Re: Supporting efforts to promote the use of native plants
In urban areas across the country (United States), County Extension offices are actively working with landscapers to promote greater use of native plants. Sometimes classes and seminars devoted solely to the topic are held, more often the information is integrated into presentations on pruning or irrigation. An ecologist willing to share his/her knowledge about native plants (with a gentle approach) would be welcomed as a valuable resource. A good way to reach the average home owner is through the Master Gardener programs available is all fifty states (United States). Master Gardeners answer help phone lines and have information booths with booklets and pamphlets at home shows, county fairs, and at plant sales. MGs also teach short classes to the general public at places such as public libraries, garden club meetings, landscaping seminars and public parks. Master Gardener programs are always associated with a land grant university so most of the literature dispensed is peer-reviewed and all the literature is research-based. Ecologists could help by teaching a short seminar (1-2 hours) to Master Gardeners, by being the guest speaker at a monthly meeting or co-authoring literature that will be dispensed to landscapers and the general public. Does this stimulate any other ideas on how you could help? If you think you can make a contribution through this venue, please contact the local County Extension Office and ask to speak with the Master Gardener Coordinator Colleen Grant (certified Master Gardener but on 6-months leave from Southern Nevada Master Gardeners)
Ecosystem Definition as Sustainable Re: SUSTAINABLE SITES INITIATIVE - we need your feedback.
Dear Warren and Forum: I was trying to come up with different ideas, not criticize theirs. I wish them well, and hope that they will vigorously refute any or all of my responses to their request. It is not my intention to manipulate, but to stimulate. Either the points I have made are true or not true, more true than untrue, or more untrue than true. All may judge them, and, I hope, refute or validate them with intellectual and scientific--CRITICAL vigor. I do see that they are trying, and a laud their efforts and willingness to ask ecologists for input (if not invite them to join them). I hope others on this list will make suggestions that are more potent than mine. Intellectual progress, however, comes from questioning assumptions (especially one's own), not manipulating others or being manipulated by them. It is a NEUTRAL process, neither positive nor negative--merely inquisitive. I guess my definition of ecosystem is defecktive. I consider landscaping that is dependent upon intervention for its persistence to be a cultural artifact, not an ecosystem. A crack in the sidewalk, while not intentionally maintained, is at least indirectly a result of a cultural influences, but more subject to ecosystem processes (colonization and selection of ecotypes if not genotypes), so I'll give you that much. I'll even extend that to old fields covered with alien plants--a point I was not so willing to concede fully until Ma Nature gave me a good slap back in '80. In landscaping and gardening, one is altering the environment that has produced a biological complex (ecosystem) congruent with that environment and its fluctuations. Landscaping and gardening act against, not in concert, with that congruity. When the external (cultural) influences are withdrawn, a process of readjustment begins, in accordance with the altered environment, and the biological complex changes to one independent of those influences. The complex of organisms that ultimately develop must do so in accordance with interacting with each other and the environment altered by cultural influences, and often come to at least resemble those which originally occupied the site, but at least more so than not. The exception to this is when the cultural alterations (e.g. alien species introductions) continue to reproduce more than the recolonizing species which once occupied the site. Much of the Hawaiian Islands could serve as an example of this latter phenomenon. The list of species lost because of alien introductions and the alteration of the ecosystem is staggering, however true it might be that the present simplified biological complex must be called and ecosystem. Even farming, with its wholesale destruction of ecosystems, may not be as destructive as ornamental horticulture, in terms of permanent effects. Therefore landscaping that is NOT dependent upon intervention for its persistence is a culturally-induced biological invasion. To me, ecosystems in the plural are cultural (ecology) categories of convenience (therefore valid within that box or those boxes) but the real ecosystem is the earth on its own (though that might not always be strictly the case if, say, it turns out that all life here hitch-hiked here courtesy one or more comets, in which case we may have to consider the Universe to be an ecosystem). The crucial distinction to me is the self-sufficiency and adaptation of organisms according to the realities of the habitat. When the definition of ecosystem goes beyond that, then any smidgen of life, however transitory or dependent upon inputs external to the natural habitat qualifies, and thus anything goes--and the term loses its meaning. As does sustainable. WT At 10:09 PM 12/14/2007, Warren W. Aney wrote: Aw, c'mon Wayne. Can't you see that they're trying. A landscaped plot is still an ecosystem (heck, a crack in a sidewalk is an ecosystem) although very simplified and humanized. But a landscaped plot can also be complex and natural -- check out my yard: no lawn, just native trees, shrubs, groundcover (and weeds). I didn't find any reference to mass-grading. Did you? I did see (page 9) something about the importance of native soil horizons. I didn't find anything about weed-covered wastelands, either. Nor anything about relying on expert opinion nor any seemingly hyperbolic use of the terms ecological sustainable green -- buy maybe you read the publication more thoroughly than I did. I think this is progress -- and I know we're obligated to help them make sure it's effective progress. That's why they sent this out for our look see. Okay, they did send it out late on Friday when we're all cranky after not getting everything done this week that we intended to. But let's take another look at it after we've had a good night's sleep. Warren W. Aney Tigard, Oregon -Original Message- From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news
