The plant that names our region: wiregrass, Aristida stricta:
Quail and gopher tortoises eat it.
Many birds, reptiles, and small animals use it for covers.
For centuries settlers grazed cattle on it.
Burn it in May for it to make seed in October.
It thrives in fire forests with longleaf pine.
Map of Wiregrass Georgia:
The region also extends into south Alabama and north Florida.
There’s so little native wiregrass left that the only place t
hat seems to have a map of the region is the
Huxford Genealogical Society in Homerville,
right in the center of Wiregrass Georgia.
Wiregrass with small dogs for scale:
This wiregrass is native; it’s been growing here for 15,000 y
ears since the last Ice Age.
Pictures by John S. Quarterman, Lowndes County, Georgia, 19 Feb 2011.
Gretchen Quarterman at the
Amtrak Station, Jesup, Georgia, 17 and 25 Feb 2011,
along with a bunch of women from Brunswick on their annual outing to NYC, and around a dozen other passengers.
Videos by John S. Quarterman.
Camano Island is NW of Everett, Washington, and this article is from 2002,
responding to an article in the local paper there. -jsq
Commentary
A Call for Skepticism
by Steven K. Roberts
Camano Island
If ever we needed a demonstration that the fundamental flaw in many
arguments is a lack of discrimination regarding information sources,
we have it in the Nels Konnerup article, “Toxicology 101 Defended,”
in the March 26 issue of the S/C News.
The author makes a “plea for cogent thought, rather than a visceral
reaction to the use of pesticides and herbicides,” and cites a number of
references “authored by highly qualified and respected scientists.” So
far, so good.
But just for fun, I spent a few minutes researching some of these sources
to see if I could determine the affiliations and biases of their authors.
Dr. Stanley Culpepper of UGA Tifton says 52 counties have the mutant pigweed.
He says they’re looking at cover crops and deep turning.
(You may know that as plowing.)
He hastily adds that they’re looking at other herbicides.
But he wraps up by saying we have to look at other methods
than herbicides: tillage and cover crops.
He frames it as diversity and integration.
What it really means is spraying poisons eventually
breeds weeds that refuse to be poisoned.
People, of course,
are not so lucky.
The documentary points out many products in German stores that
include GM soy.
In Argentina, it’s even worse, with increasing numbers of birth defects.
They interview
Prof. Andrés Carrasco about his research on amphibians:
“The hemispheres do not separate, like you can see here.
If you look closely you can see one brain.
Glyphosate can cause this kind of mechanisms, for it is an enzymatic toxin.”
“To human cells glyphosate is already toxic in a very low dose.
A farmer uses a much higher dose on the field.
Roundup is even more toxic than glysophate,
for that is only one of the ingredients in Roundup.”
Roundup says none of this applies to humans and Roundup is safe.
Seralini
says:
Who should you believe?
A corporation repeatedly convicted of deception,
or scientists who say that GM crops
cause liver and kidney damage in animals,
according to research using Monsanto’s own data.
