Subject: [Tweeters] introduced plants and non-birds
Date: Apr 5 11:05:15 2006
From: sgmlod at aol.com - sgmlod at aol.com


Greetings

So, these non-natives, such as Himalayan blackberry and Russian olive, have been with us for a century or more. I'd argue that we've already seen the changes in molds, shrews, etc that they have wrought. These changes are reflected in the birdlife already. I don't suspect that the current presence of Russian olive will appear as some devastating disappearance of a butterfly 20 years from now.

Indeed, there are already pests invading the Russian olives, and it is these larvae in Russian olive fruits that YR Warblers are eating; the warblers are not eating the fruit itself.

Besides, in the highly altered and aberrant habitats these invasives are largely growing in--- do we really think native molds, etc would return without returning the ag land to sage, etc. No, they wouldn't. So why kill off the Russian Olive. Or we can all move to a different planet.

For relatively pristine habitats, which IS a lot of Washington, let's keep the Russian olive and blackberry out, but for much of suburbia and agriculturia, the attempt to remove such seems worse than pointless.

I'd also argue that birds (and likely other species) have already adapted to the presence of these non-native species, and their sudden elimination would be devastating to some species. Where would the five percent of North America's GR Scaup go if they showed up on the Columbia one fall and found no milfoil?

Steven Mlodinow
Everett WA