So far as I know, the only invasive species here are some insects and rodents, like Norway Rats. With that said, some native species are making a comeback here as the area reverts back to the wild. Wolves are returning in the form of cross-bred coyote-wolf hybrids, bears are making a huge comeback - the entire time I was growing up here, I saw exactly 3 bears, only two of those alive, and one of that two in captivity. Now they're all over the place wreaking havoc. There is a momma bear here that raised 1 to 3 cubs, every year. I smelled a bear near by about a month ago when I was out working in my garden.
I take that back - I saw 4 bears here back then over all those years. One was in a blackberry patch just the other side of the yard fence where I live now, when my grandparents lived here, one was about 1000 yards away on the slop[e of River Mountain in Russell County, and then there was the captive bear at a tiny roadside zoo in Horse Pen, and a bear skeleton I found on the slope of Clinch Mountain when I and a friend were climbing up to what they call "The Channels" now.,
Now you can hardly throw a rock without pissing one off.
Elk have been re-introduced and are also making a big comeback. There is a big herd of them in Buchanan County, the next county over from me, in the Vansant area. I used to see them a lot when I was working over there.
Of the insects, the one of most concern to me is the black locust borer beetle. They are decimating our black locust trees, and that's a problem for me because that's my preferred wood to make bows out of. Not only do the borers kill the trees, they eat tunnels through the wood, which weakens it for any serious uses.
This area used to be widely and well known for the huge chestnut trees that grew here, but then about 120 years ago a blight invaded and killed almost all of them. There are a few still around, but they are mere shadows of their former glory, and most of the ones left are just suckers off of old dead stumps. I had one of those in my upper yard when I lived in Grundy. It was right next to my pawpaw grove, and was fairly sizeable, with two "suckers" roughly a foot or foot and a half across sprouting from an old stump. It produced, but I believe it had the blight and was fighting it - when it threw nuts, if you bagged them up and let them sit a while, some kind of white, hairy fuzz a couple inches long would eventually appear on the shells, which I think was evidence of the blight. Some of them are resistant to the blight, and mine might have been one of those, since it was still living.
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I take that back - I saw 4 bears here back then over all those years. One was in a blackberry patch just the other side of the yard fence where I live now, when my grandparents lived here, one was about 1000 yards away on the slop[e of River Mountain in Russell County, and then there was the captive bear at a tiny roadside zoo in Horse Pen, and a bear skeleton I found on the slope of Clinch Mountain when I and a friend were climbing up to what they call "The Channels" now.,
Now you can hardly throw a rock without pissing one off.
Elk have been re-introduced and are also making a big comeback. There is a big herd of them in Buchanan County, the next county over from me, in the Vansant area. I used to see them a lot when I was working over there.
Of the insects, the one of most concern to me is the black locust borer beetle. They are decimating our black locust trees, and that's a problem for me because that's my preferred wood to make bows out of. Not only do the borers kill the trees, they eat tunnels through the wood, which weakens it for any serious uses.
This area used to be widely and well known for the huge chestnut trees that grew here, but then about 120 years ago a blight invaded and killed almost all of them. There are a few still around, but they are mere shadows of their former glory, and most of the ones left are just suckers off of old dead stumps. I had one of those in my upper yard when I lived in Grundy. It was right next to my pawpaw grove, and was fairly sizeable, with two "suckers" roughly a foot or foot and a half across sprouting from an old stump. It produced, but I believe it had the blight and was fighting it - when it threw nuts, if you bagged them up and let them sit a while, some kind of white, hairy fuzz a couple inches long would eventually appear on the shells, which I think was evidence of the blight. Some of them are resistant to the blight, and mine might have been one of those, since it was still living.
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“Trouble rather the tiger in his lair than the sage among his books. For to you kingdoms and their armies are things mighty and enduring, but to him they are but toys of the moment, to be overturned with the flick of a finger.”
― Gordon R. Dickson, Tactics of Mistake
― Gordon R. Dickson, Tactics of Mistake