Dead Trees- Ornamentals- Let me know if you see them too

 Novel Ecosystems do not contain as many species as Co-Evolved ecosystems. 

I truly love all of the natural systems of the Earth.  The food chains, food webs, and how species interact.  I have always watched nature on PBS and as I get older, 39, I am getting more interested in gardening.  I have not put the shovel into the dirt yet but I have been following some gardening stuff on Facebook. I am watching and learning with the hope of doing.  I have also become interested in watching some longer type of lectures online lately when I have the chance.  Maybe some of you have as well.  I came across this Doug Tallamy Lecture.  I personally feel that this lecture will hit you in the brain and will turn a light on in your head.  The question is," Would you rather have plants that allow Bugs and Animals to live on them!!!  Or would you rather have plants that look good but are essentially DEAD. 

We are talking Callory Pear Trees, Most Dogwood Trees, All Cherry Trees, Forsythia Bushes, Burning Bushes, and Japanese Maple.   Not only are these trees Dead to the bugs and birds that live in our area they are invasive.  Every time they grow and out compete a native they are killing ecosystems. 

Doug made a great, is should say amazing, point in his lecture.  When a bird flies all day migrating it wants to land in a tree.  Every tree should be a tree with lots of bugs living in it.  When it lands it wants to spend the last waking minutes of its day refueling.  If it ends up in dead zone with a bunch of ornamentals that look nice it really may not have the energy.  

I have also heard that Bird and Bug numbers are down.  My brother and I were talking about it this week.  We are in the trucking business.   When we were young we would go on trips down south from Massachusetts with Dad and we used to love to see what bugs we caught on the radiator.  Honestly we have not seen bugs on the radiator for a while.  This is not empirical scientific evidence that the bugs are down but just look it up. Bird and Bug numbers are way down.

I feel like of all the issues we have today this is like an easy issue for every person to pick up.  Buy and plant indigenous.  We don't care how pretty they trees are we like to know how alive they are. 

Watch this for yourself. Spend the 1 hour on your knowledge of your surrounding ecosystem and let me know if you see Dead Trees, too.  I did not watch the Question and answer because after watching I had no questions. 

https://vimeo.com/516024290/69954c9159?fbclid=IwAR0vnTkHWYiJX_mChOV5jCl5LyS-uyrZXpKXPkuY7KIHn4Cy_J2T75daFvA