Are Environmentalists Protecting An Artificial Environment?

Are Environmentalists Protecting an Artificial Environment?

By Paul H. Betancourt

July 2013

            As part of her study of family history Sheryl has been reading the history and journals of 19^th Century pioneer women. These were amazing women. Imagine caring for your family as you cross the country at walking speed. We complain about uncomfortable seats on a five hour flight. At the end of the journey they started new homes from scratch. Amazing.

            But, that’s not what I want to write about. One of the 19^th Century observations these women made was the changing nature of the landscape. That’s right, even over a hundred years ago they could see the natural habitat had already changed. The flora of the San Joaquin Valley started changing in the 18^th Century. The Spaniards brought cattle and horses to California. Old World seeds on the coats of the livestock fell off, took root and spread all over the state. “By 1833 trapper Zenas Leonard observed that the indigenous perennial bunch grass had been almost totally replaced” (Beers 384). California’s habitat has not been ”natural” since the 18^th Century! IT probably wasn’t even “natural” then. Local Yokut Indians practiced burning grasslands, “to encourage earlier sprouting” (Beers 384).

            This confirms the observation of my old soils prof at Fresno State. His extensive study of soil profiles around the Valley confirm that the Valley’s original flora consisted of salt grasses, not the “wild oats, European Foxtail, Bermuda grass and burr clover” we saw a century ago.

            The obvious question is- Are environmentalists protecting an artificial environment?

            There is an old saying about closing the barn door after the horse is gone. In my book, Ten Reasons: Finding Balance on Environmental Issues one point I try to make is, if we are going to make environmental policy, let’s do it right. Protecting an artificial environment in the name of caring for the environment doesn’t even come close.

            Recent observations  of the Sacramento/ San Francisco Bay Delta confirm what we found in our grasslands. Enviros have gone to war to protect the Delta Smelt. The Smelt’s #1 predator? Stripped Bass, a non-native species. We could cut off all the water to Southern California and all the farmers south of the Delta and we would still have Stripped Bass eating Delta Smelt. On top of that another non-native species, the Asian Clam, has become so numerous in the Delta they have measurably increased water clarity by the action of filtering the water for their food. ( cite)

            If we are going to care for the environment let’s do it right. Let’s admit California’s environment was unalterably changed two centuries ago. In 1977 botanist Harold Heady write, “alien species should be considered as new and permanent members (of the environment) rather than as aliens” (Heady). The time is long past of thinking we can restore California to its natural state. The question is- how do we care for our state as it is?

Beers, Terry, Unfolding Beauty: Celebrating California’s Landscapes, Santa Clara,
            Santa Clara University Press, 2000.

Heady HF. Barbour MG, Major J., Valley grassland. Terrestrial Vegetation of California,

New York, Wiley, 1977.