Sustainable Alternative Uses for Western Juniper

Invasion Alert! The western juniper (juniperus occidentalis) 😬😱😨

Image - earthbeours.dom

The beautiful ancient looking tree above is named the Bennett Juniper and it's believed to be the oldest specimen of Juniperus occidentalis known, estimated at about 2200 years old, which is down from an earlier  3000 year age calculation. Still, this tree germinated back in BCE. It's located in the Stanislaus National Forest of California. Its height is 78 feet with an average crown spread of 56 feet. The diameter at breast height (4.5 feet above ground) is 12.7 feet. So it makes it tough to understand the present  alarmist reaction to a tree being called invasive in it's native home range. As you can see in the photo at right, there are a number of trees encroaching on what use to be grasslands. It's not only the Western Juniper that is demonized, but also the Eastern Red Cedar, Ashe Juniper and even the common Pinyon Pine. Ranchers mostly dislike it. They claim the Junipers encroach and destroy grasslands for their grazing operations. Other say it is a greedy water gulping worthless tree. They even provide old historical photos of the landscape vegetation cover from many years ago of an exacting location and what it looks like today as proof of invasion. Take a look below.

Images - conifers.org

Image - Karen Bryz  (2014)

The so-called Juniper invasion here is a comparison of historical and recent photos taken on the Keystone Ranch east of Prineville, Oregon. There are a number of reasons for the spread like Climate Change, blame given to lack of fire within these ecosystems, but also Juniper seeds don't blow in the wind, they are infact eaten by an incredible variety of birds which later poop them out elsewhere. Like these bluebirds above right. I was reading an article on what trees Oregonians favoured the most when it comes to trees. The Ponderosa Pine and Douglas Firs led the charge for being the most popular as well as Redwoods. I dare say though that if it were their precious Douglas Fir, Ponderosa Pine or Redwoods which were invading and encroching onto the grassland landscape, nobody would really be freaking out over a so-called invasion. Human Beings have a tendency to judge things in Nature the same way they judge other human beings. What they value as worth is what they find pleasing to the eye, taste or some other personal preferences within the five senses. Money can be made off those species for their natural resources, which would infer Junipers, Cypress, Pinyon, etc are worthless and valueless in their eyes. Yet not everyone sees these trees this way. Take for example this research done by Bob Harms from the University of Texas in Austin. Bob Harms found out that the native Texas Ashe Juniper (also demonized as a grassland invader), actually has worth as a nurse plant for Texas Madrone (Arbutus zalapensis).

Images - Bob Harms

The Texas Madrone is yet another beautiful and desirable tree, but of course if your business is in the cattle industry, then maybe not so much. Like most nurse plants, it would mean that Ashe Juniper probably also provides a symbiotic relationship through the mycorrhizal fungal network. Plau like most nurse plants, they probably also provide an excellent source for hydraulic lift and redistribution of water from deep subsoil layers during the hotter Summer months to other plant's seedlings. And if the hydraulics work one direction, they probably have the ability to reverse that service downwards during the wetter season. Winter rainfall quite possibly may be further facilitated into deeper subsoil layers by these woody plants. Here's what Bob Harms says in his own words about the Junipers ability as a nurse plant as well as an important wildlife food & nesting source.

"I do not view the native junipers on our land as an undesirable invasive species, but rather as a plant that offers numerous benefits not generally appreciated, even beyond providing important nesting materials for the Golden-cheeked Warbler and a winter food source for birds and mammals. Many areas of our once overgrazed ranchland are gradually being restored thanks to the mulch from our junipers, surviving on bare calcareous slopes that otherwise would have suffered even greater erosion. The view of cedars replacing open fields of grass must be balanced against that of native grasses and numerous other plants gaining a foothold thanks to the mulch and shade that otherwise would be absent. And in fact, only overgrazed fields are at great risk of juniper invasion."

