Are We Using Invasive Species?

Discussion in 'The big picture' started by 9anda1f, Dec 23, 2013.

  1. Pakanohida

    Pakanohida Junior Member

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    I wonder what the effect was on the immediate marine environment post application.
     
  2. songbird

    songbird Senior Member

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    they consider it a success because they got rid of the rats, but left the rest of the ecosystem mostly intact. i'm not into poisoning things if i can help it so i would have probably done something else.

    fencing small sites for different bird nesting habitat and then working from those areas to make spaces bigger as i had time and materials or volunteers. if done in layers and sections then a breach in one area can be isolated from other areas, so you don't lose it all...
     
  3. Eugene von Guerard

    Eugene von Guerard Junior Member

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    Very good book on the subject by Emma Marris - "The Rambunctious Garden".

    Part of the blurb from Amazon -

    "A paradigm shift is roiling the environmental world. For decades people have unquestioningly accepted the idea that our goal is to preserve nature in its pristine, pre-human state. But many scientists have come to see this as an outdated dream that thwarts bold new plans to save the environment and prevents us from having a fuller relationship with nature. Humans have changed the landscapes they inhabit since prehistory, and climate change means even the remotest places now bear the fingerprints of humanity. Emma Marris argues convincingly that it is time to look forward and create the "rambunctious garden," a hybrid of wild nature and human management. "

    In this optimistic book, readers meet leading scientists and environmentalists and visit imaginary Edens, designer ecosystems, and Pleistocene parks. Marris describes innovative conservation approaches, including rewilding, assisted migration, and the embrace of so-called novel ecosystems.

    Rambunctious Garden is short on gloom and long on interesting theories and fascinating narratives, all of which bring home the idea that we must give up our romantic notions of pristine wilderness and replace them with the concept of a global, half-wild rambunctious garden planet, tended by us."

    This is a book that is short on gloom and is for all those people out there that constantly wear a frown whenever they spot an "invasive" species. It transformed my thinking on environmental issues.

    ...on a side note. A local Landcare group removed all the "weeds" from a local reserve in the hope of restoring habitat for the endemic insects. Turns out the exhaustive weed removal program and subsequent monitoring showed a 70% drop in the endemic insect population. That was not what they wanted or expected.

    The Landcare groups do more harm than good. A bunch of clueless, conceited nativist ideologues IMHO. Botanical Fascists that have more in common with Pauline Hanson and the KKK.

    :)
     
  4. S.O.P

    S.O.P Moderator

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    That blurb speaks to me. Thanks for posting it.

    I'll add that to the long list of books I should buy.
     
  5. Eugene von Guerard

    Eugene von Guerard Junior Member

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    Hi SOP.

    Hope you put it on the top of your list! It's actually not a "worthy" book. I mean "worthy" in the sense of it being dry, dense and impenetrable. I have far too many of those, where you wind up reading the same paragraph half a dozen eye-glazing times and when you finally put the damn thing down, you feel none the wiser. It's not populist, and it's not grindingly academic.

    She has written for the worlds foremost science journal, Nature, on ecology, conservation biology and other topics, so she really knows her onions. Her greatest strength is in her writing style. Completely and utterly engaging, not too long and there is a chapter on most parts of the world (terrific one on Scotia Sanctuary in NSW) so everyone can personally relate to it.

    Its sub-title is "Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World".

    :)
     
  6. S.O.P

    S.O.P Moderator

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  7. Eugene von Guerard

    Eugene von Guerard Junior Member

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    No pics...Kindle would be sweet.
     
  8. 9anda1f

    9anda1f Administrator Staff Member

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    I like that a lot! Thanks!!
     
  9. S.O.P

    S.O.P Moderator

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  10. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    I like this! I'm reading a "worthy" book at present which is proving to be more effective than a sleeping tablet. The Second Sex by Simone de Bouvier. When you get to the bits that are understandable its interesting, but so much of it needs you to read the sentence 3 times to understand it. I suspect it relates to the quality of the translation (the original is French).
     

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