Last Wednesday, I posted "
Protect Native Species...Or Die!," after reading about the Native Fish Conservancy's
Exotic Fishing Tournament. In that post, I briefly describe my ambivalence about the
"invasive" species issue.
Chris Clarke, at
Creek Running North, read the post and linked to the quoted
essay by
Timothy Burke. His
response is rich with side-tracks - Clarke's brief discussion of the preservationists' "balance of nature" is pointed and fine - and will give you a lot to chew on. Clarke's conclusion regarding "invasives," if you
really don't have time to read it, is:
"Not all exotic species are invasive. Origin of the species isn't the issue; behavior is. And though the language some use to describe invasive species is redolent with horrible memory, that doesn't mean we ought to fall into the trap of metaphor. People coming from other places increase diversity, while invasive species decrease it."
And he offers a tidy one-liner regarding the "balance of nature":
"Nature no more 'seeks balance' than a slinky seeks the stair tread on which it happens to stop."
1 comment:
While I haven't read Of Mice and Men, I know well what it is about. Lenny could well represent the slip into "dullardism," something I would love to tackle in a later post.
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