"P van Rijckevorsel" wrote:
Introductions are a matter of great debate here too, but nowhere near the
problem they are in Australia. The flora and fauna in Europe are pretty
tough so that most invaders have a hard time of it.

Nevertheless from time tot time gardening centers have to be forbidden
from selling yet another cute pond plant or animal when this goes out of
control, being dumped in the wild by garden owners and then running amok.

At one point there was also debate on having the forests here producing
more wood so as to limit wood imports, but the only trees to produce
(relatively) high quality woods are 'exotics' such as Pseudotsuga and
Robinia. Nowadays all the useful trees are weeded out of the forests as
'exotics' and forest owners are going out of business.

Martin Rand schreef
I don't know how it is in the Netherlands, but in Britain forest
owners are going out of business (when they are) because of the low
price of softwoods. Who's doing all that 'weeding' so as to bankrupt
these forest owners? Also I don't know what your definition of 'high
quality' is, but the cost of beech or oak furniture says something.
Over here Robinia isn't much grown, but (for instance) a lot of the
Douglas Fir from north and mid Wales seems to end up in the chipboard
factory at Y Waun - not my idea of high quality.

+ + +
Well, obviously Douglas from the Netherlands is not in the same league as
old growth Oregon pine, but it is high quality compared to 'native' Pinus
sylvestris.

That forest owners are going out of business has multiple reasons but not
growing relatively high-quality woods is certainly not helping.

A fair proportion of softwoods grown in the Netherlands is indeed used as
saw wood.

BTW: Elsewhere in the world some of the finest hardwoods in existence
(actually irreplacable) are stuffed into pulp-producing machines, so the
fact that Wales chips up the local trees does not necessarily say anything
about their quality
+ + +

On the other hand rabbits (introduced by the Romans) are now somewhat
protected, mostly since hunters like to shoot at them.

+ + +
The Netherlands are a more unusual country than I thought. A place where
the rabbits need protecting in order to give the hunters enough to shoot at!
What form does this 'somewhat' protection take, by the way?
Martin (off-duty)
Chandlers Ford, Hampshire

+ + +
Whenever a disease bring back rabbit populations to sufferable proportions
hunters start a management program to raise numbers. Other 'nature
management' programs include raising pheasants in cages (as pets) and them
introducing them into nature a day or two before a shooting party of hunters
passes by.
PvR