STANISLAUS CONNECTIONS

Working For Peace, Justice, and A Sustainable Environment

January 2004


©Joe Medieros

Living Lightly

Rivers of Birds, Forests of Tules: Central Valley Nature & Culture in Season

4. Paradise and Poison Hemlock

Central Valley heat may come on like an affliction, to quote Joan Didion, but the rains of December and January descend like a benediction. In East La Loma park, leaden skies frame the lilting bare limbs of Valley oaks. Underfoot their russet and gold oak leaf litter looks surprisingly like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Nestled securely in the duff are next season’s gall wasps and other over-wintering insect larvae. Along asphalt paths shiny as licorice, buckeye tips are swelling, poised to break into leaf, and large patches of vitamin rich Indian lettuce germinate in the openings between trees.

On my way home from the park I count thirty California gulls (Larus californicus) in the schoolyard across the street. These are probably the only creatures in the world who relish school lunches, and here they are, waiting to scavenge what the kids won’t eat. The gulls are another thread in the Valley’s great aerial tapestry of fall migration; they are following the Tuolumne River (and a necklace of schoolyards with leftovers) into the Sierra Nevada on their way to rookeries at Mono Lake. Ninety-five percent of our state’s entire breeding population of California gulls nest on the lake’s islands. I try to imagine the gulls’ flight over the snowy peaks of the Sierra Nevada range and their first glimpse of the lake as they begin their descent.

Once home, I pack the car trunk with gloves, boots, and tools and head south. Lucky are those who have found a place of perfect happiness, and I count myself among them. At this time of year, my small paradise is the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge in Merced County and the hours I have spent there, gazing at the landscape or vistas of the San Joaquin River and Salt Slough, have been hours of nourishing contentment.

First of all, you are never alone even when you are alone. You can take your troubles to San Luis Island and leave them there, and once, after I had unburdened myself to a coyote that had had the courtesy to sit down on his haunches at a safe distance and to give the impression of listening, he began to whine in sympathy (or was he pleading for me to stop?). Encounter after encounter—with bittern or weasel, garter snake or ringtail, bugling elk or tundra swan—has led me to think of San Luis as an island of enchantments.

And like every other Eden, this one is also imperfect. There are the exuberant mosquitoes, rude wasps, and the invasive plants we love to hate: prickly yellow star thistle (Centaurea solstitialis), noxious perennial pepperweed (Lepidium latifolium), and spotted poison hemlock (Conium maculatum), the last rendered infamous by the ancient Greeks who “used poison hemlock to carry out judicial executions” (Bossard), including the execution of one social pest named Socrates.

Poison hemlock is native to Europe, North Africa, and Asia and was “brought to the United States as a garden plant sometime in the 1800s and sold as a ‘winter fern’” (Bossard). From there it escaped into the fields. It is a problem at refuges not only because it draws moisture from and shades out native plants, but because it grows along the roadways, effectively screening (it can grow to ten feet!) the gentle wetland vistas beyond. And because the root, seeds and young leaves are toxic to livestock, wildlife and humans, there is no living thing eager to eat it (poison hemlock causes death by respiratory failure). Doctors did at one time use hemlock medicinally, as a sedative, and, even earlier, native peoples learned to mix hemlock with deer liver to make poison arrowheads.

Why is poison hemlock here? I have spent a lot of time clearing hemlock, alone and with others, and even more time thinking about its purpose in the world, specifically here where it seems to be so unwelcome. Is it a metaphor for excess, for all that becomes monstrous and greedy, in us and in others, in society at large? Hemlock wants to be the boss, the head plant. It wants to be everywhere; it wants to get all the moisture and sun; it wants us to admire it endlessly and blocks our view of the larger picture. You might say it has a big ego or aspires to the godhead. Is that why it feels so good to pull, chop and clear it, to cut it down to size? Is hemlock a warning?

In Michael Pollan’s book, The Botany of Desire, the author proposes that plants manipulate us as much as we manipulate them, by offering us something we desire such as sweetness, beauty, order or intoxication. Is poison hemlock manipulating us by offering us…some insight into our personal brand of ego- or socio-centrism? Or maybe it is offering us the illusion that we are weeding out some of the world’s ills, keeping them in check and restoring some balance? A sense of humor is helpful here, but those who have cleared hemlock, a job that seems thankless and never-ending, all feel the same way about it: it is fun, thought-provoking, and addictive.

Clearing noxious weeds would seem to be a less charismatic task than planting trees, yet Modesto Junior College students Julie Harper, Joe Wittren, Chris Vallee, and Frank Dompe have all been helping. I refer to them as the Poison Hemlock Brigade, and they have been spending their Saturdays chopping, pulling, and generally discouraging the next generation (poison hemlock is a biennial, producing low growing rosettes the first year and tall stalks the next). Their motto: Let the plant that killed Socrates save you.

It’s not just the tiny things we see or find: the beautifully woven oriole nest, cottonwood stem galls, milkweed beetles, pseudo-scorpions, or millipedes curled in the duff (we’ve also found a few beer bottles, racing tires, and brass lamps); and not just the big things we hear: the sandhill cranes or white-fronted geese. There is something about the purity of working outdoors on a task that will never be finished on land that you will never own with a group of people who give lightly of their time, effort, and laughter. Not to mention the sage advice of Brother Hemlock. I’m not sure what Socrates would have called it, but I know only one word for it: bliss.