(Source: Bioscience - University of Texas)

Of course this doesn't mean that Ranchers and other land managers will buy into the wildlife and nurse plant importance of Junipers. Worldview and Political Ideology are strong religious dogmas which are strongly entrenched into the pysche of Juniper haters. Environmentalists aren't often much help either. Take the video below. While they do draw attention to a practice of bulldozer and chain ripping of Pinyon & Juniper habitat (something I also dislike), they then proceed to fingerpoint at a much hated opponent's Political Party as the enemy. Fact is the present administration is not at fault since this practice goes all the way back to the 1990s. The moment they blame game an opposing ideology, you soon realize it's not about protecting Nature, but rather scoring Brownie Points in the hopes of acquiring political power and hanging onto it. If you are a non-profit environmental organization, then the vicious attacks are used as ammunition for membership drive for the cause and monetary donations. As soon as the hysterical outrage has been milked for all it's financial worth, they move onto something else. Sadly, Nature still comes in last no matter who believes they won the fight. Watch this SUWA video and you soon realize it's never been about Nature as much as created hatred towards the present ruling authority.

Sagebrush Steppe Treatment Evaluation Project

What Eco-Activism fails to ever provide the Public with are real world viable solutions to real world needs for raw building materials and food. Demonizing other people whose worldview they hate and blaming them for what ails Nature is not the answer. Nobody responds favourably to in your face civil disobedient Activism. Seriously folks (NatureLovers), in any matter of controversy life that may involve you personally, have You ever responded favourably to someone else's point of view when they were in your face, used foul language, personal derogatory insults or violent attacks on your property or bodily harm ??? Of course not, but this method and playbook strategy is generally what we see today on the Nightly News reports. What they need to do instead is convince the landowners there's gotta be a better more responsible way of making money with land where Pinyons & Junipers also reside. On the other side of the coin, can any landowners consider the waste they have when utilizing prescribed burns after dragging a chain by Bulldozer ??? It's a waste of a valuable wood products resource and one that is basically free and pays for it's removal as opposed to just paying for it to be removed. Even if they do this themselves, there are major financial cost setbacks. Clearly appealing to their sensitivity to ecology and wildlife doesn't always work, so why not try the money angle approach as the better choice ? On that note, I'll now post a number of videos below which provide excellent explanation on how some inventive entrepreneurial people have done just that. The first videos simply go about the challenges many are facing with the increase of trees into their grassland ranges. One has an opinion of a Rancher from his prespective. Another provides an example of a small lumber mill business operator who deals specifically with Juniper wood products. Finally there is another business venture which back east actually logs large forests for wood stove pellets to be shipped all the way to the United Kingdom to service the pellet stove industry there which promotes itself as one of the eco-green solutions for alternative engery. Actually it's anything but sustainable eco-green.

The Quiet Invasion... Managing Juniper in Eastern Oregon Part 1

 The Quiet Invasion - Control or Prescribed Burns, part 2

The Quiet Invasion- The Rancher Perspective

Alternative Sustainable Use forWestern Juniper for Profit

Western Juniper for Lumber Mill Operations

Check out the link below 

Joseph's Juniper, Inc., Hines, Oregon 

Maybe sometime in the future when we take a weekend drive in the country on a backroad, instead of seeing a sign that says, "Prescribed Burn Ahead"

Maybe we'll start seeing more responsible signs that say something like, "Juniper Reclamation Ahead"

Good & Bad about the Wood Pellet Industry

Two articles from Daily Mail Online - (2014) & (2017) - Both self explanatory 

Daily Mail Online (2014)

DailyMail: The bonfire of insanity: Woodland is shipped 3,800 miles and burned in Drax power station. It belches out more CO2 than coal at a huge cost YOU pay for... and all for a cleaner, greener Britain!

Daily Mail Online (2017)

Daily Mail: Pure idiocy! How spending billions on subsidising an efficient coal-burning power station to burn wood is actually WORSE for the planet than before

The Lethal Dangers of Wood Pellets - Especially When Shipping Overseas (Sweden)

How Wood Pellets are Manufactured

Wood Pellet Stoves are becoming more and more popular. My brother has one. Having had a conventional wood burning stove on my property for 20+ years high up in the San Jacinto Mountains above Palm Springs, California and heating my house that way, I did save money, but it was also hard back breaking work doing Fall preparation and messy both outside and inside. But it seems reasonable that there could be a market for some pellet mills somewhere in the western states. Maybe a couple of Mills. I mean what a waste burning is and I'm not exactly on board with the "burn baby burn" people either. I just don't get this incessant love affair with fire. Yes, fire is natural, it occurs in nature. But not at the rates these guys want to shove down everyone's throat. 90% of wildfires today are human caused, the other 10% come from lightning or Volcanoes. I don't care that Indians (Native Americans) did it. They are and always have been human beings equal to everyone else on the planet. They used fire to exploit the environment for it's resouces. They used it for war. They used it to run buffalo (Bison) off cliffs, often more than they could use despite the narrative of taking only what they need. That's what being a human being is all about. Anyway, below is an interesting bit I've included with a guy who did his own energy calculations and money savings. Enjoy! 

