INVASIVE SPECIES PAGE
If you think curbing plants and animals brought over from other countries is a concern for tree huggers only, this page is for you. Invasive plants are taking over landscapes from Austin to Augusta and legions of scientists, green groups and volunteers are putting in long hours trying to stop them. So much so, we've devoted a whole page to their efforts. Think these reeds are attractive? They're invasives.
<')((((((((><~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Feathered Foe Fouls Flights, Farms 01.21.10
As bad as we've come to view invasive species as being, every once in a while along comes one that upsets convention. European starlings are a marvel in flight, not bad looking either. They came to this country when some genius decided the US should be home to every bird mentioned in the works of Shakespeare. As mentioned in the Opinion page today, they have gained a few fans in this country. As this piece points out they are also something of a flight risk when they get sucked into jet turbines. So ,the government just green-lighted a plan to permit poisoning of several thousand of the things in Pennsylvania. These massive flocks of birds are known to also make a mess out of an occasional corn field. Not everyone is in love with them. We bring it up here in a shameless attempt to increase traffic on the Invasive page.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~><((((((((()'>
Ship Water Gets Scrubbing 11.26.09
Recently the Boston Globe had a piece on invasive species which talked of efforts to clean ship ballast water before the ship takes it on—ship ballast water being a likely source of most of the marine invasives in this country. The idea in the article was that water born invasives can't hitch a ride in ship's ballast if you clean the water before the ship takes it on. The article was fine up to this line: All this has sent engineers, scientists, and coastal resource managers scrambling to find ways to deal with these marine invaders before it's too late.
Take a look around you folks, it is too late. Invasives are like global warming: we're a day late and a dollar short on this problem. Unlike global warming, invasives are a natural process (Indeed, you could almost argue that global warming is a natural process, but we won't go there today.) Whether it's Kudzu climbing all over Alabama or zebra mussels clogging industrial cooling systems in the Great Lakes, invasives are plants and animals A.K.A. FOOD!.
Is it unreasonable to think that at some point another species is going to discover that milfoil which is turning ponds into swamps, is edible? I offer up the invasive greencrabs which make great bait for our native blackfish which make great fried fish sandwiches for our native filet-o-fish-o-philes.
I don't mean to belittle the invasives problem this planet is facing. Invasive plants and animals kill off competeing plant and animals and that reduces biodiversity. But I'd like to argue that some well intending folks misunderstand biodiversity. It's wonderful to have all these species but we've already done so much damage to this planet that biodiversity will suffer considerably greater reductions in the years to come. It can't be avoided.
So, the question becomes how much effort do we put into curbing invasives when natural forces will eventually smooth out these vicious populations swings while we devote ourselves to more productive or promising pursuits, like non-point source pollution or global warming or proliferation of plastics or proliferation of poisons.To illustrate my point NY's Suffolk Times today had a piece about folks striping invasive phragmites A.K.A. reeds out of an Orient, NY pond which is being choked off by the invasive. I've also spoken with folks ripping waterchestnut out of Boston's Charles River and other folks pulling milfoil out of tiny Mill Pond in NH. Invariable their enjoyment of the waterbody is driving their effort as much as environmental concerns. But is it the best thing over all for the environment?
To illustrate my point NY's Suffolk Times today had a piece about folks striping invasive phragmites A.K.A. reeds out of an Orient, NY pond which is being choked off by the invasive. I've also spoken with folks ripping waterchestnut out of Boston's Charles River and other folks pulling milfoil out of tiny Mill Pond in NH. Invariable their enjoyment of the waterbody is driving their effort as much as environmental concerns. But is it the best thing over all for the environment?
<')((((((((><~~~~~~~~~~~~~~