A giant mess...

It always amazes me that people seem to ignore the consequences of their actions, especially when it comes to the environment. In the past few years, so much emphasis has been placed on things like climate change and sustainable development that people forget that there are much simpler ways that we affect the environment around us. Here's a story about my experiences this past week that reflects my frustration:

Apparently, several years ago, someone decided it would be a good idea to plant some bamboo along the border of their property with the wildlife refuge I work on. By last year, this plot of bamboo had evolved into a small impenetrable bamboo forest that was slowly but surely encroaching upon the neighboring land. Therefore, steps were taken by refuge management to remove the bamboo: the bamboo was cut down last fall, and it was supposed to be removed last week.

However, it was not that simple. For those of you not familiar with it, bamboo is
1) very sturdy
2) extremely slippery to walk on
3) very fast growing (some species grow several feet in a day)
and 4) VERY densely growing.

Thus, my Friday afternoon was spent hacking at 18-inch tall stumps that were almost impossible to remove and climbing upon piles of dead bamboo to exterminate 5-day old shoots that were taller than I am. Today, I believe that all the dead bamboo was dragged out into a neighboring field. In the future, people will keep having to return to the edge of the bamboo forest to kill new growth and prevent it from spreading. If they do not, then a dense, quickly-growing mass that chokes out all other life forms.

Why am I telling you this? Because it's important to make smart decisions like planting the right things in our backyards. There are people whose entire jobs are devoted to wiping out former garden plants that have choked out native vegetation and screwed up entire ecosystems (ie Barberry - I don't care if it's "deer-proof", it quickly turns into a 10-foot tall thorny nightmare rampaging through a forest). The next time you have to plant a shrub, tree, or perennial in your yard, or you make any sort of decision that could alter your environment, take time to think about the consequences for those around you.