October 2021 – Conservation Sense and Nonsense

Spartina eradication is now a zombie project

Over 20 years ago the governors of California, Oregon, and Washington made a commitment to eradicate non-native spartina marsh grass on the entire West Coast of the country. Intensive aerial spraying of herbicide killed over 95% of non-native spartina about 10 years ago, but the project continues in the San Francisco Bay. The goal is now the eradication of hybrid spartina that grows at the same marsh elevations as native spartina and is so visually similar that it requires 500 genetic tests every year to determine that it is a hybrid before it is sprayed with herbicide (1). This article will explain why the Invasive Spartina Project in the San Francisco Bay Estuary is now a zombie project, a project that is dead, but is not being allowed to rest in peace.

Click on the picture to see the presentation of the Invasive Spartina Project to the California Invasive Plant Council on June 11, 2021. This is the source of some of the information in this article. Answers to questions at the end of the presentation are particularly important.

Hybridization is the boogey man of plant nativism

Hybrid spartina is being hunted because it outcompetes native spartina. Nativists fear the loss of native spartina as a distinct species. Rather than seeing the potential for a new, improved species of spartina, they see it as a loss of biodiversity, rather than an increase in biodiversity.

Non-native spartina is also accused of “invading” mudflats where some animal species require that type of environment. However, that accusation is contradicted by these photos where native spartina has been planted on mudflats at Eden Landing. The source of these photos is the June 2021 presentation of the Invasive Spartina Project.

Hybridization is an important evolutionary tool that frequently increases biodiversity by creating new species on the margins of ranges where closely related species encounter one another. For example, hybridization is credited with creating over 500 species of oaks all over the world that are well-adapted to their respective microclimates. The rapidly changing climate and the globalization of trade have created more opportunities for hybridization and resulting speciation.

Advances in molecular analysis has informed us of the frequency of hybridization and its benefits to biodiversity:

“With the growing availability of genomic tools and advancements in genomic analyses, it is becoming increasingly clear that gene flow between divergent taxa can generate new phenotypic diversity, allow for adaptation to novel environments, and contribute to speciation. Hybridization can have immediate phenotypic consequences through the expression of hybrid vigor. On longer evolutionary time scales, hybridization can lead to local adaption through the introgression of novel alleles and transgressive segregation and, in some cases, result in the formation of new hybrid species.”

Restoration and expansion of wetlands is extremely important as we prepare for anticipated rising sea levels. If hardier, denser, stronger hybrid species of marsh grass are available why would we reject that opportunity? Nativist ideology should not deprive us of this opportunity.

Native species are not inherently superior to species that are better adapted to present environmental conditions. The rapidly changing climate requires corresponding changes in vegetation to adapt to present conditions. Extreme weather events are natural selection events that kill species that are no longer adapted to the climate. We cannot stop evolutionary change, nor should we try.

Why does this matter?

If herbicides were not required to eradicate hybrid spartina perhaps I could shrug and move on. Hundreds of gallons of imazapyr herbicide were used by East Bay Regional Park District to aerial spray non-native spartina for the first few years of the eradication project. In 2020, EBRPD used 43 gallons of imazapyr for “ecological function,” a nebulous category that includes spartina eradication.

When the Invasive Spartina Project (ISP) made a presentation to the California Invasive Plant Council in June 2021, the public asked several questions about the toxicity of the herbicide (imazapyr) that is used to eradicate spartina (1). The ISP mistakenly claimed that imazapyr is not harmful to humans and wildlife because it uses a different metabolic pathway to kill plants that does not exist in animals. They probably believe that claim, but they are wrong.

A similar claim was made for glyphosate for 40 years. We now know that the claim about a “unique pathway” for glyphosate existing only in plants is not true. In 2020, plaintiffs in a class-action suit against Monsanto alleging that it falsely advertised that the active ingredient in Roundup only affects plants were awarded $39.5 million. The settlement also requires that the inaccurate claim be removed from the labels of all glyphosate products: “…[plaintiff] says Monsanto falsely claimed through its labeling that glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, targets an enzyme that is only found in plants and would therefore not affect people or pets. According to the suit, that enzyme is in fact found in people and pets and is critical to maintaining the immune system, digestion and brain function.”