Re: Supporting efforts to promote the use of native plants
In particular, folks might want to take a look at the Wild Ones Web site at http://www.for-wild.org . The have chapters in at least 12 states. Cheers, BILL === At 08:28 PM -0500 12/15/07, Carrie DeJaco wrote: I recently bought a house with a decent sized yard that I am trying to convert from grass to native plants. It is very difficult to find nurseries that 1) have native plants, and 2) have employees who actually know which plants are native. I feel like I need to take my plant books with me every time I go! Carrie DeJaco May I suggest finding, participating in and supporting your state and local native plant societies, and your local tree-planting and urban forestry groups? They're always great places from which to get involved with activist change efforts. (Home Depot can be quite receptive to organized calls for native vegetation-savvy staff at specific locations, and certainly to offers of training initiatives that would make their staff more systematically knowledgeable on this issue. Offer to run a workshop, for instance.) And I have found that there is a whole hidden (if microcosmic) world of activist effort and dedicated commitment in many parts of the country--folks that would dearly welcome the additional participation of those savvy in ecology. Cheers, - Ashwani Vasishth[EMAIL PROTECTED] (818) 677-6137 http://www.csun.edu/~vasishth/ http://www.myspace.com/ashwanivasishth -- RESEARCH PROGRAM c/o BILL HILTON JR. Executive Director Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History 1432 DeVinney Road, York, South Carolina 29745 USA [EMAIL PROTECTED], (803) 684-5852, eFax: (503) 218-0845 Please visit our web sites (courtesy of Comporium.net): Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History at http://www.hiltonpond.org Operation RubyThroat: The Hummingbird Project at http://www.rubythroat.org **
Re: Ecosystem Definition as Sustainable Re: SUSTAINABLE SITES INITIATIVE - we need your feedback.
Good response, Wayne. Yes, we do need to question assumptions, and also terminology including the use of currently in vogue terms such as ecosystem sustainable green ecology etc. If we define ecosystem as the community of living organisms plus the non-living environment, then everything from the crack in the sidewalk to a lawn to a rice field to a landfill to a tree farm to a wilderness to an ocean to the planet earth can be defined as an ecosystem -- some certainly more natural than others, and some certainly very pauperate of a variety and wealth of living organisms. So I think your use of the term needs to at least be qualified, e.g., natural ecosystems (I prefer the more general term natural systems because of the tawdry overuse and devaluation of the word ecosystem). The word sustainable has suffered from the same overuse and devaluation. Too many accept the cheapest definition (meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs). This can imply some sort of faith in technology that will benefit future generations, so we can use up nonrenewable resources or we can degrade renewable resource systems because technology can find something to take their place. E.g., topsoil erosion is sustainable because future generations can replace the lost soil horizon with mulch and fertilizer. Overallocation of ground water is sustainable because future generations can recharge the aquifers. Urbanization of productive farmland is sustainable because future generations can ship food in from further away. I prefer a stricter, more costly definition of sustainable: To maintain forever the current productivity of renewable resource systems including soils, waters, forests, wildlands and the atmosphere, and to deplete nonrenewable resources only at the rate that cost-relative substitutes can be developed, with costs measured on economic, social and ecological scales. And I don't need to pontificate to ecologists on how the term ecology has been degraded, e.g., we have to take care of the ecology and the threat of eco-terrorists. Warren W. Aney Tigard, Oregon -Original Message- From: Wayne Tyson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, December 16, 2007 4:35 PM To: Warren W. Aney; ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU Subject: Ecosystem Definition as Sustainable Re: SUSTAINABLE SITES INITIATIVE - we need your feedback. Dear Warren and Forum: I was trying to come up with different ideas, not criticize theirs. I wish them well, and hope that they will vigorously refute any or all of my responses to their request. It is not my intention to manipulate, but to stimulate. Either the points I have made are true or not true, more true than untrue, or more untrue than true. All may judge them, and, I hope, refute or validate them with intellectual and scientific--CRITICAL vigor. I do see that they are trying, and a laud their efforts and willingness to ask ecologists for input (if not invite them to join them). I hope others on this list will make suggestions that are more potent than mine. Intellectual progress, however, comes from questioning assumptions (especially one's own), not manipulating others or being manipulated by them. It is a NEUTRAL process, neither positive nor negative--merely inquisitive. I guess my definition of ecosystem is defecktive. I consider landscaping that is dependent upon intervention for its persistence to be a cultural artifact, not an ecosystem. A crack in the sidewalk, while not intentionally maintained, is at least indirectly a result of a cultural influences, but more subject to ecosystem processes (colonization and selection of ecotypes if not genotypes), so I'll give you that much. I'll even extend that to old fields covered with alien plants--a point I was not so willing to concede fully until Ma Nature gave me a good slap back in '80. In landscaping and gardening, one is altering the environment that has produced a biological complex (ecosystem) congruent with that environment and its fluctuations. Landscaping and gardening act against, not in concert, with that congruity. When the external (cultural) influences are withdrawn, a process of readjustment begins, in accordance with the altered environment, and the biological complex changes to one independent of those influences. The complex of organisms that ultimately develop must do so in accordance with interacting with each other and the environment altered by cultural influences, and often come to at least resemble those which originally occupied the site, but at least more so than not. The exception to this is when the cultural alterations (e.g. alien species introductions) continue to reproduce more than the recolonizing species which once occupied the site. Much of the Hawaiian Islands could serve as an example of this latter phenomenon. The list of species lost because of alien introductions and the alteration of the ecosystem is staggering,
