I can see unscrupulous people tossing seeds out the window as the drive to promote the various exotics to then follow up making $$ by harvesting them. With tobacco companies covering up cancer-causing compounds, pesticide companies covering up environmental impacts, and the huge mass of misinformation promoted to improve profits, this seems like a small step in an already largely corrupt system.
Conspiracy? No, just reality! Malcolm On Wed, Jul 24, 2013 at 3:53 PM, Palmer, Mike <[email protected]> wrote: > " If someone can grow switch grass as a crop without irrigation, without > cultivation, without energy inputs that exceed the yield, great. I am all > for it." > Switchgrass already grows spontaneously as part of a diverse assemblage of > plants (which are also biomass...). Regular harvesting, in many places where > the natural fire regime is suppressed, will prevent woody encroachment and > keep wildflower diversity high (thus benefiting pollinators). > A better option would be spontaneously occurring Johnson grass, an exotic > species, which grows rampantly along thousands of miles of county roads in > the southern and midwestern states. Regular harvests will promote diversity. > No question about high productivity. Whether or not you control the exotic, > there will still be high productivity of herbaceous vegetation. You don't > have to worry about transportation networks being in place... > This is what I call the wildfuels concept: harvest spontaneously-occurring > fuels (whether native or not) where such harvesting will enhance ecosystem > services. > ---Mike Palmer -- Malcolm L. McCallum Department of Environmental Studies University of Illinois at Springfield Managing Editor, Herpetological Conservation and Biology "Peer pressure is designed to contain anyone with a sense of drive" - Allan Nation 1880's: "There's lots of good fish in the sea" W.S. Gilbert 1990's: Many fish stocks depleted due to overfishing, habitat loss, and pollution. 2000: Marine reserves, ecosystem restoration, and pollution reduction MAY help restore populations. 2022: Soylent Green is People! The Seven Blunders of the World (Mohandas Gandhi) Wealth w/o work Pleasure w/o conscience Knowledge w/o character Commerce w/o morality Science w/o humanity Worship w/o sacrifice Politics w/o principle Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message.
