This recent NBC evening news segment on invasive species clinging to Japanese tsunami debris drifting onto U.S. western shores got NBN thinking about a wild edible foods tour we took a while back outside Boston. A granola gal taking that tour started regaling the assemblage about her efforts to pull invasive water chestnut from the Charles River. When NBN suggested such efforts were futile and that the best way to combat invasives may be to let nature take its course, this woman went ballistic. Apparently, passions run high when it comes to invasive plants.

That’s because invasive plants and animals are over-running our natural landscapes everywhere. They are turning U.S. lakes and rivers into swamps of water chestnut and milfoil, sewage eating fish are threatening a coup d’ etat in the Great Lake’s, inedible mussels are clogging power plant cooling pipes. The list goes on forever. There are 50,000 invasive species in the US alone and we’re spending tens of billions a year to stop them from turning our mountain majesties into carpets of kudzu and our fruited plains in amber waves of phragmites. Given that, it can sound pretty bizarre for environmentally-minded folks to suggest the best way to stop invasives is to let nature take its course. So a while back the idea was put to a retired NY environmental scientist who we’d rather not name now because we didn’t call him back to comment on this update.

For the past two years that scientist has used plastic mats to smother invasive Asian clams taking over the bottom of Lake George. When NBN proposed to the scientist that the Asian clam be left to make little clams to its heart’s content, he also got passionate. In the few years the clams are believed to have been in Lake George, this video show what they have done to the lake bottom. The scientist expected his effort will work and he offered up a successful program curbing the zebra mussel in Lake George in support. He said volunteers started pulling the zebra mussels out of Lake George to where populations of the tiny bivalve got so low it will now be a struggle for them to gain a foothold.

 Despite the zebra mussel story, we’re not sure the scientist is right and recent studies suggest his mats are smothering a lot more than Asian clams. Rather than bolster the scientist’s argument, this appeal in the local paper last week for more state money to combat invasives in Lake George inadvertently paints the effort as the losing battle such effort is increasingly becoming across the country. NBN would like nothing more than to see Lake George and all US ecosystems remain highly diversified with all their native species intact. But this website, dedicated to invasive species success stories, is a little thin to say the least. Correspondingly, we can’t help but wonder  if nature were left to her own devices to fight the war on invasives, might she find a way?

Given that, is it so absurd to think that natural controls on invasives will eventually evolve? Farmers spend enormous effort keeping the monocultures of plants and animals they grow free from opportunistic animals, insects, plants and fungi. If nature does not immediately provide a natural enemy to combat invasives maybe humans can step in. The lion fish invading Florida reefs are supposed to be delicious. Japanese knotweed shoots spreading all over New England taste like asparagus and are an excellent source of resveratrol. Word has it, there’s plenty of free reindeer meat being made available on the Georgian Islands. In fact there is an entire website dedicated to eating invasive species.