NATIVE ECOSYSTEMS & OTHER LIES
by Jim Beers
G. K. Chesterton wisely observed early in the last century that art is joined to and an expression of life and human society. Our environment and all of its elements and effects are like art. This natural fact transcends all of the propaganda and “science” that asserts there is only one “right” or “proper” or “correct” or “best” environment. Whether we call it a “Native” or “Pre-Columbian” or “Wilderness” or “Wildlands” or “Protected” Ecosystem or Environment, it is a figment of the values of a segment of our society at this point in time.
What is the “native ecosystem” of central Africa? Is it the forests grazed and trampled to destruction by overpopulations of elephants? Is it the bush around villages or towns that have been in place for eons? Is it the imagined plant and animal mix before Arab slave traders or conquerors from far off massacred and enslaved “native” populations? What about our UN “partners” in forcing Asians and South Americans to “preserve” “their native ecosystems?” Is Germanys’ “native ecosystem” dated before the Nazis? Before the Romans? Before the Cro-Magnons? Is England’s “native ecosystem” dated before the Battle of Hastings? Before the Roman occupation? Before the druids? Why are any of these dates or any particular mix of plants and animals worthy of note?
The answer lies in the perfectly sound biological interest in determining what plants and animals came, survived and disappeared over time in a particular area. It is useful to understand how and why our environment changes both naturally and as a result of human activities. Aside from the pursuit of knowledge for knowledge’s sake, our ability to predict the impact of our actions and to understand the environmental changes around us is one of many such human abilities that distinguish us from all life around us. Our cities and suburbs and rural areas, indeed our oceans and unpopulated corners of the earth are and will continue to reflect our “life and human society.”
Plants and animals have been invading new (and often for some of them, old) habitats since time began. Plants and animals have been disappearing from habitats for almost as long. Weather, rainfall, snowfall, fire, predators, elimination of a food source, opportunity in the form of a floating log or a windstorm, and other reasons too long to mention account for these changes. In recent (geologically) times, human activities such as farming, hunting, migration, villages, ships, trade, roads, fire, domestications, and another list too long to mention introduced and diminished untold plant and animal communities. North America’s environmental changes over the past 20,000 years are spectacular and some of the most extreme known, because when the prodigious changes of the past 500 years occurred, advanced European science and record-keeping ably recorded the changes.
Until recently we used this knowledge to construct productive domestic areas around settlements and to use wild areas as best we could. As mistakes were made, we learned. Today there is no inconsistency or conflict between energy development or plant and animal use and preserving the richest environment both biologically and regards human societies. All that is needed is thoughtful and continuous application of what we know and have yet to learn. Running from this is like the parable in the New Testament where one of the servants took the masters money and buried it to “preserve” it.
This knowledge of environmental change has been dramatically debauched in the past century and particularly in the past 30 years. No longer are we content to understand and provide the needs of certain wildlife or plants that we wish to preserve or use. No longer are we interested in applying our knowledge to make public and private land produce the richest bounty for private owners, public land users, and society in general. No longer do we speculate and test new environmental combinations for particular areas. No longer do we apply what we know to improve rural societies both at home and abroad.
Today we accept, like dumb animals, the assertion that there is only one “right” environmental mix of plants and animals for any particular piece of ground. We further accept the notion that such mix is only attainable through the exclusion of all human presence and all human activities. We further accept the incredible falsehood that we should accept the death and injury of humans by mountain lions, the loss of livestock and pets by wolves, the death of African women and children by crocodiles, the trampling of African children and crops by elephants, etc. because “we” are in “their” habitat. Only this morning a news article said, “the primary reason for increased bear-human interaction is the encroachment of humans on bear habitat.” If you give this one moment of serious thought you can only conclude that such a statement is bizarre. Animals and plants should be managed in such ways that their conflicts with man are minimized or eliminated. They can and should (as societal interests and wherewithal allows) be maintained in healthy populations where people can see them, use them, and where they do not conflict with other human interests like fisheries or recreational uses.
