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There are many other examples - the Brazilian Pepper tree. First 
introduced for landscaping is now a major problem in the Gulf Coast. 
Then there is the melaleuca tree (brought into this country as a 
landscape tree) that is sucking the Everglades dry. Interestingly enough 
- Kudzu does not grow well in the FL sandhills. It seems to grow much 
better in other soils. And to top it off they are now finding pythons 
breeding in the Everglades. The python is not a native snake of the US - 
but it is here now and the chances of getting rid of it in the Southern 
tropical ecosystems are slim to none.

Kudzu is a prime example where man did impact the environment. Where it 
grows it grows faster and better than anything else.

On the other hand plants are carried in spore or seed from from Africa 
to the US on a regular basis. There is now a fungus that grows on 
soybeans that came over on a hurricane from Africa. There are plants 
that can be traced back to Africa - probably brought over on the trade 
winds. West Nile virus is thought to have been brought to the US by a 
traveler from the middle east coming to NY bit by a mosquito who bit a 
bird - thus getting it into our virgin bird population where it thrived. 
It's a big world and natural processing have a strong tendency to "mix."

I'm not saying we should not try to control certain types of plant and 
animal that move into the natural environment. We must, however, be 
realistic in that if the environment has changes in such a way that it 
now favors that invasive plane/animal over the "native" then we would 
probably have about as much luck holding back the tides.

The "control of non-native" argument seems to be carried to the extreme 
today. A prime example is fescue - sold as good old Kentucky 31. It is 
now classified by the Feds as an invasive species because it was brought 
over by the British in the colonial days. East of the Mississippi fescue 
is the most common pasture grass. It is a common lawn grass. It is hardy 
and drought resistant and grows very well in most places - except 
Florida because of a fescue fungus we have here. I don't think it does 
well, either, in arid climates. Trying to keep fescus out of the 
national forest in the east would mean the Federal Government would have 
to eliminate it from all the private lands around and in the forest 
boundaries. What happens the deer eat the grass on the private lands - 
which are more open with more grass - and then take the seeds back to 
the forest. Same for birds. Not only would the effort to eliminate the 
source of fescue impacting the public lands have a huge associated cost 
one would have to wonder about the legality of such because of its 
impact on private property and the livelihood of those farmers that 
depend on fescue as a good inexpensive pasture grass.

Now in most parts of FL - we use grasses that were developed from 
tropical grasses of South America and Africa and hybrids of those as 
pasture. I am sure they are "non native" but they have been here for a 
long time and they are about the only thing that will grow of any value.

The invasive issue as far as I can see is not cut and dry. Reason needs 
to be used in determining how one proceeds. The economic cost has to be 
factored into the equation from all sides along with the probability of 
long term success. This is especially true if public monies are being 
used to target the elimination of invasive plants. It's a tough problem 
- more so as we are experiencing a change in our climate. We are getting 
hotter and drier on the average in the SE - this will have a major 
impact. For example - independent of the elevated hurricane activity of 
the past several years - much of FL and much of the SE is in a prolonged 
drought. A prolonged drought will have significant impact on what plants 
will thrive and what plants will die off. Being "native" means the plant 
has done well in the climatic conditions that were in place in that area 
for the last so many years. In reality the "native" is more descriptive 
of the climatic conditions than the geography. If the climatic 
conditions change - so will the list of plants that will do well.

I'm not saying we should ignore the problem, but we need to be realistic 
in the approach to it. If could spend a 500 billion dollars in one year 
and wipe out Kudzu - would it be worth it? If it required 500 billion of 
public funds could those be better spent in other places?

Truman

David LeBlanc wrote:
> Truman 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.
>
>
>
>
>   


--

“Ethical axioms are found and tested not very differently from the 
axioms of science. Truth is what stands the test of experience.” Albert 
Einstein


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