I asked Beyond Pesticides for help to determine if the exclusive pathway claim was true of imazapyr. Beyond Pesticides informs me that both imazapyr and glyphosate use metabolic pathways that exist in animals. I summarize their response: “You asked about the ALS pathway that is the target of imazapyr—is there a comparison to glyphosate? [According to] the research I found, I think the comparison is valid. This early paper appears to clearly state that ALS is a pathway found in yeast and bacteria as well as plants (2). Another early paper which identified ALS as coming from bacteria, fungi, and plants (3).” These pathways exist in bacteria that reside in our bodies and perform important functions, particularly in our digestive and immune systems. When we damage those bacteria, we are damaging our health.

Please note that both of these studies of imazapyr are nearly 40 years old. If pesticides were being evaluated and regulated, the public and the users of imazapyr might know that it is harmful to animals. I provided this information to the Invasive Spartina Project. They responded that their use of imazapyr is legal. Unfortunately, they are right. Because there is no regulation of pesticide use in the United States, the Invasive Spartina Project has the legal right to use it. But is it ethical? I asked the Invasive Spartina Project to quit making the inaccurate claim that imazapyr kills plants, but cannot harm animals. They did not respond to that request.

Unfortunately the judicial system is our only recourse to take dangerous chemicals off the market. For example, chlorpyrifos that is known to damage children’s brains was finally banned as the result of a court order. The EPA refused to ban chlorpyrifos, but a lawsuit finally resulted in a judge requiring that the EPA either provide studies proving its safety or ban its sale. The EPA could not prove its safety, so it had no choice but to finally ban it.

What about the animals?

Ridgway rail. Source: Cornell Ornithology Laboratory

The only issue that temporarily brought the spartina eradication project to a halt was the impact it has had on endangered Ridgway rail. Ridgway rail is a close relative to the Clapper rail on the East and Gulf coasts where the spartina species considered non-native here (S. alterniflora) is native. Clapper rails are abundant where S. alterniflora resides.

“Fig. 2. In marshes where invasive *Spartina* was present in large densities, populations declined rapidly commensurate with the amount of *Spartina* removed [from 2005 to 2011].” (4)

The eradication of Ridgway rail breeding habitat in the San Francisco Bay reduced the rail population significantly by 2011, according to the US Geological Service and the US Fish and Wildlife Service (4). The loss of rails was greatest where the most non-native spartina was killed with herbicide. In response, USFWS mandated a moratorium on eradication in areas where rails were nesting (5). According to the ISP 2020 survey of rails in the project areas, the rail population rebounded where eradication was stopped. When treatment resumed in 2018, the number of Ridgway rails in the previously restricted areas declined by 9% in the following year. That outcome was predicted by the USFWS Biological Opinion: “In the 2018 Biological Opinion, the Service estimated that rails inhabiting the nine previously-restricted sub-areas may be lost due to mortality or exhibit decreased reproductive success due to loss of hybrid Spartina cover when treatment of these sub-areas resumed.”

Clearly, the endangered Ridgway rail has been harmed by spartina eradication, as USGS and USFWS concluded in their analysis that was published in 2016 (4):

“California [now known as Ridgway rail] rail survival was higher prior to invasive Spartina eradication than after eradication or compared to survival in a native marsh. The combined indication of these studies is that tall vegetation structure provides California rails with both higher quality nesting substrate and refuge cover from predation, particularly during high tides. Thus, habitat structure provided by invasive Spartina in heavily infested marshes may facilitate California rail survival, and continued efforts to remove invasive Spartina from tidal salt marshes could lead to further California rail population declines….” (4)

Given that Ridgway rail is protected by the Endangered Species Act, it is difficult to understand why this project is allowed to continue. Much like the unregulated use of pesticides, it will probably take a lawsuit to enforce the Endangered Species Act on behalf of endangered Ridgway rail. When government is not functional, the judicial system can sometimes compensate.

Let’s bury this zombie project

The US Geological Service and the US Fish and Wildlife Service have put their finger on the failure of the Invasive Spartina Project. The same could be said of many other pointless eradication projects:

“Removing the source of that novel habitat without addressing pre-existing native habitat quality limitations threatens to re-create an ailing landscape for California rails by dogmatically adhering to specific management approaches. In essence, the conservation community is choosing the winners and losers in this ecosystem by failing to solve the underlying problems that will support a healthy species community with all constituent members.” (4)

The spartina eradication project serves no useful purpose. In fact, it damages the environment and the animals that live in it. We cannot stop evolution, nor should we try. Let natural selection determine the plant species that are best adapted to our environment and the animals that live in it. Not only would we benefit from better protection for our coastline from rising sea levels, we could reduce our exposure to dangerous pesticides that are harmful to our health, as well as improve habitat for wildlife. This project is doing more harm than good.

