MANAGEMENT OF INVASIVE PLANTS IN THE WESTERN USA
  • Defining the Problem
    • What is a Weed? >
      • Federal Definitions of Noxious Weeds
    • Costs of invasive plants
    • Human Factor
    • Challenges of Invasive Plants
    • Wildfires in the Western USA >
      • Forest Fires: Structure
      • Bark Beetles & Forest Ecosystems
      • Rangeland Fires
    • Climate Change Impacts on Plants >
      • Climate Change: CO2, NO, UV, Ozone Impacts on Plants
      • Climate Change Impacts on Crops
      • Climate Change Impacts on C4 Plants
      • Climate Change Impacts on Rangeland
    • What are we doing?
  • Focus of this Project
    • Why Western States? >
      • Audience for these reports
    • History: Are we doomed to repeat it? >
      • Dust Bowl Re-visited >
        • China: Past & Present
        • UN Biodiversity Report
    • Policy vs. Practice
    • Ecosystems & Economics >
      • Reductionist Approach to science
      • Ecology & Feminism
      • Systems View of Life
      • Ecosystems Health
      • Economic Growth
      • Impact of the Petrochemical Industry
      • Interrelation of Economics & Ecology
    • Federal Agencies >
      • Federal Agencies and Invasive Species
      • History of Coordination with States
      • Challenges of Coordination between Federal Agencies
      • Collaboration or Confusion
    • Organizations to assist landowners
    • Federal Legislation on Invasive Species >
      • 1930s Federal Laws on Invasive Species
      • Federal Seed Act 1939
      • 1940s-1960s Federal Laws on Invasive Species
      • 1970s Federal Laws on Invasive Species
      • 1980s Federal Laws on Invasive Species
      • 1990s Federal Laws on Invasive Species
      • 2000-2010 Federal Laws on Invasive Species
      • 2011-2022 Federal Laws on Invasive Species
      • Federal Bills on Invasive Species not passed
      • Executive Orders on Invasive Species
      • Federal Excise Taxes
    • State Laws and Lists of Noxious Weeds
    • My Inspirations
  • Why we need plants
    • Native Plants
    • Plant Resources
  • Invasive Success Hypotheses
    • Unified Framework
    • Role of Diversity >
      • How Ecosystems Maintain Diversity
      • Fluctuation Dependent Mechanisms
      • Competition-based coexistence mechanisms
      • Niche Differences
      • Species Richness
    • Enemy Release Hypothesis
    • Constitutive Defense Mechanisms
    • Evolution of Increased Competitive Ability
    • Role of Microbes
    • Indirect Defense Mechanisms
    • Novel weapons hypothesis
    • Evolutionary Shifts
    • Resource Allocation
    • Evolutionary Dynamics >
      • Pre-introduction evolutionary history
      • Sampling Effect
      • Founder Effect
      • Admixture, hybridization and polyploidization
      • Rapid Evolution
      • Epigenetics
      • Second Genomes
    • Role of Hybridization
    • Role of Native Plant Neighbors
    • Species Performance
    • Role of Herbivory
    • Evolutionary Reduced Competitive Ability
    • Summary Thoughts on Research
  • Historical Record
    • Regional Conferences
    • Timeline
  • Innovative Solutions
    • Agricultural Best Practices >
      • Ecologically based Successional Management
      • Perennial Crops, Intercropping, beneficial insects
      • Natural Farming
      • Permaculture
      • Organic Farming
      • Embedding Natural Habitats
      • Conservation Tillage
      • Crop Rotation
      • Water Use Practices
      • Tree Planting: Pros & Cons
    • Grazing Solutions >
      • Sheep and Goat Grazing
      • Cattle & Sheep Grazing
      • Cattle and Bison Grazing
      • Grazing and Revegetation
    • Rangeland Restoration >
      • Federal Goals for Rangelands
      • Novel Ecosystems
      • Prairie Restoration >
