Oregon Invasive Species Council
Research Blog | August 28, 2014
Design I worked on with the OISC Education and Outreach Committee, for the upcoming Eat Invasives meal produced by Institute for Applied Ecology. Trying to move the invasives conversation from “Aaaah! Alien Invaders!” and xenophobia, to human agency. Great collaboration with Carolyn Devine!
Not an Artichoke, Nor From Jerusalem
Research Blog | February 5, 2012
What is local? As a challenge to currently marketed notions of ‘sustainable,” “green” and “locavore,” Michael Connor, Alex Freedman and I conceived of and created a formal “explorer’s club” style dinner for 25 at the Artist’s Institute in New York on Jan 16th 2012. “Not an Artichoke, Nor from Jerusalem” was a dinner that…
Local Heroes
Research Blog | January 14, 2012
I am co-conceiving a dinner that takes a new look at the “local” (info in next post) with Michael Connor and Alex Freedman at The Artist’s Institute (Anthony Huberman/Hunter College space in the LES) on Monday Jan 16. A lot of amazing people were involved – – Environmental artist Oliver Kellhammer helped us forage…
The teeming mice of the Farallon Islands
Research Blog | October 19, 2011
The final solution, everyone admits, will undoubtedly involve human intervention in a problem caused by humans. duh. The Farallon Islands are crawling with nonnative house mice, which could be seen in broad daylight darting and scampering in and out of burrows, on crags amid the cliffs and, as if in mocking defiance, around the 124-year-old…
Can’t Eliminate an Invasive Species? Try Eating It. – NYTimes.com
Research Blog | July 10, 2011
(My emphases added.) “Humans are the most ubiquitous predators on earth,” said Philip Kramer, director of the Caribbean program for the Nature Conservancy. “Instead of eating something like shark fin soup, why not eat a species that is causing harm, and with your meal make a positive contribution?” Invasive species have become a vexing problem…
invasivores.
Research Blog | January 3, 2011
From the NY Times, Jan 2, 2011: A Diet for an Invaded Planet: Invasive Species There’s a new shift in the politics of food, not quite a movement yet, more of an eco-culinary frisson. But it may have staying power; the signs and portents are there. Vegans, freegans, locavores — meet the invasivores. Some divers…
Eating your Enemy in NYC
Research Blog | October 24, 2010
From a Oct 22 NYT Article on proper killing and cooking of Canada Geese: Don’t Landfill That Goose. Braise It. The key to delicious Canada goose, Jackson Landers says, begins at the moment of death. “When people taste a Canada goose and say ‘this is terrible,’ ” Mr. Landers said, “usually when you track down…
the scrubby, feral and untended
Research Blog | August 29, 2010
Important article from Nature on the importance of looking at non-native, hybrid, “impure” ecosystems: Ragamuffin Earth (July 2009). Excerpted: Most ecologists and conservationists would describe this forest in scientific jargon as ‘degraded’, ‘heavily invaded’ or perhaps ‘anthropogenic’. Less formally, they might term it a ‘trash ecosystem’. After all, what is it but a bunch of…
forum comments on UK squirrel immigrants
Research Blog | December 2, 2009
Credit crunch dining Rename grey squirrel meat as ‘spruce venison’ and watch it fly off the shelves at Waitrose. so I dunno. Bloody immigrants – come over here, climb our trees, grab our nuts…. Armstrong and Miller Kill them. Kill them all. None of the mamby pamby stuff…. Grey squirrels are non-indigenous vermin that also…
“Immigrant species”
Research Blog | September 28, 2009
Immigrant species are bad – they have done great harm all over. Safe rule of thumb – if people can (and do) eat the species, its ok. For example no fruit trees have become pests big time even though we import all kinds of food. This is a comment made in response to Mark Davis‘…
Illegal/invasive rhetoric
Research Blog | September 26, 2009
People I’ve been speaking with find it hard to believe that the rhetoric applied to both racism invasive species are symmetrical and mutually destructive. Often the language used to describe invasive animals and plants is thinly veiled xenophobia and racism; and conversely, racists deploy the hostile metaphors describing invasive species to do some of their…
REd vs Grey update
Research Blog | September 26, 2009
Local papers in Northumberland report today that Thousands of culled grey squirrels later, the invader’s advance into remaining red squirrel territory is still relentless. CHILLING killing figures emerge from a new study of the effectiveness of measures in the North of England to halt the spread of the grey squirrel and the decline of the…
roots of hatred/ the wheat and the tares
Research Blog | August 29, 2009
…all puns intended. This came my way via Stephanie Pereira at eyebeam … not sure how she ended up there but interesting v.a.v. the invasive enemy vegetation I’ve been interested in: Matthew 13 24 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed…
The relationship between supermarket chains and voracious species
Research Blog | August 19, 2009
From Self Sufficientish.com, the urban guide to almost self sufficiency (Urban Homesteading): Paul Kingsnorth likens this plant to a major supermarket in his book real England. The following paragraph beautifully sums up how both knotweed and Tescos behavior. “Just as Knotweed is all cloned from one single plant, so the big chains are all cloned…
Knotweed picking in springtime New York
Research Blog | August 19, 2009
Something to look forward to next spring! From culinate.com My friend Leda and I are partners in crime. We conspire to pick noxious weeds in a public park, which, technically, is against the law. I checked. The fine in New York City is $1,000 for removing plants from a park, although writing a ticket for…
Drawing VI (REd vs Greys)
Research Blog | July 18, 2009
Veni vidi vici (crest II sketch)
Research Blog | July 13, 2009
Schematic/crest of 3 shields of the Grey Squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris). Originally imported from America to Great Britain ca. 1840 as a living lawn ornament. On left, the nationalist imperative that the Greys should now be exterminated; on right; deforestation in part to supply the Briitsh Royal Navy with timber historically contributed to the near-vanquished Red…
Red rant
Research Blog | July 9, 2009
OK. I’ve *sort of * held back on indexing the negative spooge that leaks from the corpulent sides of the Us vs Them discourse, but here is a brief list: Red Squirrel’s Nut Cracking Nationalism excerpt: I used to conceal my identity from the disgusting hammer wielding fascist scum, that threaten to burn people alive!…
Drawing V (study for a taxidermy arrangement)
Research Blog | July 7, 2009
Working on a plan to make a taxidermy sculpture, if I can get Paul Parker to give me all his bullet-ridden Grey culls. They’ll be put to good use, employ one of my favorite taxidermists, and look something like zombies from Shaun of the Dead. (The Red will be old fare, nothing newly killed unless…