Matt Niebuhr
A selection from a larger ongoing series, Traveler’s Joy seeks to explore aspects of our environment no longer “natural”. But what is a “model” of the natural?
Sometimes our intervention in the landscape is obvious and clearly bears the terminal scars of our actions. Other times the effect of our intervention is more subtle – nearly silent, invisible, and mostly unintentional. This initial series highlights a condition of competition between native / non-native species. The successful invasive species – namely English Ivy and Clematis vitalba (Evergreen clematis) found in Macleay Park, Portland, Oregon are threatening to overcome the native diversity of an otherwise healthy balanced ecosystem by suppressing all other vegetation in a slow and steady colonization towards a deadly monoculture.