Are Wood Pellet Stoves Energy Efficient???

Further Reading References

http://www.pinyonjuniperforests.org

http://www.basinandrangewatch.org/Pinyon-Juniper.html

Important Note: I don't endorse any of these activist non-profit sites. They do provide some interesting info, but support, follow and donate at your own risk.

How dumping the "Argument from Poor Design" dogma might just help the planet

Fact: Trashing Designs found in Nature for the biased purpose of scoring Brownie Points against conventional Religious Fundies has had a Degenerative Trashing effect on the Earth's natural world

Illustratiom by bookofbadarguments.com

https://bookofbadarguments.com

The online 'Book of Bad Arguments' link above is an interesting read if you've got the time. It really illustrates just how twisted this world has become when it comes to people coming up with all sorts creative ways to justify another failed worldview. The lengths and idiocy to which many people use to win arguments or pimp a worldview is nothing but time wasting because it so often falls well short of reality. Today I watched a video posted by the California Native Plant Society's chapter of San Diego. It's an organization which is dedicated to the promotion of native California plants. But only Cal-Natives. That's kool, I love cal-native plants. But like so many organizations championing any kind of cause today, they are generally intolerant of any other types of ecosystem plants being introduced into the urban landscape within California. Okay, I get not wanting something to escape into the wild and becoming a terrible invasive problem, but not every exotic plant is going to be a problem plant. Well anyway, watch the video below, it's only about a couple of minutes.

I understand the benefits of planting natives into the historical range for the purpose of attracting all manner of native wildlife to your landscape. My mum's yard has both natives and non-invasive non-native plants accompanying them which have similar environmental requirements. The various local wildlife (birds, insects, reptiles, animals, etc) also utilize them as well. We've never experienced any problems. But now take special note here of what the narrator in the video, Lisa Novick, stated in this quote below:

"What if people said, 'We should just wait for the Monarchs to throw a random gene that will make their caterpillars be able to eat something other than Milkweed. I'm not willing to take that chance."

Seriously, a random mutated gene ??? Do people still think this way now ??? This old archaic dogma is so outdated in view of newer understanding. Unbelievable, especially in this day and age with regards the increased study and understanding of how the genome really works and the part of genetics termed "epigentics" which in actual fact purposefully engineers incredibly ordered changes influenced by any number of stimuli from environmental cues as opposed to the past historical ignorant belief of random copying errors caused by dumb luck creating wonderful amazing outcomes for no logical reason or goal oriented purpose. But why would she use such unscientific nonsense terminology which started out decades ago as nothing more than some group minority's worldview ??? Brilliant scientific research by dedicated serious scientists have long since proven this to be false. Random copying errors do not innovate, they cause sickness, diseases, cancers & death. Nevertheless, such religious dogmas diehard. This thinking is so ingrained into the average psyche of many folks as a consequence of early indoctrination at elementary school. Clearly many people later in life need to go through some type deprogramming therapy before being re-educated about how our natural world really works. The big question here is, how does one go about experimenting or testing for random mutations caused by dumb luck and expect to obtain any beneficial innovation which results in practical application ??? You don't and that's why we experience a natural world where various ecosystems that are completely unraveling before our very eyes because we have a Scientific Orthodoxy out there promoting nature as flawed, imperfect and badly designed and that only the superior intellect of humans can fix those flaws and save us. But insisting Nature is flawed only seems mask the gross imperfection of human ignorance on the subject about how our natural world really works. Take for example the world's biotechnology industry. Biotechs justify their existence and methods of technology because they say changes in life happen all the time by means of something called Horizontal Gene Transfer. Hence their transgenic manipulation of organisms is justified in their worldview because it happens in Nature anyway. Except that leads to the assumption that their services really are needed or the world fails. Take the following example below of this subject, "Argument from Poor Design" which like Junk DNA, does nothing more than hide and sweep under the rug the scientific community's past ignorance and stupidity from decades past. Take note of the first person most responsibe about Argument from Poor Design. His writings in his first book are loaded with what he imagined as perfect examples.