Sources: David Lukas, Wild Birds of California; Bossard, Randall, & Hoshovsky, eds., Invasive Plants of California’s Wildlands; Whitson, Burrill, et al., Weeds of the West; and Michael Pollan, The Botany of Desire.

ACTION: Have a grudge, grief or problem? Come chop hemlock. Enlightenment, good company, and a few microcosmic surprises guaranteed. For information, leave a message, 575-6158.

 

Green Festival showcases green economy

By TINA DRISKILL & TIRZA HOLLENHORST

The second annual San Francisco Green Festival recently brought together green enterprises, environmental groups, leading thinkers on green economy and thousands of interested activists to focus upon strengthening the locally controlled green economy and expanding popular support for policies aimed at sustainability and social justice.

Local green activist Tirza Hollenhorst, whose global eco-travels with husband, Chris Johnson, have been highlighted in past Connections, participated in the festival as founder of ifPeople and leader of a round table discussion on diversity and international inclusion in the responsible business movement.

Hollenhorst and Johnson have spent the last two years working on responsible business issues in Argentina and have witnessed the call for better business practices in Latin America grow from a few voices to a strong and rapidly expanding movement. Hollenhorst observes that US green business centers upon environmental sustainability and market image, while in Latin America the primary focus is social sustainability and the corporate social responsibility of multi-national companies.

Despite the fact that North and South American movements have much to learn from each other, she claims there is little exchange of ideas. She cites Ethos, the Brazilian organization of businesses committed to corporate social responsibility, as an example, claiming that few in North American are aware of Ethos members' incredible success in creating nearly 30% of Brazil's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). At the same time she says few in South America could comprehend the incredible success of the Green Festival and a growing cohort of businesses committed to social and environmental sustainability.

Hollenhorst says much of the green market is still focused on the quality conscious consumer, and such products as clothing, coffee and cleaning goods are competitively priced with those supplied by less environmentally protective companies. An expanding market and improved technology is helping to bring prices down, and efforts are being made to mass produce "green" products. She goes on to say that until the manufacturers of mainstream products are forced to pay the full environmental and social cost of their products, it is likely that "green" products will continue to be more expensive.

Festival goers had the opportunity to browse the high quality and environmentally conscious wares and network with some 400 vendors and exhibitors. Such green products and services as clothing, healthy foods, responsible services, alternative energy, crafts, investing, and media sources were highlighted. Speakers on hand to share wisdom and sign books included authors Arainna Huffington and John Robbins; entrepreneurs Gary Hirshberg, president of Stonyfield Farms, and Ray Anderson, founder of Interface Carpet Company; and activists Medea Benjamin and Michael Toms. The Natural Home Pavilion showcased bedding, construction materials, appliances, carpet and hundreds of ideas for healthy living.

Green Festivals were held in San Francisco and Austin, Texas in 2003. Washington, D.C. will host a third festival this year. Hollenhorst calls for the Green Festival and the green business movement to become inclusive not only of the larger local community but to reach out to the international community through outreach by speakers, artists and entertainers who appeal to a wider audience.

ACTION: Attend future Green Festivals, contact SF festival organizers Co-op America , Global Exchange , and organizations like ifPeople, PlaNetwork  and Earth Charter Community Alliance Groups  and other local green business alliances.

       

Legalize medical marijuana

By VASU MURTY

A pamphlet entitled "10 Things Every Parent, Teenager and Teacher Should Know About Marijuana" produced by the Family Council on Drug Awareness tells us marijuana is not physically addictive. The 1980 Costa Rican study, the 1975 Jamaican study and the 1972 Nixon Blue Ribbon Report all concluded that marijuana use does not lead to physical dependency. The FBI reports that 65 to 75 percent of criminal violence is alcohol-related. On the other hand, Federal Bureau of Narcotics director Harry Anslinger testified before Congress in 1948 that marijuana leads to nonviolence and pacifism.

In a message to Congress on August 2, 1977, President Jimmy Carter insisted: "Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself."

Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Law Judge Francis L. Young wrote on September 8, 1988: "Nearly all medicines have toxic, potentially lethal effects. But marijuana is not such a substance. There is no record in the extensive medical literature describing a proven, documented cannabis-induced fatality Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man."

After years of suppression by the government, the truth about medical marijuana is finally coming out. Dr. Tod Mikuriya, former director of marijuana research for the entire federal government, wrote in 1996: "I was hired by the government to provide scientific evidence that marijuana was harmful. As I studied the subject, I began to realize that marijuana was once widely used as a safe and effective medicine. But the government had a different agenda, and I had to resign."

Of all the reasons to legalize marijuana, the most compelling is its medical usage. Marijuana has a wide variety of therapeutic applications, and is frequently helpful in treating the following conditions:

Tobacco kills about 430,700 each year. Alcohol and alcohol-related diseases and injuries kill about 110,000 per year. Secondhand tobacco smoke kills about 50,000 every year. Aspirin and other anti-inflammatory drugs kill 7,600 each year. Cocaine kills about 500 yearly alone, and another 2,500 in combination with another drug. Heroin kills about 400 yearly alone, and another 2,500 in combination with another drug. Adverse reactions to prescription drugs total 32,000 per year, while marijuana kills no one.

A November 4, 2002 Time/CNN Poll found that eighty percent of those polled felt marijuana should be legal only for therapeutic purposes. 72 percent felt recreational users should get fines rather than jail time, which is essentially decriminalization. The complete legalization of marijuana was favored only by 34 percent of respondents, but this figure is twice as large as it was in 1986. Marijuana is safer than alcohol and tobacco, and our drug laws should reflect this reality.