 |
RE: [RC] weed free - David LeBlancTruman said: That is not to say that some care should not be given to the local ecology. But at the end of the day our chance of stopping a plant that has "invaded" an area because it's climate is now very favorable to its spread and growth - is like trying to stop the tide. All systems will reach equilibrium based on the forces acting on it - be it a physical system, a chemical system or a biological system. Oh, yeah? One word - kudzu. From the wikipedia: "In all, kudzu infests 20,000 to 30,000 square kilometres of land in the United States and costs around $500 million annually in lost cropland and control costs." If you don't stop that stuff, it'll take over your house. There's all sorts of examples of where people fouled things up horribly by introducing things where they weren't before. Talk to the Australians sometime about the topic. See how they feel about rabbits. It's one thing when one species just naturally takes over because something changed, quite another when we go in and screw things up. All that damn kudzu is a menace. So what _we_ need to do to avoid losing more trail is pay to get some research done, and get some real science behind the question of whether horses spread weeds or not. I don't think they do, since they don't tend to eat weeds, and so won't have weed seeds in their manure. But if I'm wrong, and horses _are_ causing a problem, then we need to recognize that and quit whining. Either way, finding out for sure with some nice controlled studies ought to put an end to it. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
|