One would have to ask, what scientific experiment the Father of Evolutionary Theory, Charles Darwin, use or create in arriving at this conclusion ??? Indeed, how could any scientist have created a verifiable repeatable empical data laced experiment to get into the mind and motivations of an intelligent agency which he already has a bias against in believing a Creator doesn't even exist ??? And by what code of morality is Darwin using ??? By what authority does his version of morality equate truth ??? Really Chuck ??? His followers have grabbed hold of this same strategy and taken this narrative to new lows. I hope everyone understands Nature cannot be judged by human views of morality or in other words, what's right and what's wrong. For example take this grossly flawed blind faith assertion, CRISPR Co-Inventor Jennifer Doudna: 

"It amazes me to realize that we are on the cusp of a new era in the history of life on earth—an age in which humans exercise an unprecedented level of control over the genetic composition of the species that coinhabit our planet. It won’t be long before CRISPR allows us to bend nature to our will in the way that humans have dreamed of since prehistory."

In that very same interview which contains that quote above, Jennifer Doudna, also spoke about ridding the planet of disease carrying mosquitoes thru CRISPR where sterilized GMO Mosquitoes would make sterile eggs and kill off the majority. Since then and against protest they have already done their dirty work and released their Franken-Mosquitoes despite angry cries not to release. And the results ???

UPDATE: September 17, 2019 (Below)

TheScientist.com: GM Mosquito Progeny Not Dying in Brazil: Study

Today's GMO apologetics are also based and indeed justified on this unscientific dogma, "Argument from Poor Design," which is exactly why these geneticists, biologists and other researchers employed by the various biotechnology companies confidently justify all their valuable time playing the gene manipulation game because in their corrupted view of the natural world, it's Nature that is flawed, poorly designed and only their collective credentialed genius can fix those glaring imperfections. The reality is, very few of these Biogeneticist engineers have any clue or understanding of how whole plant ecosystems actually function and maintain themselves out in the wild. Yet, in their worldview, Nature is still flawed and only their collective genius can provide a correction. Seriously ??? 😨 Take a look at this promotional advertisement below on Monsanto's work to gene manipulate crop plants to withstand the present and future global warming.

Advertisement - Monsanto

This is Monsanto's latest development of their infamous "Droughtgard Hybrid" crop seeds. They've informed the public that they only want to feed the world and there's this new problem that hinders this goal and it's called Global Warming. Okay, I understand that. But take a look again at their promotional advert above. They explain that in order to create drought resistant crops like maize or corn or soy, they need to acquire a special stress response gene for encoding cold shock protein B (cspB) from a soil bacterium, Bacillus subtilis, and then insert it into some corn variety's genome. It's also known as “RNA Chaperone” RNA Chaperone from Bacillus subtilis. Yet one wonders why they went to all that time and expense in developing such drought tolerance when Nature has already had these drought resistance tools for countless 1000s of years ??? 😲 Research time is lengthy and expensive because the seed patenting most often runs into the millions of dollars for biotechs. The real problem is that these researchers are in charge of providing their corporations with a regular consumable product. That ensures an annual profit year after year. Utilizing a practice and tool from Nature is free and that is unacceptable. These transgenic seeds are also engineered to work in conjunction with a plethora of other consumables like synthetic science-based fertilizers, insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, miticides, etc. This further ensures huge annual profits for their employers. Yet nature while complex, takes an easier road and is far more sustainable when left alone. Take this mycorrhizal Corn field experiment below by the University of Florida on drought resistance and heat stress with Corn. Here, nutrient and water uptake are improved between 200% to 800% depending on environmental soil conditions and drought tolerance is achieved in one single season, not decades of transgenic manipulation and cross breeding.

Image - Mycorrhizal Applications Inc

So what do you observe above here. Clearly there is a stark contrast. lower left and upper right are Corn whose root systems are colonized by mycorrhizal fungi and creating a network or grid of mycelial strands extended well beyond the plant root zone. At the upper left and lower right is the science-based conventionally grown corn which as been fertilized with synthetic fertilizers. This soil also is a sandy soil which is not known for it's water holding capacity. Do you notice the fungal strands moving under the soil ??? No ??? At the bottom right look at the first two corn rows in the control corn. Notice how thet have improved in vigor over their partners in the conventionally grown field ??? The mycorrhizal fungi has move from the healthy field square on the left and colonized their rot systems. There is no elusive drought gene for Monsanto, Bayer, Syngenta or any other Biotech to acquire and insert in the genome of crop seeds. It's a scam and it effects the health of our planet, 

I have absolutely no problem with any kind of business venture researching, developing, manufacturing and selling a product for profit. But at least when a company like Mycorrhizal Applications Inc develops, manufactures and sells a product for profit, their product doesn't trash our planet. This reminds me of that discussion line of debate from a scene in the Sci-Fi film Jurassic Park. 😆

John Hammond: "All major theme parks have delays. When they opened Disneyland in 1956, nothing worked!" 

