It has been a compact and consequential week of weeds. I participated in a webinar discussing “Invasive Plants of the Columbia Gorge,” and was amazed to discover the wide array plants that have successfully made their way here. Later in the week, I visited a client in Stevenson, Washington who wishes to extend his home 16 feet, but due to the home’s proximity to a stream, the proposal needed the review of a “qualified wildlife biologist.” For mitigation, I recommended removing blackberry and ivy from the riparian area. Last weekend, Friends of Trees teamed with the Sandy River Watershed Council to plant 750 “native” trees and shrubs at the Sandy River Delta in a locale where two-story high blackberry bushes had been removed.
I also learned about hippos in Columbia.
The “Drug Lord” Pablo Escobar once kept “exotic” animals on his ranch in Columbia. After his death, animals were rounded up and sent to Columbia zoos, but apparently the hippos were impossible to catch. They escaped and have been roaming the Columbia landscape for 30 years. Scientists spent the last two years studying the growth and impact of Mr. Escobar’s hippos, now numbering over 80 individuals each weighing 1.3 tons!
In Colombia, the hippos are “invasive.” That means they didn’t roam there previously, and are pushing out other kinds of “native’ animals. Most ecologists believe the Columbian hippos are wreaking havoc and should be killed.
Yet conditions in Colombia are great for hippos. There’s plenty of food, and the animals like the rivers and lakes. In Africa, the number of hippos is limited by the lions that hunt them and drought conditions.
Some scientists suggest nutrient pulses and fish kills from hippos are actually a positive feature—not a flaw—of their presence. The addition of nutrients into oxygen-poor waters may subtly influence which species dominate in aquatic communities, or perhaps even increase the total species diversity by creating variable habitats within the river. Large fish kills might have once served as a regular food resource for scavengers.
To Arian Wallach, a biologist in Australia, whether they can perfectly fill a lost niche or not isn’t really the point. She stresses that hippos are considered vulnerable to extinction, and considers having a refuge population outside of Africa to be a boon. “The fact that there are wild hippopotamuses in South America is a wonderful story of survival,” she says.
Who belongs? Who doesn’t? Do you remember last year when a group of misinformed protesters told Native Americans to “go back where you came from.” Aren’t we all on the move…heading to a new city or state to attend college, starting a new job, finding an affordable home or trying to find a better life in a new land for one’s family?
When we find ourselves in a new locale, whether temporarily or permanently, we hope to be welcomed; we hope to adapt to new situations and surroundings; we hope to belong. ~