        • Prairie Restoration Workshop
        • Weed Prevention Areas
        • California grassland restoration
        • Selah: Bamberger Ranch Preserve
      • Sagebrush Steppe Restoration >
        • Low Nitrogen in Sagebrush Steppe
      • Revegetation with Native Plants
      • Dogs as detectors of noxious weeds
    • Nudges
  • Biological Control
    • Insects as Biocontrol >
      • Impacts of Biocontrol Agents on Non-Target Species
      • Indirect Impact of Biocontrol on Native Species
    • Challenges of Using Biocontrols >
      • DNA studies on Biocontrol Insects
      • Biocontrol takes time
    • Prioritization process for Biocontrol Programs
    • Evolutionary changes impact Biocontrol
    • Vertebrates as Biocontrol Agents
  • Herbicides: History and Impacts
    • Effectiveness of Herbicides in Agricultural Lands
    • Effectiveness of Herbicides in Rangelands
    • History of Use of Herbicides and Pesticides Prior to and During WWII
    • Herbicide use during and post-World War II >
      • 2,4-D Herbicide Use
      • 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T, post-World War II
    • Modern use of Herbicides >
      • Atrazine Herbicide
      • Dicamba Herbicide
      • Glyphosate Herbicide
      • Paraquat Dichloride
      • Picolinic acid family of herbicides >
        • Picloram (Tordon 22K) Herbicide
        • Triclopyr Herbicide
    • Herbicide Resistance in Invasive Plants >
      • Herbicide Resistant Crops
      • Controlling herbicide-resistant weeds in herbicide-resistant crops
      • Best Management Practices
    • Myth of the Silver Bullet
    • Myth of Eradication
    • Merging of Agrochemical Companies
    • Impacts of Pesticides on Environment and Human Health >
      • Pesticide Drift
      • Impacts of Pesticides on Biological Diversity
      • Impacts of Herbicides on Native Plants
      • Pesticide Impacts on Insects >
        • Butterflies: The Impacts of Herbicides
        • Monarch Butterflies: Impacts of Herbicides
      • Impacts of Pesticides on Wildlife >
        • Reptiles & Amphibians: Pesticide Impacts
      • Pesticide Residue in Foods
    • Funding for Research on Pesticides
    • Commentary on Herbicide Use
  • Interviews
    • Interviews Biocontrol >
      • Biocontrol Wyoming
      • Montana Biocontrol Interview Maggio
      • Montana Biocontrol Interview Breitenfeldt
    • California Interviews >
      • Robert Price
      • Doug Johnson
    • Colorado Interviews >
      • George Beck Interview
      • Scott Nissen Interview
    • Idaho Interviews >
      • Purple Sage Organic Farms in Idaho
    • Montana Interviews >
      • Jasmine Reimer Interview Montana
      • Organic Farms Montana Interviews
    • Texas Interviews
    • Washington Interviews >
      • Ray Willard
    • Wyoming Interviews >
      • Slade Franklin Interview
      • John Samson Interview
    • Wyoming Weed and Pest Districts >
      • Josh Shorb Interview
      • Slade Franklin Interview 2
      • Lars Baker Interview
      • Steve Brill Interview
      • George Hittle Interview
      • Peter Illoway Interview
      • Robert Jenn Interview
      • Sharon Johnson Interview
      • Larry Justesen Interview
      • Gale Lamb Interview
      • Stephen McNamee Interview
      • Allen Mooney Interview
      • Rob Orchard Interview
      • Robert Parsons Interview
      • Dick Sackett Interview
      • Comments by Delena
    • NRCS Interviews: Wyoming
  • Western Weed Control Conference 1940s Minutes
    • 1942 Conference
    • 1945 Conference
    • 1946 Conference
  • Who am I?
    • My Work
    • My Adventures
    • Contact Page
  • Road Logs
    • Colorado Road Logs
    • Idaho Road Logs
    • Montana Road Logs
    • New Mexico Road Logs
    • Texas Road Logs
    • Wyoming Road Logs
  • Bibliography