Dr. Ian Malcolm: "Yeah, but, John, if The Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don't eat the tourists."

Oddly enough, most all of these biotechs know and understand that the microbial community within the soil is the most efficient and safest way to accomplish good farming, but until now have refused to admit this to the public just how dirty their formula for industrial farming really has been to our natural world. Interestingly, some are now attempting a public relations stunt to colour green their image as promoting that they were always on board with microbes all along, but they then spin how it may not have always looked that way at the beginning. It's all about smokescreen folks. It's about public relations green washing. The facts bare out that their version of worldview about nature being inept and flawed has brought incredible ruin to our planet through their industrial rose coloured vision of things. 

Now while many are now just starting to admit designs copied from nature really have brought incredible advancement, economical savings and enhanced ecological benefits, more has to be done in a hurry. Here are just three more examples of incredible design copying from Nature which has saved some industries millions of dollars and helped vastly improve the environment.

Airbus A380 winglets, inspired by the Steppe Eagle

During an Eagle's flight, the feathers on the tips of it's wings are practically verticle. This configuration gives maximum lift with minimum wing length. Engineers have studied such soaring birds such as eagles with a view of designing more efficient aircraft. The introduction of modified wing design that includes winglets has improved aircraft performance by as much as 15%. Planes can now fly farther and carry more passengers while saving fuel. In the decade following the introduction of up turned wing tips, airlines worldwide saved six thousand seven hundred million liters or two billion gallons of jet fuel. But the eagleäs amazing design is not limited to flight. As the eagle descends upon it's prey, it's eyes continuously adjust to maintain sharp focus throughout the approach. What man made camera ever comes close to this rapid refocus ?

Mercedes-Benz bionic car

"The concept models of the Mercedes-Benz bionic car are appearing as part of the "Design and the Elastic Mind" exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), which showcases innovations in the fields of design and science. 

Bionic Car ConceptOne of the highlights of the exhibition is the Mercedes-Benz bionic car, which was first unveiled in June 2005 at the Innovation Symposium organized by Daimler AG in the US capital, Washington DC.   

Engineers, designers and biologists at Mercedes-Benz worked hand in hand to develop the Mercedes-Benz bionic car. Its template was a sea dweller from tropical latitudes: Ostracion Cubicus – more commonly known as the boxfish.  

Despite its unusual-looking shape, the fish is extremely aerodynamic and can therefore move using a minimal amount of energy. It is also able to withstand high pressures and, thanks to an outer skin consisting of hexagonal bone plates, can survive unscathed following collisions with corals or other sea dwellers."

(Source: carbodydesign.com)

"The Shinkansen Bullet Train which belongs to the West Japan Railway Company is the fastest train in the world which can travel up to 200 miles per hour.   

While they were designing the bullet train, they had a massive problem. The train was very noisy. Every time the train came out from the tunnel, the air pressure changed which resulted in large thunder claps. This noise caused residents a quarter of a mile away to complain.   

The train’s chief engineer and a keen bird-watcher turned to nature to see if they could find something travels quickly and smoothly between two very different substances. They found out that the shape of a kingfisher’s beak was ideal for this situation. Their beaks were ideal because a kingfisher will dive into a body of water to catch a fish with very little splash.   

Once they had copied the shape of the kingfisher’s beak, they modelled the front of the train from that design. Not only did this design result in a quieter train, it also made the train use 15% less electricity while travelling at a speed 10% faster than what it was originally designed for."

