Mark L. Johnson, RLA, MLA, ASLA Ecotone Land Design, Inc. President, Pine Lily Chapter
Surveys taken in communities almost anywhere in the United States would probably indicate that people are concerned about their “quality of life”. For the average North American, quality of life is making sure that there is ample income, educational opportunity, health and healthcare facilities and recreational opportunities that are provided in a safe and peaceful area. We don’t think too much about how to insure that life is “quality”; we just want to have a cocoon that assures it.
At the turn of the 20th Century a live canary meant “quality of life” for coal miners in West Virginia. As long as that little canary was conscious, the mine workers had confidence that there was low enough levels of methane and carbon monoxide gases that they could survive while making their living deep in the bowels of the earth. We know of other indicator species, such as the American Dipper or sub-alpine Gray Jay, that provide scientists and naturalists with a warning about the health of various ecosystems and ecological niches. But, those species are far removed from our lives, in most cases, and certainly don’t reflect upon the quality of our daily existence.
While the plants around us really do reflect upon the quality of our lives, we usually take them for granted. In the deepest rain forests of equatorial Brazil, aboriginal peoples can and have found ample sustenance for centuries. We have no record of an ancient civilization that overtaxed the resources of the land in this area. Ancient, human-created economies in the Amazon basin are very simple and related to the immediate environment; with minimal dependence upon far-off food and energy sources to prop up the daily lifestyle.
Across the Atlantic, subsistence in the longitudinally tropical Sahara Desert is much different. The occasional oasis has provided viability for adapted plant species and the nomadic peoples who have learned how to navigate over long distances to assure their survival. Only geological feature such as the Nile River have offered a large civilization to the inland areas of the desert. Modern human technologies have impacted these regions to make them more inhabitable and profitable, but life on the desert is much more precarious than in the rain forest; when it comes to abundant food sources.
I use these examples about human sustenance, in an effort to get us thinking about how important the health of the land is for our viability in any environment. The technologies that created and continue to be spawned by the western economies have insulated us from most of the challenges of subsistence that are experienced in other regions of the world, so we no longer relate to the bush or animal on the roadside or in our back yard as important to our dinner table. What we are oblivious to is that multiple species serve to indicate whether our environment is truly healthy.
Many people get involved with native plants because they want butterflies and birds in their back yards. But, as long as we see butterflies and birds as ornaments hanging on our plants, it is only happenstance that we are being environmentally responsible. After all, there are some non-native, ornamental plants that also host butterflies. However, having been around for thousands of years, the relationship between native plants and many species of both insects and animals can be very significant. In fact, we know that species such as the scrub jay are reliant upon such a narrow ecological niche that we still may not be able to provide habitat in our back yards; even if we successfully duplicated most of the plants in their preferred environment.
While we people focus on corn from Nebraska, tomatoes from Chili, rice from Thailand, potatoes from Idaho, and peaches from Georgia; we may not be concerned about the food value of the plants in our yards. The tremendous surge in oil cost in 2008 has begun to shine light upon the cost of lifestyles that depend upon products and employment opportunities far from our front doors. Until recently, we have been out of touch with the cost of watering, fertilizing, and maintaining the plants in our yards; but government programs like Florida Yards and Neighborhoods are attempting to wave warning flags. On the other hand, the quail, turkey, foxes, Monarch butterflies, and Scrub Jays have been silent; while habitats have disappeared and been replaced with alien landscapes. The quality of life for these and many other species is not negatively affected by the heat, mosquitoes, and hurricanes of our Florida; but is impacted by the loss of native habitat that they have long depended upon. If our scientific community is correct, our future quality of life may be dependent upon the biodiversity that we encourage in our yards, today.