Thursday, May 18, 2006

Immigrants and Weeds

Tonight, George Bush is going to address the nation on immigration. I’m going out to set some electric fence, move 600 goats, and reduce the population of leafy spurge on a property along the West Yellowstone River in Bridger, Montana. To a strict literal interpretation, our two tasks could not be any more different. However, some striking similarities exist between our two pursuits. Julia is my Rove, Cheney, Rice, and Rumsfeld (I accept the implications of total reliance on her talents). The goats are my national guard; electric fences my borders; and the dogs are the communications network that hold it all together. Both W and I are approaching problems with a foreign population on US soil. How we view the problem, and the approaches that we take to solving it will greatly affect the success that we will have in our quests. Ultimately, the success or failure of our goals will depend on our ability to address the root causes.

Leafy spurge, euphorbia esula, infests some 2.5 million acres of grassland in a 1200-mile radius centering in Montana. Spurge is native to Eurasia, but it has spread across the world. It competes intensely for resources, has 15 feet or longer taproots and reproduces at the subsoil level by rhizomes. Spurge contains latex in its milky sap that causes stomach ulcers, blisters and even death if consumed in sufficient quantities. The damage bill renders some ranges and wildlife preserves uninhabitable.

Tordon wipes out all broadleaf plants, and is the chief method of combating spurge. It gives an instant victory for the sprayer; the spurge will recede until the next year. However, Tordon makes the weakened biological system even more vulnerable to reinfestation.

Spraying spurge is the chemical equivilant to deportation. Deportation is expensive, ethically questionable, and does not address the root cause of the massive immigration into the US. Immigration presents a problem because illegal immigrants do not pay taxes but use the same resources as tax paying Americans. The unambiguous reason, or root cause, why there are so many immigrants crossing the borders is because of the immense economic disparities in the world economy. Immigrants cross the borders to obtain access to resources that they cannot as easily, or at all, in Mexico, Haiti or any other country where US Green cards are more valuable than winning lottery tickets. The free market dictates that people flowing into the US will equalize the world wage rate. This, however, would be a nightmare for the average wage of the US citizen and is simply not an option for a US politician representing his or her constituency. So we will continue to talk about guest workers and border security while the pressure grows and grows. Like a hurricane gaining strength to transfer the enormous accumulated heat north, the immigration pressure will continue to move people to the colder, richer US. Bush simply has his finger in the dyke.

Fortunately for me, the root causes of spurge infestation are easier to address, although they may be a little harder to understand. Unlike Bush, I have immediately available the tools that will allow me to release the pressure that spurge puts on its ecosystem. Spurge infests rangeland and riverbanks that have been tossed out of balance by years of over and under grazing, making them extremely vulnerable to infestation. Because leafy spurge seeds create no threat to a healthy grassland, our challenge is to create stable, productive grasslands where spurge cannot thrive.

The goats assist in creating this environment because of what they eat and how they're managed. They selectively eat the flowery tops off of it like a pig rooting truffles from the forest. In an area overgrazed by cattle, leafy spurge remains with tiny grass plants struggling around it. Through grazing, we direct more of the solar energy to the grasses and turn a noxious weed into valuable fertilizer.

The US track record in protection of our ecosystems indicates mismanagement. We have degraded soils and reduced their capacity to support life as we have settled the country. Leafy spurge, spotted knapweed, star thistle, and others make evident the detrimental effect of our decision making. Our ecosystems are now vulnerable to weeds that don't support biodiversity. From another perspective, however, these plants are essential.

Most noxious weeds build up the organic matter in our soils and keep them from washing into the oceans, a habit that we have pursued with incredible ability (topsoil is far and away our nations biggest yearly export). They colonize otherwise bare soil where no native plant could survive. In some ways, immigration is no different. Immigrants keep our agricultural, manufacturing, and construction sectors alive. Weeds bring up nutrients not normally available to the ecosystem. Diversity, both human and ecological, is a net benefit when the systems involved are vigourous. We should stop viewing both weeds and immigrants as a problem and look at them as an opportunity for soluations to local and global instability. We can do this by eliminating the vacuums that are created because of lack of resources. Nature does not like vacuums, people and plants will move to fill them as long as natural laws rule our existence. I hope that we can take steps to alleviate global poverty and build soil to create healthy communities.

3 Comments:

At 11:04 AM, Blogger Jon and Julia said...

unfortunately, our goats are more valuble as grazers than meat animals, so I don't get to eat any of them. I stopped asking Julia about it a month ago.

 
At 11:10 AM, Blogger BGGB said...

this was a great update, as usual.

sorry to hear you can't eat your employees.

 
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