On 24 Jan 2005 at 12:35, Marty Haber wrote:

I dunno, Nina. Every year there's a new plant enemy. Has this always been
the case, or is the cause increased accessibility? Are we too civilized?
Sooner or later, each of these insects and diseases seems to win out over
the best efforts to control them. That's why I think we should concentrate
on developing disease-resistant varieties rather than focusing on
preventative measures. IMHO we have very little choice.
Marty

If it were only ornamentals that we need to worry about, we
wouldn't worry that much (and Nina could be jobless).

But as she said, these things wreak havoc in the "wild" (defined
to include city parks as well as wilderness).

Blame the jet plane. And blame e-mail, too.

The jet plane is obvious. More of us are going to more remote
and exotic places and bringing more junk back (both
intentionally and as stealth stow-aways in and on shoes,
clothing and baggage, etc.) to places where its has NO natural
enemies and LOTS of unsuspecting potential prey.

E-mail is more insidious and purposeful (if innocently so).
Imagine a garden list somewhere where Matilda extols the beauty
and other virtues of some native fruit or flower she grows to
members of the list. Somewhere, continents away, listmember
Gertrude starts drooling. She MUST have one, but Wayside
Gardens doesn't carry it (perhaps for damned good reason!).
Gertrude e-mails Matilda who obligingly sends seeds, cuttings or
small bare rooted plants in a manila envelope -- which no-one
checks as it wends its way from M to G. It arrives.
Unknowingly, an excited Gertrude rips open Pandora's box . . .
Again, no enemies but lots of possible prey.

Marine shipping also plays a part. Our coastal waters now play
host to untold number of harmful marine plants and animals that
made the journey from somewhere else to the "Promised Land" in
the bilge waters of cargo ships. Most notable (recently) of
these is a tiny stinging jellyfish that swimmers along the east
coast have discovered. But others (diseases, parasites, and
outright predators) also are affecting marine ecosystems that
support an already troubled seafood industry.

I'm easily wound up on this topic. So I'll unwind.

But before someone else says it, the world _probably_ will
adust, but the results in our lifetimes (and our children's)
will be a weak and pale "natural" outdoors.

Jim Lewis - - Tallahassee, FL - Nature
encourages no looseness, pardons no errors. Ralph Waldo Emerson

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