> Interfering with the environment and natural processes is a dangerous game, and can lead to unintended consequences. We have been doing this since we landed on this continent. We brought in many plants and animals and often wrecked havoc on the local ecology. For example: I did a kayak trip in Florida to Cayo Costa Island State Park (one of the barrier islands on the West Coast) and found out that in the 1800's, a pine tree brought in from Austria to provide shade took over as an invasive species and changed much of the local Florida plant life. On Cayo Costa they killed all the pines, (except for a few in the campground) to let the natural flora come back. Some plants brought as ornamental flowers, such as purple loosestrife have caused irreparable damage to our environment. They are pretty, but just listen to what Wikipedia says about this plant: "Infestations result in dramatic disruption in water flow in rivers and canals, and a sharp decline in biological diversity<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_diversity>as native food and cover plant species, notably cattails <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typha>, are completely crowded out, and the life cycles of organisms from waterfowl to amphibians to algae are affected. A single plant may produce up to three million tiny seeds annually. Easily carried by wind and water, the seeds germinate in moist soils after overwintering. The plant can also sprout anew from pieces of root left in the soil or water. Once established, loosestrife stands are difficult and costly to remove by mechanical and chemical means. I am just touching on 2 species and I am sure there are thousands more. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue Jul 19 2011 - 10:10:33 PDT
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:31:45 PDT