Moreover, the worms are generally beneficial to all plants, including
trees in the forest. That is good for humans and fights global
warming. Ecological disasters are rated mostly in terms of how they
can affect our long term survival. Possibly the worst, at least in our
country, was the disappearance of a few billion chestnut trees, and
the attendant disappearance of 100 billion pounds of quality and free
food at the onset of each winter (as well as the choice timber tree in
the East). But the worms is one of those rare things, together with
dandelions or zebra mussels, where we have done ourselves and many
other species a favor.

Hmmm...I dunno about this one. As the author of the article notes, there
are a number of species of plants and animals that are suffering as a direct
result of the earthworms eating the fallen leaves and such. I would expect
that most will adapt however.

Also of note is the fact that earthworms propagate very slowly, no
more than 20-30 feet per year if they have to do it themselves. There
are large tracts of not previously farmed land where they have not
appeared yet.

If enough colonies form though, this has an obviously multplicative effect.
It is definitely an interesting problem.

I'm not quite sure why the original poster has such an issue with
earthworms, especially in farms and gardens, but this article certainly does
not support his assertion that earthworms are such evil creatures.

Either way, I'm still hitting the local bait shop in the next few weeks to
get some earthworms for my new perennial bed.

James