Photo by Jesse Reeder licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Gardening season is soon to be underway here in the northern hemisphere. This past weekend saw droves of people taking advantage of the nice weather by getting their hands dirty in the garden. A walk around the neighborhood brought with it a lot of smiles and a chance to reconnect with neighbors I haven't talked to in a while but it also brought with it something sinister. Lingering in the air was the scent of cypress mulch. Tons upon tons of it are being spread over gardens everywhere. One might ask "Whats the problem? Cypress mulch is more durable and more insect resistant than other mulches!"
WRONG!
Anymore today, these ideas are leftovers of a long gone era. Back when old growth cypress forests were still a thing, these centuries old trees did impart rot and pest resistance into their wood. Today, this is not the case. Because logging has taken most of the old growth cypress from places like Florida and Louisiana, mulch companies have had to resort to cutting down and mulching young, second and third growth cypress stands. Barely given the time to grow into the towering specimens their parents and grandparents once were, these young trees have not yet imparted the centuries worth of compounds into their wood that keep them from rotting and deter insect predators.
The saddest part of the cypress mulch industry is that they are destroying valuable and irreplaceable habitat for the myriad lifeforms that rely on cypress swamps for their existence. To add insult to injury, recovery of cypress trees is almost negligible anymore today due to the way we have managed our waterways. Cypress seedlings require inundation by freshwater and regular silt deposition in order to successfully germinate. A century of flood control, inundation by brackish water, as well as dam and ship canal building have completely upset this dynamic. Now, instead of building new habitat for cypress swamps, these sediments are washed away, far out into the Gulf of Mexico.
What staggeringly few people seem to care to realize is that cypress swamps are our first line of defense against hurricanes. Cypress swamps can cut the force of a storm surge by 90%. It has been estimated that the cypress swamps in Louisiana alone are worth a staggering $6.7 billion in storm protection every year. That is a lot of cash, people!
As with any other industry, the cypress mulch companies are driven by consumer demand. The simple act of individuals, communities, and local governments not purchasing this nasty product is all it will take to lessen the blow to these precious habitats. At the rate cypress is being cut, it will not take long for us to exhaust the resource entirely. As you are looking to do some gardening this year, and many years into the future, please keep these great trees in mind and stop buying cypress mulch. In lieu of wood and bark mulches, you should consider using shredded leaves from your property instead. They make excellent mulch and being locally sourced, the reduce the chances of introducing disease and other pests to your landscape. In the words of Captain Planet, "the power is yours!"
Photo Credit: Jesse Reeder (http://bit.ly/1wmQpn8)
Further Reading: [1] [2] [3] [4]