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Kill Russian Olives!



 Speaking of native plants:  Growing & Propagating Showy Native Woody
 Plants (Richard E Bir, UNC Press) is now remaindered at Deadalus Books
 for $6.98.  Stock #10378.  Something for everyone in this great book.
 There is a companion book on native wildflowers available at botanical
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 Contact Deadalus at 1-800-395-2665  or www.salebooks.com to read the
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 Russian Olive makes nice wood so when you cut it down invite a wood
 turner to take the big stuff and turn it into something useful and not
 so destructive.  I wish we could use Mimosa that way.
 Tim Lewis & Lori Unruh
 Weaverville, NC
 tlewis@buncombe.main.nc.us

>Waxwings continue to descend on our Russian
>  Olive's, usually 25-50 in a flock; this has been going on since
>  mid-March.
>
>  I saw something similar this morning; the Olives were growing along
> the
>  route 147 overpass where it crosses Erwin Road in Durham. Sorry to
> say,
>  these things should be ripped out of the ground, no matter how much
> (or
>  maybe because) the waxwings like them. It's an ecological threat of
> the
>  first order. While a handful of bird species feed on the fruits,
>  virtually none nest in the dense monocultures it forms, and it also
> wipes
>  out native plants and the butterflies and other insects that depend
on
>  native plants. Irvin Farm, where I'm leading a Duke Natural History
>  Society trip this weekend, is being overrun with the stuff; one of
the
>  Triangle Land Conservancy's top priorities for the site is to spend
> lots
>  of money eliminating this botanical plague.
>
>  For more details about just how nasty Russian Olive (and its cousin
>  Autumn Olive) really is, and why it should be removed no matter how
> many
>  Cedar Waxwings eat it, see the following websites (especially the
> first
>  one, which has an animation sequence showing how it spread across
>  Massachusetts):
>  http://omega.cc.umb.edu/~conne/jennjim/elangust.html
>  http://www.nps.gov/plants/alien/fact/elan1.htm
>  http://www.cwma.org/russ_olive.html
>  http://www.dcr.state.va.us/dnh/fselum.pdf
>  http://infoweb.magi.com/%7Eehaber/factoliv.html
>  http://www.mdflora.org/publications/invasives.htm
>
>  If you want to attract birds to your yard, use native species, not
> exotic
>  weeds like Russian Olive! The Cedar Waxwings have been all over the
> Duke
>  campus for weeks attacking the Yaupon Hollies, which are native to
the
>  coastal plain. There are some other native hollies to this area,
>  like Inkberry and American Holly and Possumhaw (a deciduous species).
> Will
>  Cook has some great information on his web site in this vein, and I
>  recently gave my fiance a big list of native plants for Valentine's
> Day
>  which she is using for her own yard now. I'd be very happy to share
> this
>  with anyone who promises to destroy all their Olives, Privets,
> Multiflora
>  Roses, Japanese and Bush Honeysuckles, English Ivy, Bamboo, Purple
>  Loosetrife, and other non-native weeds...