[Tweeters] Himalayan Blackberries

[Steve Hampton via Tweeters]

Good point on the insects, but let's add that native trees are critical.
Chickadees and others need over 6,000 moth caterpillars to fledge a nest of
chicks, and they only get those from native willows, alders, bitter
cherries, etc.



On Fri, Aug 15, 2025 at 8:03 PM Robert O'Brien <baro at pdx.edu> wrote:


> The very same concept applies to insects.  I live on a large rural

> property with mostly invasive annuals, biennials, perennials, etc..  Three

> plants provide sustenance for many dozens of insect pollinators (*NOT*

> just bees and butterflies)  Queen Anne's Lace (native to Europe and Asia and

> naturalized in North America and Australia ), and the two invasive

> Thistle species.  Without them, there would be virtually no insects here.

> And birds need insects.

> Here are a few examples for Queen Anne's Lace (~Wild Carrot).

>

> https://bugguide.net/adv_search/bgsearch.php?user=128549&taxon=&description=queen+ann&county=&city_location=&adult=&immature=&male=&female=&representative=

> Bob OBrien  Portland

>

> On Fri, Aug 15, 2025 at 11:59 AM Steve Hampton via Tweeters <

> tweeters at u.washington.edu> wrote:

>

>> 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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>


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