To follow the Russian olive thread, I was shocked when I arrived at
the Dry Tortugas last spring to find that the National Park Service
had cut down all the Australian pines (Casuarina) on Loggerhead Key.
Loggerhead is the largest island in the little archipelago and the
one that usually has the most migrant birds on it. Casuarinas
furnished a woodland on that key that provided habitat/cover for lots
of tree-dwelling passerines and was usually full of birds during
migration when I visited there years ago. There are no other trees of
note on the island, just shrubs and a few scraggly small trees.
Because it's not native, Casuarina had to go, another reduction in
usable bird habitat because of a knee-jerk reaction. Worse, the NPS
was talking about cutting down some of the large trees on the parade
ground within Fort Jefferson on Garden Key because they're not native
Florida trees. There aren't that many trees there, and every one
serves as important habitat and presumably food sources (leaf-eating
insects) for migrants, but the park service has its protocol, and it
must be followed to the letter, much like worker ants. It's hard to
understand the reasoning of people who think only in absolutes.
-----
Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115
206-528-1382

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