Presentation of Invasive Spartina Project to California Invasive Plant Council, June 2021
Falco, S.C., Dumas, K.S. and Livak, K.J., 1985. Nucleotide sequence of the yeast ILV2 gene which encodes acetolactate synthase
LaRossa, R.A. and Smulski, D.R., 1984. ilvB-encoded acetolactate synthase is resistant to the herbicide sulfometuron methyl. Journal of bacteriology, 160(1), pp.391-394.
M.L. Casazza, et.al., “Endangered species management and ecosystem restoration: finding the common ground,” Ecology and Society, 2016, 21(1):19. http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-08134-210119
Adam Lambert et.al., “Optimal approaches for balancing invasive species eradication and endangered species management,” Science, May 30, 2014, vol. 344 Issue 6187

Polarized views of nature mirror our politics

This article about the polarized views of conservation and how similar they are to our polarized politics was published by Conservation Sense and Nonsense 7 years ago. It is truer now than it was then. Where are the moderates in American society who are willing to work together to find a way forward? Conflict produces stalemate. We can’t address the very real issues in the environment on such an antagonistic battle ground.

We recently posted an article about our on-going debate with the Audubon Society regarding its misguided support for the projects that are destroying the urban forest in the San Francisco Bay Area. That article provided a few examples of our widely divergent views of nature:

We don’t see how birds will benefit from the destruction of tens of thousands of trees and countless plants that provide food and cover for birds and animals.
We don’t enjoy walking in nature with a judgmental eye, which points fingers at plants and animals that others claim “don’t belong there.” We are unwilling to divide nature into “good” and “bad” categories.
We don’t think humans have the right to pass a death sentence on wild animals because they prefer another animal, which they claim will benefit from the death of a potential competitor.
We don’t consider a “managed” forest a “more natural forest.” We don’t think humans are capable of improving what nature can accomplish without our interference. We don’t think a public park that is routinely sprayed with herbicides can be accurately described as a “natural area.”

However, these widely divergent viewpoints about nature are not inconsistent with the extremes of our polarized politics in America. Just as we don’t expect to change the minds of those at the opposite end of the political spectrum, we don’t expect to change the minds of those who view nature through the darkly colored lens of nativism. Just as elections for public office are decided by the independents in the middle of the political spectrum, the debate about the future of our public lands will be decided by those who have not yet formed an opinion about what is best for nature. Today’s post is addressed to them. We will tell the “independents” about two recent op-eds published by The New York Times which represent the two extreme viewpoints about nature. Both op-eds use sparrows as representatives of the natural world, which we hope will make the differences in these viewpoints starker and therefore clearer.

First a word about how important the “independents” are to the debate about the ecological “restorations” which are dictated by invasion biology. Political independents are usually not more than a third of the electorate. But, a survey conducted by University of Florida suggests the majority of the public are still open to learning more about “invasive species.” They report that 62% of Floridians they surveyed said they are not knowledgeable or only slightly knowledgeable about invasive species. Ironically, the same survey claimed that “a majority voiced support for raising sales tax to combat invasive species.” One wonders why voters who acknowledge that they know nothing or next to nothing about invasive species would be willing to tax themselves to combat something they don’t understand. In any case, if Floridians are typical, the majority of the public needs to know more about invasion biology. We hope they have access to balanced information that is not written by those who make their living killing animals and poisoning our public lands. Million Trees was created over four years ago for that purpose.

“The Truth About Sparrows”

Some time ago, we told the story of how sparrows were brought to America in the 1850s by people who believed they would eat the insects that were killing trees. We concluded that article by saying that 150 years later house sparrows are no longer despised as alien intruders. We were wrong.

House sparrow Cornell Ornithology Lab — House sparrow, Cornell Ornithology Lab

In May 2014, the New York Times published an op-ed entitled “The Truth About Sparrows.” The op-ed was written by Peyton Marshall, whose mother was an exterminator of house sparrows. This was no idle pastime for Ms. Marshall’s mother. It was her mission.