(Source: technologybeyond)

Suddenly now we are seeing a surge in all types of Biomimcry organizations claiming they've known all along about the benefits of designs found in nature, but they often refuse to disassociate themselves from the "Argument from Poor Design" dogma. When I've read some of the nature design celebratory articles published by the Biomimicry Institute and their author Janine Benyus, and asked this question aout past worldviews, all I ever get are 'cricket sounds.' Any time I've ever pressed any of the other so-called Biomimicry organizations about this same subject, they too simply refuse to respond. It would appear that deep down inside there is just a little bit of nostalgia for that old time religion. But that old time religion's days are numbered. The Earth can't handle their worldviews anymore. While there has been some push forward in a positive direction from the examples above, it's more than likely not enough. This respect for natural designs in nature should have been followed decades ago.

Now for those who think I'm kidding or exaggerating about the degenerative side effects of pimping one worldview over another causing a serious infection within the Scientific Community, take real close look back at an old well known animated TV commercial from 1977 by Chevron promoting their Ortho Agro-Chemical Division's products which were created & justified based on the blind faith religious concept of Nature being poorly designed until their industrial science White Lab Coats stepped in and saved the day. Seriously, pay real close attention to an example of their twisted worldview they had of nature back in the 1970s where they actually marketed to the public that Nature was completely harsh, unforgiving and inept at growing things and making the consumer wonder how life was even able function prior to these guys at ORTHO coming along and saving the day with their synthetic chemical wonders.

Those of us who are old enough to remember these worldview re-programming indoctrination infomercials saw this barage of propaganda day in and day out for a couple of decades. This infection came out of World War II when bomb  producing chemical corporations could use those same bomb chemicals to grow plants. In the 1950s this was called the Green Revolution and everybody fell for it because Scientists said it was okay. Nobody questioned anything. For many today the answer for correcting the mistakes of the past is unbridled angry Eco-Activism protesting everything and anything that they imagine to be offensive. But that isn't a viable answer either. I'm finding that eco-activism is turning more and more people off towards an ecological stewardship of the earth far more than it's converting the public to get on board. Why ??? Because we are now living in a time where people find it hip to promote themselves as overly sensitive and outraged at the drop of a hat. Any little news report item today that even remotely has the mere appearance of being out of place according to the new rules of definition shell gaming, must be watered down, because even if it's the glaring in your face factual indisputable Truth people still freak out. There are however many sincere ecology minded people who genuinely do care about the environment, but they are paying the price for some of the people they've invited or have allowed to come on board their Cat Stevens "Peace Train" to fight the evil industrialists. Here's one glaring spotlight example below that's recently been in the News and caused incredible anarchy which has resulted in terrible ecological destruction.

Trust me, many of the Native Americans did not feel the same way about the white outside protesters who took the initiative and invited themselves to the Dakota 'Burning Man Festival', I mean Standing Rock Pipeline Protest. Actually the Native American tribal elders were so upset by the outrageous conduct of all the white protester who came out from New York, California and Oregon who brought in loud music, booze, drugs and sponged off the donated food. When the protesters left they left abandoned 200+ plus junk cars they used to get there and many cars even ended up leaking oil in the very river they were supposedly claiming to want to save. Not a happy outcome when the Natives were left with the responsibility and cost of cleaning up their filth. And amazingly these anarchists are supposed to by the ultimate Ecology People.

Here's an interesting observation by Dr. Michio Kaku and the Problem with the learning system in school especially where science is concerned.

 

Stay tuned! 😸

Attracting Beneficial Insects With Beautiful Landscape

Image - Watershed Nursery

When ever I plan a landscape, it's almost always with natives to the area and for the purpose of helping out the native wildlife in the process. While I certainly want an appealing eye candy pleasing to the senses look, I also want to provide food sources, housing habitat and other foraging and cover components for which numerous critters can compliment and actually take care of your landscape or garden for you. Here's a picture of one from my old property in the Mountains above Anza , California. First this variety of Cal-Coffeeberry is listed as 'Mount San Bruno' or even another one which is a little bigger and known for producing a lot of beautiful berries is 'eve case'. This variety is known for being a low grower and remains small in form. The one in the picture below under a Jeffrey Pine (Pinus jeffreya) is approximately 24 years old. Not bad for a little shrub. It has a bigger brother high up on that same bank, though I'm not sure you'll notice it.

image: Mine

I chose this shrub and it's larger variety at the top for the obvious reasons. It's evergreen and from it's appearance at the top photo, you'll notice it has the characteristic berries which ripen unevenly throughout the season giving variety of colouring with gold, green, red and purple. Any shrub in the backcountry of Southern California helps out the ground loving birds like Quail, California Thrashers, California Towhee, Hermit Thrush and Even the common Scrub Jay. The Scrub Jays apparently love the berries. I didn't realize that at first, though I had seen them in the bush. It was one spring when everything was blooming that I notice under a couple of my Manzanitas that there were multiple Coffeeberry Seedlings which had germinated under the dander(or mulch layer) of those Manzanitas. I thought to myself, 'how kool', but before I could transplant any of them, the pathogen which causes damping off kept the understory of the Manzanita weed free and they all died at the root collar. No matter, it was an interesting and educational experience none the less. 