There is one ironclad fact in all this myth-making about “native” this and “invasive” that; that is that we can maintain almost any environment we desire. Like art, our environment reflects “life and human society.” Today when our ability to construct an environment of millions of mini-environments was never greater we retreat into druidic cocoons and forbid all to touch the environment like some sacred oak containing mistletoe.
Instead of developing energy resources in the most environmentally friendly ways, we increasingly smother human activities from recreation to road and home building. Instead of supporting our rural communities and assisting the poor in 3rd world nations, we deny them the environmental development that has made us and the Europeans and certain of their former colonies the richest and freest nations on earth. Instead of looking to the future, we look to the past and assure our return to societies that our forefathers gave their lives and sweat to leave behind.
This is perpetrated on the lie that there is but one “native” environment and all others are “out of balance.” Because of this lie we tolerate the Endangered Species Act and the UN CITES authority. Because of this we have made US public lands Federal fiefdoms more dangerous to the community than medieval fiefdoms run by ruthless dictators. Because of this lie we watch silently as Federal and state land purchases swallow private property and then close the roads, deny access, stop environmental management, charge ever-higher access fees, write ever-more restrictive regulations, and enforce it all like the Sheriff of Nottingham. Because of this lie we bow to Federal agencies forcing wolves where they are not wanted and then abjuring any responsibility for the inestimable harm they cause ranchers, pet owners, hunters, and others. Because of this lie we shrug as rural logging communities are devastated and public energy under public lands remains untouched as we fight a war generated by those who control most of our current energy supplies. Because of this lie we accept more governmental restriction on private property for something that is not “public USE” (as demanded in the Constitution) without even compensation. Because of this lie we ignore the corrosive effect on our entire Constitutionally guaranteed way of life as Federal bureaucracies make hostages of state governments and Universities. Because of this lie we accept different academic definitions (now used in laws and courts) for “species” and “harmful” and “invasive.” Because of this lie we look the other way as Federal bureaucrats, Federal politicians, and the environmental zealots and animal rights radicals work with academic harlots to pass the biggest increase yet in Federal hegemony, a Federal Invasive Species Act. This last will cost billions and create a never-ending jihad for invasive species that will put the harms perpetrated by the Endangered Species Act to shame.
The make-up of our environment, the management of our environment, and the
use of our envirction of ourselves. Utilizing the plants and animals that were here 100, 1,000, or 20,000 years ago is only smart and useful. Minimizing or attempting to eliminate harmful plants and animals, be they “native” or “invasive” is only sensible. Fire ants that kill people, like poison ivy that kills people, should be controlled or eradicated. Specifying certain plants and animals simply because of an “Invasive” label is foolish but empowers other agendas that we should all fear and oppose. Preventing harmful new arrivals and eradicating such species when they arrive is only sensible and desirable. Public lands should have timber cut, be grazed, and be managed for hunting, fishing, trapping, and the widest range of public uses while minimizing fire threats and harmful plants and animals that harm private lands. All of these things are possible and the duty of our government..
If we do not reject these lies, things will only get worse. More private property and property rights will become Federal dominions like the dominions of ancient kings. State government Constitutional responsibilities will become historic curiosities to be longed for by future generations. Proposed Invasive Species and expanding Endangered Species authorities will surely criminalize pets, non-native plants and animals of all stripes, circuses, hunting, fishing, and trapping; to say nothing of the existence of thousands of rural communities and countless aspects of what we consider our unalienable way of life. Anyone doubting the incremental achievement of these outcomes has not paid attention to recent Federal legislation, Federal regulations and their enforcement, Federal court decisions, and the propaganda/lobbying/lawsuit actions of the numerous radical groups underpinning the lie about Native Ecosystems.
My grandmother used to say, “you can watch a thief but you can’t a liar.” For too long we have ignore the liars among us and this has to stop or a dark future awaits us all.
Jim Beers
16 February 2004