Ecosystem Integration with Landscaping Ecology and Public Relations Supporting efforts to promote the use of native plants
Dear Colleen Grant (certified Master Gardener but on 6-months leave from Southern Nevada Master Gardeners) I quite agree that a gentle approach needs to be used with home gardeners. In fact, I have long dreamt of the day when ecosystem restoration principles could be integrated into at least some parts of landscaping and gardening (not to mention integrated farming). I have, for example, shown people how to restore functioning indigenous (self-sufficient) ecosystems onto their roofs, landfills, subdivisions, pipeline row's, and roadway cuts, and am presently helping a landscape architect to transform most of a residential project to a self-sufficient complex of indigenous species, and, if we are lucky, a fully-functioning ecosystem. It is quite a challenge, however, to be gentle ENOUGH with folks who already know gardening and landscaping. The trouble is, those paradigms do not fit those of ecosystems. I have worked with native plant societies--folks DEDICATED to native plants, who LOVE native plants with a purple passion. Yet still they cling to the gardening paradigms, and are unwilling or unable to apply real ecology to their gardens. They simply can't believe that native plants can live without their care, much less believe that their care works strongly against ecosystem processes, that things like cultivation, irrigation, fertilization, and other maintenance are inimical to ecosystem processes. Nor will they accept any suggestion that Nature should do the selecting rather than themselves, even when exposed to concepts like modifying an indigenous ecosystem to suit their needs. The use of native plants idea has been around for at least a century, and has even gone through some pretty impressive fad periods (the nineteen-teens, twenties, and thirties), but the idea of one choosing individual plants that happen to meet one's fancy rather than those that are congruent with habitat conditions and organisms with which they have co-evolved has not caught on. 'Tis a pity, because if such a concept were only considered, the gardeners would find many pleasant surprises by giving Nature an opportunity to strut her stuff. If you suggest to most landscape architects, for example, that they follow the discipline that they FIRST consider whether or not a site-indigenous species will perform up to their own project requirements (this could be number seven on my SUSTAINABLE SITES INITIATIVE list) before they resort to nursery catalogs and gardening books, they will ignore you. NOTE: I would like to compile a list of landscape architects who do or will endorse and follow that one simple discipline--please help by sending me their names and addresses. Impatience and unfamiliarity seem to be the primary obstacles to this level of understanding, and the programs you describe are likely to help. But after 100 years or so of using native plants in gardens, I am not extra-hopeful that my dream of integrating ecology and landscape architecture beyond hyperbole will be achieved until the wells run dry, and perhaps not even then. But good luck with it anyway! WT At 03:12 PM 12/16/2007, Colleen Grant wrote: In urban areas across the country (United States), County Extension offices are actively working with landscapers to promote greater use of native plants. Sometimes classes and seminars devoted solely to the topic are held, more often the information is integrated into presentations on pruning or irrigation. An ecologist willing to share his/her knowledge about native plants (with a gentle approach) would be welcomed as a valuable resource. A good way to reach the average home owner is through the Master Gardener programs available is all fifty states (United States). Master Gardeners answer help phone lines and have information booths with booklets and pamphlets at home shows, county fairs, and at plant sales. MGs also teach short classes to the general public at places such as public libraries, garden club meetings, landscaping seminars and public parks. Master Gardener programs are always associated with a land grant university so most of the literature dispensed is peer-reviewed and all the literature is research-based. Ecologists could help by teaching a short seminar (1-2 hours) to Master Gardeners, by being the guest speaker at a monthly meeting or co-authoring literature that will be dispensed to landscapers and the general public. Does this stimulate any other ideas on how you could help? If you think you can make a contribution through this venue, please contact the local County Extension Office and ask to speak with the Master Gardener Coordinator Colleen Grant (certified Master Gardener but on 6-months leave from Southern Nevada Master Gardeners)
stats question: binomial CI, finite population
Can anyone tell me how to compute CI's for a proportion when the sample is fron from a finite population? For example,?the population size is 100, I sample 50 individuals, and the event of interest occurs in 20 cases. I want to put confidence intervals around that 0.40. I would appreciate any guidance. Sue Suzanne Griffin Wildlife Biology Program College of Forestry and Conservation University of Montana Missoula, MT 59812 More new features than ever. Check out the new AOL Mail ! - http://webmail.aol.com
