OUR LAGUNA: Unwelcome migrants in gardens, wilderness
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And you thought the only alien invaders you had to worry about were little green men from Mars.
Nope.
They are green alright, but they are in your own backyard and they have roots instead of legs.
Unchecked, these invaders could take over Laguna, according to landscape architect Bob Borthwick.
Borthwick shared his concern about the battle against invasive, non-native plants Monday night at the Laguna Canyon Conservancy Dinner at which he was the guest speaker.
“This is not the sexiest topic,” Borthwick said. “My son mentioned when he came in that the conservancy must be really low on topics, but Carolyn [conservancy president Wood] said a lot of people are interested.
“Personally, I think it is an important topic.”
The state of California also thinks it is an important topic and has published a list of about 200 plants that cannot be trusted to stay where they belong.
In other words, they are not native to the habitat that they have invaded.
Borthwick said some of the invaders simply hopped from gardens to open space.
He has backing on the council.
“In October of 2006, Toni Iseman put an item on the council agenda to discuss how to educate the public on what they should and should not plant in their yards,” Borthwick said.
In 2007, the council and the Planning Commission did a joint tour of the city, and Iseman asked Borthwick to photograph sites where pampas grass had escaped from cultivated gardens into the wild.
Iseman made sure that no one on the tour missed the abundant examples of the runaway plumes that dot Laguna hillsides.
Soon after, the council directed the Environmental Committee to prepare a brochure on invasive non-natives.
When a sub-committee that included Lisa Marks, Judy Yorke and Rick Blomquist was appointed, City Environmental Specialist Mike Phillips mentioned that Borthwick had some information that would be useful.
“We got together and the brochure will be ready this spring,” Borthwick said.
Once the council reviews and approves the draft, the brochure will be made available to the public on the city’s web site and at City Hall, Borthwick said.
“When I first started working on the brochure, it was going to be called ‘Invasive Weeds,’ but I suggested that some people think of natives as weeds.”
Pretty much everyone agrees that a dandelion is a weed, but what about a palm tree? You bet it is, if it is growing in Laguna Canyon in the middle of a riparian area, Borthwick opined.
Los Angeles has a strict code about suitable plants and Borthwick found pepper trees are on the banned list when he was doing a project in Santa Clarita.
That is the treasured tree that grows in front of Laguna’s City Hall.
“Weed is a relative term,” Borthwick said. “A plant can be welcome in one habitat, but be considered a weed in another.”
(Personally, my definition of a weed is a plant that grows without any coddling, at the expense of the carefully nurtured, dare I admit it, non-native azaleas in my yard).
In Borthwick’s opinion, non-natives should be put on the FDA list of controlled substances “” vigilantly policed to prevent migration.
“When this starts happening, the beauty of the native landscape is degraded,” Borthwick said.
Former Mayor Ann Christoph, a landscape architect, commented later that Laguna has a unique association of plants that grow nowhere else on the planet.
“The combinations are unique and people come from all over the world to study them,” Christoph said.
South Laguna Civic Assn. member Bill Rihn said animal habitat is also affected by non-natives.
“The two are tied together,” Rihn said. “Animals won’t have the food they like.”
In Borthwick’s estimation, pampas grass is Public Enemy No. 1.
“Every time I see pampas grass in the open space is like sticking a knife in me,” he said.
“It is the poster child for what we don’t want in Laguna.”
Borthwick said there are only two ways to get rid of established pampas grass “” dig it up or douse it with herbicides.
“Neither remedy is perfect: both are expensive and one is toxic,” Borthwick said.
Second to pampas grass, Borthwick cited arundo domax, commonly called giant reed.
“It was brought into the United States for slope retention,” Borthwick said. “It grows along creeks and holds up the banks.”
Unfortunately, it has completely taken over many watercourses.
“The Army Corps of Engineers has been trying for 20 years to get rid of it,” Borthwick said.
Examples can be seen along Laguna Canyon Road between El Toro Road and the tollway and large patches are growing upstream from the Bark Park.
It can grow 25 feet tall, is extremely aggressive and multiplies rapidly.
Next on Borthwick’s hit list: artichoke thistle, brought to the United States in the 1800s as edible artichokes.
“Ron Kaufman said the Chinese use the artichoke thistle as a medicine and maybe we could let them know we have a good supply,” Borthwick said.
Laguna Wilderness Park landscape architect Scott Thomas told Borthwick that fountain grass is the non-native that most bugs him.
“It is a popular nursery plant,” Borthwick said. “Please don’t buy it.”
Richinus Communis is the botanical name for castor bean, so poisonous that just touching the leaves can give a person a rash. Ingestion of just four or five seeds can kill an adult.
Even the goats that crop the fuel break around the city get sick from the plant.
If nothing is done, non-native plants would win the battle for supremacy, according to Borthwick.
“We can’t get rid of everything,” Borthwick said. “But getting rid of the most aggressive non-natives is a start.”
Among those who attended the conservancy dinner: Mary Nelson and her son, James, and friends Barbara Covey and Carolyn Croissant.
“We’re here because of the Dilleys,” Nelson said.
James Dilley founded Laguna Greenbelt Inc., which laid the foundation for the Laguna Coast Wilderness Park.
Also at the dinner: Andy and City Clerk Martha Anderson, former City Clerk Verna Rollinger, Ginger and former Mayor Neil Fitzpatrick, Dick and Heritage Committee member Anne Frank and Design Review Board member John Keith.
OUR LAGUNA is a regular feature of the Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot. Contributions are welcomed. Write to Barbara Diamond, P.O. Box 248, Laguna Beach, 92652; hand-deliver to Suite 22 in the Lumberyard, 384 Forest Ave.; call (949) 494-4321 or fax (949) 494-8979.
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