[Tweeters] Himalayan Blackberries

[Steve Hampton via Tweeters]

Here's one of those strange examples:  In California, Himalayan
blackberries are one of the few places where seriously-declining Tricolored
Blackbirds can nest successfully, as more native places (marshes) are now a
patchwork easily infiltrated by predators such as night-herons and
raccoons. I recall a rookery of 2,000 night-herons in a eucalyptus grove
near a smallish cattail marsh. The herons wiped out 5,000 TRBL nests in a
few nights. But in the blackberries, the Trikes are successful.



On Fri, Aug 15, 2025 at 9:05 AM HAL MICHAEL via Tweeters <
tweeters at u.washington.edu> wrote:


> Gary brings up a good point about some of our decisions about habitat, its

> restoration, and modifications.

>

> Early in my career I read an article by a WDG Wildlife Biologist.  He

> described a situation (probably made up) of a corner of his yard overrun

> with blackberries.  A song Sparrow nested there.  In honor of his European

> roots, he annually "collected" a bird or two to eat.  Every year the

> sparrows nested and produced young.  Then, he decided to clean up the yard,

> install a gazebo and fire pit, and make the yard neater.  No more sparrow

> nesting, no more sparrow eating.  He had converted a piece of land from

> supporting Song Sparrow to essentially reducing the world population by a

> pair and their young.  Like putting up those barriers instead of

> blackberry.

>

> The second was in conversations with an entomologist regarding proposals

> to replace (exotic) stands of eucalyptus in coastal CA with native shrubs

> and such.  This would remove the trees in which Monarchs wintered and not

> replace them (Monarchs have site fidelity) for decades at the minimum.

>

> There are times when exotic species may be providing ecological services

> that the native plants don't/didn't.  Not saying that we should keep all

> the exotics but perhaps a deeper dive into the services they provide and

> how the loss of them will be mitigated.

>

> Hal Michael

> Board of Directors, Ecologists Without Borders <http://ecowb.org/>

> Olympia WA

> 360-459-4005

> 360-791-7702 (C)

> ucd880 at comcast.net

>

>

>

> On 08/15/2025 5:48 AM PDT Gary Bletsch via Tweeters <

> tweeters at u.washington.edu> wrote:

>

>

> Dear Tweeters,

>

> Although I favor native plants in a passive sort of way, I will never

> bad-mouth the Himalayan Blackberry--if that is still the right name. I owe

> my life to Himalayan Blackberries.

>

> In December of 1990, my 1971 Dodge Dart started sliding and spinning,

> doing 360's all over Interstate 5 in Tukwila. I'd hit black ice. After

> bouncing off a little subcompact, the car went careening toward a semi,

> which I somehow missed. I distinctly remember saying goodbye to what had

> seemed like a pretty darned good life up to that point. A moment later, I

> was sitting in the driver's seat, utterly unharmed. The bulb of a huge

> freeway light pole was slowly swinging back and forth right, a cubit from

> my window. I had clipped the pole, which landed on my roof, denting it only

> slightly. The front of the car had plunged into a huge patch of

> blackberries, which absorbed the impact of a 3000-pound Mopar going 60 mph.

> The frame was not bent; I just needed a new radiator and a few dents

> hammered out.

>

> Today there is a line of concrete barriers where that blackberry patch

> used to be. If I had hit that, I would almost certainly have died, or at

> least suffered serious injury.

>

> At my old place in the Skagit Valley, we had huge, long thickets of

> blackberries. The goats and I had our work cut out for us, keeping it under

> control.

>

> White-crowned Sparrows and several other species nested in there. I don't

> remember exactly what birds ate the fruits, but many did, certainly

> including Starlings, Towhees, and Robins. In winter, I'd have all sorts of

> interesting birds sheltering in those thickets, including White-throated

> Sparrows almost every winter.

>

> Besides being my goats' absolute favorite food, the blackberries provided

> an enormous bounty of fruit, and blackberry pie was a major feature of our

> late-summer diet every year.

>

> Yours truly,

>

> Gary Bletsch

>

> PS I did a birding trip in the foothills of the Himalayas a few years ago,

> visiting India and Bhutan. While I saw *Cannabis sativa *growing wild all

> over the place, I never saw a blackberry. Maybe "Armenian Blackberry" would

> be a better name. The *Wikipedia *article states that the plant is native

> to Armenia and northern Iran.

>

>

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-- 
​Steve Hampton​
Port Townsend, WA  (qatáy)
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