It being Friday the 13th with a Full Moon, I thought it only appropriate that I use the photo of a 4-leaf clover in my post, however, I have committed to only use original photos and not something "borrowed" from the Internet and I didn't have one of a 4-leaf clover. Instead, I will use this Brazos Rain-lily (Zephyranthes chlorosolen) as a substitute. We had a number of them make their appearance in our pasture after the rain we had a couple of weeks ago. They aren't large -- about 12" tall consisting of a single stem shooting up out of the ground with a flower approximately 2" in diameter.
To the extent possible, we try to identify the plants we find growing in our pastures. Some plants are toxic to cattle and we especially watch out for them. Such plants typically only appear sporadically such as after a drought or, in a particularly rainy stretch at a time of year when it doesn't normally rain as much. Knowing the flora and fauna on the land within your care is important for that reason, but also for others.
There are numerous rare or, endangered species of plants and animals. When you speak of such things, most ranchers cringe because of the bad experiences of some where their land was restricted in its use due to the presence of such items. Various government agencies have a good deal of power to do such and so, most occurrences of threatened plants and animals go unreported due to fear, or to willful ignorance. I fully sympathize with that. No one wants how they utilize their land to be restricted due to the presence of some rare salamander, or minnow, or weed.
It is difficult, even for someone who is very much a conservationist at heart, to reconcile the preservation of every single species against the rights and needs of individuals. I am a firm believer that "less government" is the best government. Personal property rights are one of the most important foundations of our liberty; without them, there is no free enterprise and very little incentive to grow and create.
A willingness by many to restrict such rights is typically due to a jealousy of the "have nots" toward those who have been able to acquire substantial property. Is the system rigged? You bet it is. Those who have accumulated property have considerably more power than those who haven't. That is why there is a need for appropriate regulation of the rights of ownership that weigh the needs of the many against the "rights" of the individual. It is why we have labor laws and regulations against certain monopolistic practices.
When it comes to things of a more esoteric nature -- such as rare plants and animals -- it is sometimes difficult to determine where the needs/rights of the individual end and public needs/rights begin. I don't pretend to have deep specialized knowledge regarding such issues, but in general, I understand the concept that we need to maintain biodiversity. Even the most well-trained scientists only understand the "surface" of the intricate workings of various ecosystems. Each time a species goes extinct, there is the danger of a cascading effect that can cause widespread disruption. There also is the potential commercial/social value that many plants and animals offer as food or, as sources of medicines and other potentially important compounds. In summation, we don't know enough to know what we don't know, therefore the wise course is to preserve.
Fortunately for me, the Lily in the photo is not an endangered or, threatened species. It does however, produce an alkaloid called lycorine, a fungicide, which protects the plant against Phymatotrichum root rot. That characteristic alone could make it valuable given gene splicing technology such as CRISPR. The genes from the Brazos rain-lily that cause it to produce the lycorine might could be spliced into the DNA of a cotton plant for instance, giving it the ability to resist root rot in times of too much rain.
Maybe there is a reason to protect those plants and animals after all....
No comments:
Post a Comment