History:
​Are we doomed to repeat it?

Photo: Degradation of farmland on the Loess Plateau, north of Xi'an, China. Copyright 2007 Delena Norris-Tull

History: Those who ignore it are doomed to repeat it

​Summary and commentary prepared by Dr. Delena Norris-Tull, Professor Emerita of Science Education, University of Montana Western, May, 2022.
 
I became interested in creating this website for a variety of reasons, but one of them is my concern that, if we don’t figure this out, we may be dooming ourselves for a disastrous future. Unless we pay attention to the many factors that have enabled non-native plants to invade farmlands, we will be continuously wasting many resources on a losing battle, and we may in fact make the problem worse.
 
The old adage, “Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it,” is pertinent here.
 
According to the modern oracle known as The Internet, the original source of this adage may be the Spanish philosopher, George Santayana (The Life of Reason, 1905), who stated:  “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
 
And in a 1948 speech to the British House of Commons, Winston Churchill said, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
 
No matter the origin, the sentiments are eternal. In my research on management of invasive plants, I found numerous instances where we seem to be ignoring history. For example, when we dub any plant as “weed” or “invasive,” we often ignore the historical reasons that these plants are here in the first place. And we seem to be ignoring the role that all plants, even invasive ones, play in protecting soil and water resources.
 
And in our management strategies, rather than carrying out carefully researched (and well-funded) strategies, in most locations, the first strategy is often the only strategy – loading fields (and therefore, soils, waters, and ultimately, our foods) with herbicides, insecticides, and other pesticides, with little attention paid to the long-term consequences of such actions. Within this website, refer to the sections on Herbicides, and in particular, the section, “How Research on Pesticides is Funded,” where you will learn that research funding comes from the chemical corporations that produce these pesticides, essentially allowing the fox to guard the henhouse (to use another overused adage).
 
In the section of this website on “Ecosystems, Economics, and Paradigm Shifts,” and its various subsections, I describe a number of factors that contribute to degradation of ecosystems, which results in degradation of our soil and water resources, which impacts our ability to raise food.

Also refer to the section, "The Dust Bowl Revisited," for the historical context of soil and water degradation in the USA.
 
The Collapse of Previous Complex Civilizations
 
In his book, Collapse: How societies choose to fail or succeed (2005), Jared Diamond’s first chapter uses cases in Montana as examples of problems of environmental degradation, climate change, drought, deforestation, population growth, contamination of water and soil from mines, habitat loss, soil loss and degradation, water loss, wildfires, and increases in invasive plants. He chose Montana to start the book for various reasons, partly because he has had many visits there and was able to describe specific examples of these problems, and to point out that if Montana has these problems, then those issues are greatly heightened in other states that have a much higher population density and much more loss of natural habitat. He points out, for example, that the dairy industry in the Bitterroot Valley of southwestern Montana has declined from 400 dairies in 1964 to only nine by the time he published the book.
 
Several chapters in Diamond’s book describe in detail the collapse of a number of previous societies. These stories are well-worth reading, as they assist the reader in understanding the extent to which we are already “doomed to repeat” our past mistakes. Here is a brief list of the examples Diamond provides:
 
Easter Island – a once-prosperous society that completely disappeared hundreds of years ago. Recent analysis suggests that the following events occurred relatively rapidly, destroying the local environment and its resources, after humans migrated to the island around 900 AD: agricultural intensification, deforestation, the killing of many wild species of fish, birds, and porpoises for food. Diamond also describes the abandonment of three other Polynesian Islands, Pitcairn, Henderson, and Mangareva.
 
The large-scale abandonment, hundreds of years ago, of many large dwellings in the Southwestern USA. These buildings today can be visited in Mesa Verde National Park, the Chaco Culture National Historical Park, and several other areas. These massive dwellings were built and inhabited, each by different tribal groups, including the tribes referred to as Anasazi (a Navajo name meaning “the Ancient Ones”), and were lived in for centuries, some beginning around the 7th century AD. For example, the Chaco Canyon civilization survived about 600 years. These sites were abandoned, sometimes very suddenly in the 12th through the 15th centuries. In a harsh environment, always plagued with drought, little water, and marginal soils, it is quite astounding that fairly large populations (a few thousand people at several sites) lived in these sites and produced agriculture for centuries. Ultimately, the local environments could not sustain these populations, which had become dependent on agriculture. Over time, the impact of expanding populations, expanding agriculture, deforestation (in a climate that results in very slow regrowth of trees), frequent droughts, and fragile and eroded soils took its toll. Differing environmental issues plagued different locations. Diamond provides an excellent description of how innovations in farming and water management enabled the largest sites to thrive for centuries, developing complex inter-dependent societies, only to collapse quite suddenly. In a number of locations, survivors within these populations (those who did not die from starvation or conflict) successfully moved on to alternate locations in the Southwest, such as the Zuni and Hopi pueblos. Diamond points out that some of these former populations existed longer than the modern-day European-dominated populations that replaced them in the USA.
 
The first time I visited Mesa Verde, in the 1950s, I remember that the Anglo-American explanation for the migration of local peoples away from the area was “warring tribes,” which has too often been White-Man’s explanation for what occurs in the histories of Native Americans. The next time I visited Mesa Verde, in the 1980s, the explanation, now informed by the stories of actual descendants of the Anasazi and actual scientific evidence, was environmental degradation caused by agricultural intensification and population growth. Conflicts (including even some cannibalism of enemies killed in battle) also are now known to be a factor, but only as populations outgrew the ability of the local environments to sustain them, and as resources became scarce. Thus, “warring tribes” were not the cause. Conflicts, internal rather than external, were the result of changes in the environmental conditions prevalent in an overtaxed over-populated setting.
 
