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Go native, for the birds' sake



Bravo to Paula Mangiafico for taking action to combat invasive exotic
Tallow Trees at the Duke School Lower School.  People who plant trees and
shrubs on public or semi-public spaces can set a powerful example in their
choices, and they need information about the negatives of invasive exotics
and the positives of native trees and shrubs (better for the birds, in the
long run).

At Beaver Lake Bird Sanctuary in north Asheville, Elisha Mitchell Audubon
is trying to eradicate invasive exotics (Asian bittersweet, privet,
multi-flora rose and more) and to replace them with natives.  It's a huge
job, on just 9 or 10 acres.  Contributions of money and labor are welcome.

Len Pardue
Asheville, NC

->This is a bit off-topic, but I'll add a backyard birds note to make it all
>better...
>
>Since hearing about the Chinese Tallow Tree and checking out images on the
>Web, I was racking my brain thinking about where I might have seen one, and
>concluded that I'd not seen one yet. Where could they be hiding?  As I sat
>in my car one day, pondering this in a kind of mommy-daze in the Duke
>School Lower School (Durham) parking lot, I lifted my eyes and saw hundreds
>of white berries leering at me through the windshield. Turns out there are
>two Chinese Tallow Trees on the property! I've since reported these
>invaders to a woman who is interested in the landscaping at the school. I
>hope we can get them taken out.
>
>Backyard last few days was just chock-full of the usual suspects. Must be
>the cold weather, but seems like suddenly there's three times as many as
>usual. Got Carolina wrens, brown-headed nuthatches, downies, bluebirds,
>goldfinches, white-throated sp, finches, titmice, chickadees, robins,
>yellow-rumps, cardinals, mourning doves, etc. The insectivores are really
>going after the suet (also has dried insects in it). Just the usuals, but
>all that activity makes the heart sing. Even saw the sapsucker again after
>an absence. Red-bellied woodpecker's been drilling on our wood siding, and
>my 5-year old says it means he wants more suet in the feeder!
>
>Cheers,
>Paula Mangiafico
>Durham, NC
>
>--On Sunday, January 26, 2003 11:44 PM -0500 "Joshua S. Rose"
><jsr6@duke.edu> wrote:
>
>> On Sun, 26 Jan 2003, Nathan Dias wrote:
>>>
>>>  Since most of our
>>> Camellia Sasanqua flowers got fried by the freezing
>>> weather, the Orioles have switched to eating a lot of
>>> Tallow berries.  -- I know non-native invaders, those
>>> Tallow trees.
>>
>> They're worse than that! In case you missed the little detail the last
>> time I posted about this, as well as Johnny Randall's talk at the Carolina
>> Bird Club winter meeting, Chinese Tallow Tree supports NO insect life. As
>> they spread and crowd out native plants, as they are doing devastatingly
>> in northern Florida and somewhat slower in coastal South Carolina, migrant
>> insectivores like warblers and vireos are left foraging in lifeless
>> wastelands.
>>
>> There are dozens of native tree and shrub species that produce winter
>> fruits which are eaten by orioles, waxwings, and other birds, *and* host
>> lots of caterpillars which feed insectivorous birds the rest of the year
>> when the fruit is out of season. Beautyberry, Persimmon, various species
>> of Holly and Viburnum, Red Cedar Wax Myrtle, all kinds of others...
>>
>> People can stop pretending that these trees are good for birds; they are
>> NOT. If I keep hearing about it, I'm going to go into the Texbirds archive
>> and start forwarding information from there to here about it. Trust me, I
>> haven't even *begun* to swamp anyone with e-mail about this!
>>
>> Good birding, but it'll get better if we get rid of all the Chinese Tallow
>> Trees,
>>
>> Josh
>>
>>
>> Joshua S. Rose
>> Duke University
>> Department of Biology (Zoology, R.I.P.)
>>
>> jsr6@duke.edu
>> http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/
>>
>>