Tigers!
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Sep 19, 2005
- Messages
- 4,882
- Location
- On the wing, waiting for a kick.
- Basic Beliefs
- Bible believing revelational redemptionist (Baptist)
The same problem in Australia.
I recently planted several white oaks on the property. Actually collected a few acorns and now the trees are about ten feet tall. I did that because the white oaks feed so many different species. They are home to over five hundred different caterpillars and insects which are food for birds and other native species. They also provide shelter and habitat for many other species as opposed to something like a Ginko or Bradford Pear, trees which look nice in homeowners' yards but literally drive native species into local extinction. I doubt more than a handful of people in my state know that it takes five thousand caterpillars to fledge a clutch of chickadees.
And most people just see a tree as a tree, they don't know how valuable and essential a native white oak is to native species. People are dumb that way, most of them anyway. Maybe life is too hectic for them.
Many houses around me have lovely gardens and trees, yet almost exclusively non-natives. Then complaints about where are the honey eaters, lorikeets etc.? Never dawns on these people that these birds thrive best with native plants, not non-native plants.
Admittedly doesn't help when house blocks are so small. My daughter's house (if ever completed) has only a 3m (~10Ft.) front yard. Can't put many natives in that area. Just too small.