Diamond also describes the failures of the following, each of which once had complex societies:
  • The Mayan civilization
  • Civilizations established by various Viking groups
  • The Greenland Norse colony
 
China’s Modern Agricultural Problems
 
China has had successful agriculture for thousands of years. But during the tumultuous years of the transition from Imperial China to the take-over of Communism, and in particular during the reign of Mao Zedung, changes to the country’s agricultural practices, forced onto the farming regions by the leadership in Beijing in the 1950s and 1960s, resulted in massive soil and water degradation in a very short time. Please read the section of this website, “China: Agricultural Practices, Past & Present,” for details.
 
Each of these above examples from human history give you an idea of why I am concerned about our failures to pay attention to history in our attempts to manage the land today.

Reference:
  •  Diamond, J. (2005). Collapse: How societies choose to fail or succeed (2005). London: Penguin Books.

Next Sections:
Dust Bowl Revisited
Policy vs. Practice
Ecosystems & Economics
Copyright: Dr. Delena Norris-Tull, July 2020. Management of Invasive Plants in the Western USA.

These webpages are always under construction. I welcome corrections and additions to any page.
​Send me an email, and I can send you the original Word format version of any page you wish to correct.
contact Dr. Norris-Tull
Bibliography
who am i?
My work
my inspirations
my adventures
  • Defining the Problem
    • What is a Weed? >
      • Federal Definitions of Noxious Weeds
    • Costs of invasive plants
    • Human Factor
    • Challenges of Invasive Plants
    • Wildfires in the Western USA >
      • Forest Fires: Structure
      • Bark Beetles & Forest Ecosystems
      • Rangeland Fires
    • Climate Change Impacts on Plants >
      • Climate Change: CO2, NO, UV, Ozone Impacts on Plants
      • Climate Change Impacts on Crops
      • Climate Change Impacts on C4 Plants
      • Climate Change Impacts on Rangeland
    • What are we doing?
  • Focus of this Project
    • Why Western States? >
      • Audience for these reports
    • History: Are we doomed to repeat it? >
      • Dust Bowl Re-visited >
        • China: Past & Present
        • UN Biodiversity Report
    • Policy vs. Practice
    • Ecosystems & Economics >
      • Reductionist Approach to science
      • Ecology & Feminism
      • Systems View of Life
      • Ecosystems Health
      • Economic Growth
      • Impact of the Petrochemical Industry
      • Interrelation of Economics & Ecology
    • Federal Agencies >
      • Federal Agencies and Invasive Species
      • History of Coordination with States
      • Challenges of Coordination between Federal Agencies
      • Collaboration or Confusion
    • Organizations to assist landowners
    • Federal Legislation on Invasive Species >
      • 1930s Federal Laws on Invasive Species
      • Federal Seed Act 1939
      • 1940s-1960s Federal Laws on Invasive Species
      • 1970s Federal Laws on Invasive Species
      • 1980s Federal Laws on Invasive Species
      • 1990s Federal Laws on Invasive Species
      • 2000-2010 Federal Laws on Invasive Species
      • 2011-2022 Federal Laws on Invasive Species
      • Federal Bills on Invasive Species not passed
      • Executive Orders on Invasive Species
      • Federal Excise Taxes
    • State Laws and Lists of Noxious Weeds
    • My Inspirations
  • Why we need plants
    • Native Plants
    • Plant Resources
  • Invasive Success Hypotheses
    • Unified Framework
    • Role of Diversity >
      • How Ecosystems Maintain Diversity
      • Fluctuation Dependent Mechanisms
      • Competition-based coexistence mechanisms
      • Niche Differences
      • Species Richness
    • Enemy Release Hypothesis
    • Constitutive Defense Mechanisms
    • Evolution of Increased Competitive Ability
    • Role of Microbes
    • Indirect Defense Mechanisms
    • Novel weapons hypothesis
    • Evolutionary Shifts
    • Resource Allocation
    • Evolutionary Dynamics >
      • Pre-introduction evolutionary history
      • Sampling Effect
      • Founder Effect
      • Admixture, hybridization and polyploidization
      • Rapid Evolution
      • Epigenetics
      • Second Genomes
    • Role of Hybridization
    • Role of Native Plant Neighbors
    • Species Performance
    • Role of Herbivory
    • Evolutionary Reduced Competitive Ability
    • Summary Thoughts on Research
