possum107’s Recent Comments

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  more than bottles

  lets expand it to plastic grocery bags too!  And maybe even fast food wrappers....On Umbra on returnable bottles posted 2 years, 6 months ago 10 Responses

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  the mouse

  O yes - I agree with you about the mouse and the movie!  Sorry, I meant to be clearer -- my concern is with people who focus too strongly on one species at the expense of the total system -- the folks who refuse to kill anything at any time for any reason.  As a specific example from the volunteer work I do to remove invasive species at a nearby natural environment area: one of the site's BIG problems is that the local deer population is enormous and is putting severe pressure on the T&Es at the site.   So the state has been (granted, somewhat belatedly) working to institute a hunting program to reduce the deer herd (which, given our constraints of time and money and people seems to be the best shot we have at accomplishing a reduction quickly -- which we need, because one of our rarest plant species counts has dropped below 1000 or so - and is suffering from deer grazing and trampling), but we have encountered incredible hostility from  neighbors who can't stand the thought that any deer should be sacrificed for this very rare and endangered eco-system that we are working to protect/restore.  It's very short-sighted: they want to essentially trade in 40+ rare species for the sake of one very common and quite overabundant "cute" one.  It's horribly frustrating.  As for preventing the importation of invasives --- the pet trade is a good place to start, but it's only a very small part of the overall problem.  Ship ballast water, wood crating materials, imported foods and plants (legal and otherwise) that contain unwanted seeds, stow-away insects/molds/fungi are probably the bulk of the problem.  The nursery trade should be targeted as well as the animal trade.  But what to do about the globalization of trade?  This is a horrible problem -- the more and faster we travel, the farther and faster these pests invade our environment.  Invasive pests are like a slow-moving nuclear bomb that is quietly wiping out native species everywhere. We have so few tools to combat them, and so few people who even understand how serious this problem is.....it's very scary.  West Nile is killing our birds, the emerald ash borer is killing our ash trees, a fungus from Australia has killed a few people (!) on Vancouver Island, sudden oak death will take out our oak forests, kudzu has overrun the south, mile-a-minute and ailanthus are destroying the areas near me, etc. etc!  The list is long and growing faster every day.On Umbra on cane toads posted 2 years, 6 months ago 11 Responses

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  think bigger

  I would love to see the idea of animal-rights expanded to the idea of eco-system rights.  Focusing on individual animals, worthy as that is (and, yes, I am an animal lover), is just far too limited these days.  The problem of invasive species is ENORMOUS.  Umbra, you supplied some excellent cautions here about being 100% sure you know what critter you're dealing with before dispatching it.  I just hope people aren't soooo discouraged by the extra effort involved in educating themselves about how to control exotic invasives (a problem I think comes just behind global warming in its severity BTW) that they give up completely and leave the job to the "experts".  The professional experts are few, far-between, overworked (pretty much 7 days a week for nearly 365 days a year is the norm for the one I am currently dating), extremely under-funded and at the mercy of all kinds of political games and unbelievable public ignorance of the threats posed by these pests.  We need a lot more citizen volunteers who are willing to give up some of their free time to come out and fight invasives at their local level -- find the right group, and they will be more than happy to educate you and point you in the right direction.On Umbra on cane toads posted 2 years, 6 months ago 11 Responses

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  beyond just a food garden

  How about installing a native plants garden for the wildlife in your area, and adding a collection about the problems with invasive species in your part of the world to your library/curriculum?  Get in touch with your local native plant society for starters....they can send you on your way.  As for invasives, a good site to start with is: "weeds gone wild" http://www.nps.gov/plants/alien/On Umbra on class gifts, again posted 2 years, 6 months ago 3 Responses