Reprinted from July 2014 Vol. 43, No.

7
by LUKE PRYJMA,
Balanced Land Health
At the heart of the native plant
movement is the yearning for more
beautiful land. However, a great
deal of native plant lovers energy
is spent battling invasive plants. A
faltering competition-based science
justifies this plant hatred. Instead
of focusing on the otherness of
plants, it is far more productive to
focus on what is making our land
healthier. Once we understand this
principle we can
better manage for
it. It may be diffi-
cult to imagine, but
invasive plants lead
to natives. Invasives
dont grow where
our natives flourish.
Natives have broad-
er nutritional needs,
which are exactly
what invasives cre-
ate: more layers,
more soil carbon
and a better min-
eral balance. A love
and support for both natives and
invasives is not only possible, it is
essential for healthy, beautiful land.
With the current condition of
our land, invasives are high-per-
forming plants; we see them multi-
plying along our roadways, in our
re-growth forests and waterways.
When a plant is high-performing
it gifts 60 percent of all of its cre-
ated energy into the soil in the
form of root sugars (carbon) to feed
microbes. That is a ratio of 1 part
plant to 2.3 parts gift carbon. The
huge masses of invasives are leav-
ing more carbon in the soil year
after year.
Stable soil carbon holds air,
water, minerals and life. If you
have ever walked through most of
our forests you would be kind to
say that they are thin-soiled. Due
to their low-mineral, low-carbon
condition, they support invasives
that perform in fringe soil environ-
ments, and over time they actively
make them better. When a better
balance is achieved, which may
be decades without our influence,
they move into the background.
An invasive goutweed patch, af-
ter mineralizing and running pigs
through it, may have some of best
soil on the farm.
Have you observed
the areas where
trilliums, blood-
root, toad lilies
and ramps grow?
I have tested soil
that supports these
plants. One patch
had 17 percent or-
ganic matter, 14
TEC and a perfect
Ca:Mg ratio. This
area is invasive-free
not because there
are no seeds but be-
cause invasives cant get a hold in
the balance in which native plants
thrive.
Roundup helps us understand
what not to do. Roundup is a min-
eral chelator; it grabs minerals, and
the best science says only to grab
minerals again for a long time. It
is one of the most abundant man-
made chemical in the environment.
Surprisingly, Roundup doesnt kill
plants; it makes them so weak, by
grabbing their minerals (and the
soil minerals around them), that
the soil pathogen Fusarium kills
the plant. So for a problem of im-
balance, such as invasives thriving,
OPINION
Cultivating Love
for Invasive Plants
SEE PAGE 74
SUBMIT A LETTER
Acres U.S.A. welcomes letters
from our readers. Please email
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to P.O. Box 301209, Austin, TX
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When we focus
on land health
what it is and
how we manage
for it the native
versus invasive
clash dissolves.
crease the agri-bio-chemical bottom
line. More conventional means more
chemical usage. Is there a difference
between biotech ag and chemical ag?
Promoting conventional is not escap-
ing biotechs grip, rather it serves to
strengthen it.
Kevin Fletcher
President, Countryside Organics
Waynesboro, Virginia
Acres U.S.A. responds: We greatly
admire the work Countryside Or-
ganics has done over the decades;
weve walked the same path. But we
strive to represent a real-world view
of eco-agricultures many facets as
well as discussion of what is going on
beyond organic/sustainable farming
circles.
Organic is as good as weve got
right now. But there are bad organic
farmers. There are materials not al-
lowed in organic production which
are in fact ecological. The true an-
swer is not organic or non-GMO
. . . its to render toxic technology
obsolete.
We presented the article Escap-
ing Biotechs Grasp to illustrate the
growing interest in non-GMO crops,
specifically for animal feed, that many
growers are experiencing. Most im-
portant, this was a single article, not
a multi-hundred-page book and does
not convey all that is Acres U.S.A. and
eco-agriculture. We hate to think our
40-plus-year track record is for naught
over one article.
Acres U.S.A. stands firmly on the
foundation of soil health and farming
sustainably for the short- and long-
term. To hold that certified organic
is GMO-free (its not) and the ideal
agricultural system (witness the re-
cent NOSB meeting and the actions
of Walmart) is optimistic. We seek
to move conventional agriculture to
eco-agriculture in any way we can.
Reprinted from July 2014 Vol. 43, No. 7
we spray something that makes the
imbalance worse.
When we focus on land health
what it is and how we manage for
it the native versus invasive clash
dissolves. We are left with impor-
tant questions such as which plants
make our land healthier and how?
With invasives, we have been in the
presence of not a cursed plant but a
plant desperately trying to make any
life happen. Focusing on land health
also dissolves the rift between farm-
ing and conservation. Rather than
restrictions, we can create incentives
for land improvement, farm or park.
These could be based on the sacred
needs of our land: flora and fauna
diversity, soil carbon, soil mineral
balance, air and water quality, mag-
netism and light. People could re-
ceive more incentives for stewarding
the better the balance of each land
need. Since our health is a reflection
of the health of the land, meeting
these needs leads to beings with the
broadest nutritional needs: us! Native
plants could return, invasives could
fall into the background and our
health could become crowd-driven.
Basically, it comes down to us
needing both plants. Invasive plants
are currently the high-performing
plants in our worn out areas. Natives
are essential to perform in areas of
greater health, i.e. repopulate inva-
sive successional land. Invasives are
true pioneers worn out ground is
better because of them. When we
understand this we can appreciate
the gifts they offer. The good old days
of pure native pastures are not com-
ing back. When we glorify the past
we miss the opportunity of a more
beautiful future. Likewise, we wont
be stuck in this lanky invasive age for-
ever. Landscape, like culture, is mov-
ing into a balanced adulthood. As a
culture, we are now spending more
energy than ever understanding our
connection with the Earth. We are not
only stopping environmental wrongs,
we are making the planet healthier.
Land health determines plant expres-
sion. By managing for those quali-
ties that make land healthy we get
more native plants. We can weed
invasives by doing what it takes them
years to do: improve soil carbon,
mineral balance and add more grow-
ing layers.
Luke Pryjma runs Balanced Land Health, a land
management consulting company. For more infor-
mation visit www.balancedlandhealth.com or call
413-281-2651.
OPINION
FROM PAGE 5
Charles Eisenstein, Sacred
Economics, Evolver Editions,
Berkley California 2011
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