  • Historical Record
    • Regional Conferences
    • Timeline
  • Innovative Solutions
    • Agricultural Best Practices >
      • Ecologically based Successional Management
      • Perennial Crops, Intercropping, beneficial insects
      • Natural Farming
      • Permaculture
      • Organic Farming
      • Embedding Natural Habitats
      • Conservation Tillage
      • Crop Rotation
      • Water Use Practices
      • Tree Planting: Pros & Cons
    • Grazing Solutions >
      • Sheep and Goat Grazing
      • Cattle & Sheep Grazing
      • Cattle and Bison Grazing
      • Grazing and Revegetation
    • Rangeland Restoration >
      • Federal Goals for Rangelands
      • Novel Ecosystems
      • Prairie Restoration >
        • Prairie Restoration Workshop
        • Weed Prevention Areas
        • California grassland restoration
        • Selah: Bamberger Ranch Preserve
      • Sagebrush Steppe Restoration >
        • Low Nitrogen in Sagebrush Steppe
      • Revegetation with Native Plants
      • Dogs as detectors of noxious weeds
    • Nudges
  • Biological Control
    • Insects as Biocontrol >
      • Impacts of Biocontrol Agents on Non-Target Species
      • Indirect Impact of Biocontrol on Native Species
    • Challenges of Using Biocontrols >
      • DNA studies on Biocontrol Insects
      • Biocontrol takes time
    • Prioritization process for Biocontrol Programs
    • Evolutionary changes impact Biocontrol
    • Vertebrates as Biocontrol Agents
  • Herbicides: History and Impacts
    • Effectiveness of Herbicides in Agricultural Lands
    • Effectiveness of Herbicides in Rangelands
    • History of Use of Herbicides and Pesticides Prior to and During WWII
    • Herbicide use during and post-World War II >
      • 2,4-D Herbicide Use
      • 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T, post-World War II
    • Modern use of Herbicides >
      • Atrazine Herbicide
      • Dicamba Herbicide
      • Glyphosate Herbicide
      • Paraquat Dichloride
      • Picolinic acid family of herbicides >
        • Picloram (Tordon 22K) Herbicide
        • Triclopyr Herbicide
    • Herbicide Resistance in Invasive Plants >
      • Herbicide Resistant Crops
      • Controlling herbicide-resistant weeds in herbicide-resistant crops
      • Best Management Practices
    • Myth of the Silver Bullet
    • Myth of Eradication
    • Merging of Agrochemical Companies
    • Impacts of Pesticides on Environment and Human Health >
      • Pesticide Drift
      • Impacts of Pesticides on Biological Diversity
      • Impacts of Herbicides on Native Plants
      • Pesticide Impacts on Insects >
        • Butterflies: The Impacts of Herbicides
        • Monarch Butterflies: Impacts of Herbicides
      • Impacts of Pesticides on Wildlife >
        • Reptiles & Amphibians: Pesticide Impacts
      • Pesticide Residue in Foods
    • Funding for Research on Pesticides
    • Commentary on Herbicide Use
  • Interviews
    • Interviews Biocontrol >
      • Biocontrol Wyoming
      • Montana Biocontrol Interview Maggio
      • Montana Biocontrol Interview Breitenfeldt
    • California Interviews >
      • Robert Price
      • Doug Johnson
    • Colorado Interviews >
      • George Beck Interview
      • Scott Nissen Interview
    • Idaho Interviews >
      • Purple Sage Organic Farms in Idaho
    • Montana Interviews >
      • Jasmine Reimer Interview Montana
      • Organic Farms Montana Interviews
    • Texas Interviews
    • Washington Interviews >
      • Ray Willard
    • Wyoming Interviews >
      • Slade Franklin Interview
      • John Samson Interview
    • Wyoming Weed and Pest Districts >
      • Josh Shorb Interview
      • Slade Franklin Interview 2
      • Lars Baker Interview
      • Steve Brill Interview
      • George Hittle Interview
      • Peter Illoway Interview
      • Robert Jenn Interview
      • Sharon Johnson Interview
      • Larry Justesen Interview
      • Gale Lamb Interview
      • Stephen McNamee Interview
      • Allen Mooney Interview
      • Rob Orchard Interview
      • Robert Parsons Interview
      • Dick Sackett Interview
      • Comments by Delena
    • NRCS Interviews: Wyoming
  • Western Weed Control Conference 1940s Minutes
    • 1942 Conference
    • 1945 Conference
    • 1946 Conference
  • Who am I?
    • My Work
    • My Adventures
    • Contact Page
  • Road Logs
    • Colorado Road Logs
    • Idaho Road Logs
    • Montana Road Logs
    • New Mexico Road Logs
    • Texas Road Logs
    • Wyoming Road Logs
  • Bibliography