Dennis Paulson's comments are interesting. The phrase 'invasive species'
on Google results in many web sites that provide ample evidence of how Homo
sapiens has altered things on Earth, even though we have been here such a
short time in the geologic sense.



To put this short time into perspective, John McPhee suggested that a person
could hold his/her arms out to the left and right parallel to the ground to
represent the time of Earth from its formation to the present. If Earth
were formed at the left fingertips, Precambrian time would run from the
fingertips, up the left arm, through the shoulders and down to the wrist of
the right arm. Then Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic time would run from
the right wrist through the right hand and fingers. H. sapien's time on
Earth would be represented by the dust removed by one swipe of a
medium-grained nail file on the fingernail of the middle finger of the right
hand.



Clearly we're not in charge here, merely passersby, but as Dennis Paulson
states we have made a lot of alterations. In my opinion, these alterations
have had destabilizing effects that will result in unknown but probably
deleterious consequences. In some cases we already know that the
consequences are deleterious.



A very informative discussion of such alterations, consequences and attempts
at rectification can be found at www.hcn.org <http://www.hcn.org/> , then
click on Beetle Warfare. The issue is tamarisk (an invasive species) and a
beetle imported from Kazakhstan to reduce the tamarisk population.



Birds Thursday (slight overcast, weak sun, 46 degrees, lite breeze) included
brown creeper, surf scoters m & f, buffleheads m & f, double-crested
cormorants, herring gulls, horned grebes, Oregon juncos, pigeon guillemots,
common mergansers and crows.



Cheers.



Carl Hauge

Pickering Passage

<mailto:tuleluke at earthlink.net> tuleluke at earthlink.net



Civilization exists with geologic consent, subject to change without notice.
Will Durant



The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge
faster than society gathers wisdom. Isaac Asimov