fanatical that they are willing to endanger their own lives and other species with their carcinogenic poisons, as well as increasing temperatures and catastrophic fires, which are the result of cutting down trees. Some of these people mistakenly believe they are helping "native" plants, but others, with the most power, are those who are getting rich off the nativist industry, either from tree butchery or selling poisons.
They use a lot of tricks to confuse and silence us, including giving "scientific" proof to back up their lies and myths, but I'm thinking that those with the most power might not even know the species of the plants they are exterminating or even the species they claim to be protecting. Our personal experience is put down but their biased "studies" are considered fact. (I will never forget a friend who was trying to get a green card by working for a company whose sole purpose was to scientifically prove that it was completely safe to live near toxic waste incinerators in poor African-American neighborhoods and her MD was used to back up their fake data. "Scientific fact" goes to the highest bidder.)
We can learn so much by observing as well as loving nature, and never accepting being told we are "anthropomorphizing" when we respect plants and animals as being able to think and feel as we do. In a very stressful situation (long story) some years ago, I communicated with Poison Oak in a way that resulted in all Poison Oak, regardless of the individual or location, stopped harming me when I touched them. I since teach people how to recognize them in all their forms that change with the seasons, from their brilliant autumn colors to their dormant sleeping time (when they still can cause serious rashes if touched), to bright green new growth, to their sweet tiny flowers, and then dear little berries that so many animals eat.
Thank you both for helping people learn to treasure and love the plants, wherever they are from!
We are told that Eucalyptus are not good for anything but are simply destructive. Yet, they feed so many birds, including Hummingbirds and Monarch Butterflies, and may be what could be saving the precious Monarchs from extinction. I learned from a friend that the Eucalyptus trees near her home saved her home from the 1991 Firestorm, and, from watching Eucs, I learned that they do not spread, which we are told they do. I also learned, by watching, that they are the preferred trees for large raptors, like Eagles and Hawks, to nest in. (Again, from observing, I think it's because they have a very open growth pattern so the fledglings have room to make mistakes without dying from hitting branches.) Also, because they grow very tall, they can bring down so much fog drip on hills that the ground beneath them can stay wet year round, which is incredibly important in the Bay Area where it often feels like a drought.
Too many people are afraid of nature. There is so much to learn if we dare to love nature and be open to the plants and animals around us, and especially those who we are told to fear and hate. Some of the plants and animals I most love and the most feared and hated, for no rational reason.