"Helping" Begs A Question

In my sort of quirky take on the world, there are few things I take issue with, and even those few things take up very little of my brain activity.

One thing I believe is a worthy mention is people feeding the birds.  At one point I also was drawn in to the attractiveness of doing something simple and nice, of "helping" the little creatures.  Until it dawned on me one ah ha moment that what seemed like kindness was in reality quite destructive to our world.

Those adorable little birds were given by the universe all the skills, tools, instincts and intrinsic knowledge gained by generations of survival to take care of themselves.  By giving them their food, they will become dependent.  They will lose the ability to adapt and evolve.  They will teach their young where to find the easy food so these young will not learn what plants and trees they need to locate for sustenance. 

My neighbors fed the birds regularly.  For years.  And then they moved.  I hope the flocks of adorable little finches managed to find another source and didn't just die out.

It makes way more sense to me that the best way we can help our fellow creatures is NOT to make them dependent on our handouts, but to maintain a healthy environment in which they can survive.  When I no longer live here, I hope the bushes and plants I have put in for them will still be here for them to use as shelter and food.

One of my personal landscaping goals is to have as little grass as possible.  I mean the kind of grass that is groomed, and neat and needs to be mowed.  There are fewer useless things than a space of grass that serves no purpose other than, um, I really can't think of a purpose.  Maybe golf. 

The things I want growing around me are the things that support lives of all shapes and sizes.  Caveat;  I really don't want to share my vegetables, hence the relocation of 3 groundhogs last summer, bless their cute little hearts.   There is a place inside me where I feel that I don't 'own' my land.  That it is okay to live here, but I have a responsibility to share the space.

Interestingly, I had expected to see all kinds of wildlife living on the edge of a lake, surrounded by thousands of acres of protected forest.  Then, in another ah ha moment, I realized that the animals around here are real and wild, they have enough of their own natural environment that they don't need to face the danger of entering an area inhabited by humans with our ever increasing misunderstanding with natural laws.  So I rarely have the experience of the sightings that many of my acquaintances have, those that live in pocket neighborhoods which interrupt the space needed by animals to live.

The time may be here, the time when we will start to see the declining population in much of the 'everyday' wildlife depleted and if the trend continues, disappearing.  It is not just going to be in other parts of the world, the tigers and whales and polar bears.  Our grandchildren will be telling their children about the bats who used to fly at night, and fuzzy bees that used to make the flowers grow and finches that used to spread the seeds of plants that used to grow.  Or maybe our grandchildren's children won't be around to hear the stories because of these missing critical supporters of a sustainable environment.

So let's not feed the birds, especially from a bag of seeds which may contain the seeds of an invasive plant which will be spread and only further serve to harmfully impact an environment in which all life can survive.  Let's think about the effects our "helping" really has.

 

Peace,
Elfscooter