2023 Native Plant Symposium

[@threeriversforge1997]

Very nice talk, and a lot of good points raised. I often tell folks that one of the biggest problems we face is how people are disconnected from the environment because they don't actively use the environment in ways that impact them every day. In short, we've forgotten our tribal ways that even just 50 years ago were still somewhat understood. It's a curious thing how my work studying the Traditional Trades, being a blacksmith, shows the same patterns no matter where I look. Folks didn't "tend their garden" and that has caused all manner of issues today. When we talk about "good forest relations" at the 2:51 mark, this is a great example of people forgetting that we're all natives and have tribal customs that stretch back eons. And it's not too long into the past that we still practiced these customs in significant scales. Case in point, the willow tree mentioned as one of the Keystone Species. Throughout Europe, the willow was used every day as a crop because the people used the willow to make all manner of things for the home. Willow weavers might be large industrial operations, or it might be a small cottage industry, but everywhere you turned, you saw people growing willows to be woven and they understood that the willow was critically important to them even if they didn't understand how important it was to the pollinators. When we turned our backs on this tradition because some slick talker convinced people to buy mass-produced wire and plastic contraptions, we lost all those thousands of years of generational knowledge just as we lost the huge fields of willow that were grown. Thousands of people were put out of work. Local industry collapsed. And for what? We can see a similar story in the hedgerows of Europe. Today, the environmentalists are trying to restore the hedgerows and all their talk is about how they are great for the environment, but there's never any mention of how they serve the people. Traditionally, it was the local people who tended the local hedgerows, trimming them every year on rotation to keep them in good order. And all the wood that they pulled out of the hedgerows was then used to make goods for the local customers. The "bodgers" were quite famous for their work. They tended the hedges and wild lands, keeping things clean and minimizing wildfires, while also providing all manner of goods for the homes around them. Chairs, cups, bowls, platters, troughs, hurdles, gates, fences, charcoal, firewood, the list of necessities is almost endless, and all reminding people that they were part of nature and that nature was there to provide for them as they provided for it. Today, we've all turned our backs on that idea. We don't see nature as more than a pretty thing to look at, and so it's hard to preserve it. This is why I tell people that we should both grow willow and use that willow for our homes. If we teach our kids that the willow has value outside of being pretty or beneficial to bugs, they are far more likely to care for the willow themselves. And it gives people employment. Maybe it's not a full-time job with great benefits, but if they can make a little on the side doing something that they enjoy, that's a win. We need to remember our culture and heritage, and celebrate it, if we want to make long-term gains in protecting the environment.