Mom’s crusade against house sparrows began when Ms. Marshall was a child. Mom loved bluebirds at a time when their population was dwindling in the east where they lived. Mom decided that house sparrows were to blame and so she took it upon herself to kill every house sparrow that had the misfortune of entering her yard or within reach of it.

Mom began by trapping the house sparrows. “Good” birds caught in the traps were freed, but the house sparrows were put into plastic garbage bags and asphyxiated. Mom started the family car in the garage and wrapped the open end of the garbage bag around the tailpipe. When the birds did not die, she consulted her husband who informed her that the car was a diesel and would not produce enough carbon monoxide to kill the birds.

So, mom took her operation on the road. She helped elderly ladies with their groceries in the parking lot in exchange for a shot at their tailpipe. When dropping off her children for play dates and birthday parties, she asked their parents if she could make brief use of their cars to kill birds. Polite parents watched in horror as they became accessories to this execution.

Ms. Marshall concludes her story by noting that the population of bluebirds has rebounded since she was a child. But mom continues to trap house sparrows in her yard and now uses a less public means of killing them: “Now, she uses a carving knife and cutting board, at her leisure, in the privacy of her own kitchen.”

Although Ms. Marshall doesn’t say so, we doubt that the recovery of the bluebird population has much to do with the extermination of house sparrows in her mother’s backyard. The recovery of the bluebird population is attributed to building nest boxes that substitute for the dead trees which are their preferred nest sites. There are few dead trees in urban and suburban areas because people consider them hazardous and unsightly. Once again, animals pay the price for the choices of humans.

“What the Sparrows Told Me”

The New York Times published “What the Sparrows Told Me” in August 2014. It is a fitting antidote to the grisly tale of the sparrow exterminator.

Trish O’Kane, the author, was a human rights investigative journalist in Central America for 10 years before moving to New Orleans to teach journalism. Less than a month after arriving in New Orleans, she and her family were displaced by hurricane Katrina in 2005. Four months after the hurricane, she rented a room in a dry part of town so that she could return to her teaching job. It was a hard time for everyone in New Orleans, but her gloom was deepened by learning of her father’s terminal cancer which would kill him in a matter of months.

Ms. O’Kane had never had an interest in birds before, but she knew she needed “to focus on something beautiful, something positive, something alive,” and so she did:

“I bought two bird feeders. Each morning I sat on that back stoop and watched those sparrows. Instead of wondering what was going to happen to the city, to the Gulf Coast, to the planet, I started wondering why one sparrow was hogging all the seed. I started thinking about their resilience, their pluck, their focus on immediate needs. If they couldn’t find food, they went somewhere else. If they lost a nest, they built another. They had no time or energy for grief. They clung to the fence in raggedy lines heckling one another like drunken revelers on Bourbon Street. Their sparring made me laugh.“

Audubon Park, New Orleans. Public domain

Ms. O’Kane started holding her classes in Audubon Park, named for John James Audubon. Her students began to find the same solace in watching the birds going about their business, finding a way to survive, carrying on. And that gave her and her students the strength and the will to do the same at a time when life was hard in New Orleans.

Ms. O’Kane is now a doctoral student in environmental studies at University of Wisconsin, Madison. She has found a way to connect her interest in human rights with her new found interest in birds. She teaches an undergraduate course in environmental justice in which she pairs undergraduate students with middle school students in a mentoring program called Nature Explorers. Many of the middle school children are immigrants from Central America. She finds that they enjoy learning about the birds that migrate between Central America and Wisconsin, just as their families did. The birds, like the people of America, are citizens of the world.

Ms. O’Kane tells us that many of her undergraduate students are frightened of the future of our planet. She likes to start each new class with the story of the sparrows in New Orleans: “I tell them that the birds are a gift to help them get through each day, a way to enjoy the world while we change it so that young people, everywhere, have a chance.”

Whose eyes do you choose to look through?

It’s no secret that our viewpoint regarding nature is more closely aligned with Ms. O’Kane’s. If you haven’t yet taken a stand on the issue of what plants and animals are welcome in your ideal nature, think for a moment. Which of these starkly different viewpoints do you prefer?