When planting your natives no matter where you are, take into consideration the "Earth's Internet" (mycorrhizal networked associations)  which will allow your plants to benefit from the mycorrhizae grid network. I have never planted these past two decades a native or any other ornamental plant without first providing an inoculent of endo-mycorrhizae inoculent into the mix. I also never amend the soil. It's not necessary. Simply apply a generous layer of compost or mulch around the plant's immediate perimeter. This prevents water loss and weed control for the young plant. also, when you visit the Nursery, resist the temptation to purchase a 5 gallon over a one gallon plant just because you want instant landscape. I understand the impatience, I fight it all the time as well. But a small one gallon will eventually out perform in my experience.

One pleasant surprise I wasn't counting on at all, were all of the insects for which those not so showy flowers(as you can see from the top pic) were attracting, specifically in the Gnat, fly, bee, wasp, mosquito, beetle and some butterfly families to what are not at all again a showy flower. What I did notice was a sticky substance around the leaves of the flower cluster which for the most part are a dull inconspicuous green. Nothing at all fancy or attractive about them. Well not to a human anyway.  There must have been some type of aroma or fragrance given off by the plant that drove those critters nuts because they were climbing and fumbling all over themselves to get a turn at the feeding trough. I couldn't smell it though. What was unusual was to see the phenomenal numbers and the variety of insects that didn't seem to normally hang out together, let alone climb all over each other in such masses. One bright spot I noticed were the numerous tiny parasitic wasps, not the usual giant mud wasps, paper wasps or ground dwelling Yellow Jackets we all flee from (they were there also of course) , but it was those tiny fellows, the ones that lay eggs on the backs of grubs, worms or caterpillars and keep their numbers from decimating your vegetable gardens. Here's an example of the type I'm referring to.

Okay, you get the picture now, but this next photo below is what they can do for your garden.

Image by Garden to Table

As everyone knows, Tomato Hornworms can be devastating to any garden if left unchecked. On that note I have seen where commercial agricultural ventures like Vineyards are now planting rows of Lavender Plants which allow attract all manner of pollinators, but especially good food sources for these beneficial predator wasp insects during the summer months and it's working. Several Vineyards in  Northern California have reported not having to use pesticides anymore. The main predator valued is any number of tiny predatory wasp which seek out and lay their eggs on the backs of caterpillar pests. These wasps do not feed on other insects, but their young do. They however do feed on nectar to sustain themselves and if such resources are absent, they won't be anywhere near your garden. Now interestingly, Charles Darwin found the life cycle of this wasp a little creepy and offere it was proof that a loving God didn't exist. And his followers have followed in his footsteps with a dogma strategy called "Argument From Poor Design" which fails miserable and has unfortunately trashed nature as flawed and badly design. This has been disastrous as it has held good science back in leanring about how nature works and pursuing a more ecological approach to pest management. Instead we have been gifted by lousy science with all manner of toxic chemical pesticies. I'm not saying Darwin's question ws not legit. It it, but it's not a scientific one which can be experimented for using his metaphysics.

Image by George Sherman

The bottom line is, when planning for garden or landscape, remember such plants as California Coffeeberry which is a native. There are surely other ecosystems and plants that work equally well in other states or even countries of the world. Where ever you live, be observant of the nature around you when you're out walking and ask questions of local experts or nurserymen. Ask friends or nieghbours who you know for sure are adept and prolific at greenthumb gardening. I'm sure with the info available these days, they most assuredly are up to scratch on the latest organic methods. BTW, for your information, that photo above right is a commercial Vineyard whose owners planted Lavender which flower all summer long and attract beneficial parasitic wasps which allows them to not have to spray pesticides. Even some commercial growers are getting in on the Biomimicy game and saving not only money, but building a better and healthier product in the process.