The other week, someone left a comment next to one of my observations, noting that the plant was invasive and I should remove it when I find it. I knew that that plant was invasive, and have actually removed it other places, but have never thought of doing so in parks. I got to thinking about the re…

Slightly off topic, but this summer Winnipeg had a canker worm infestation, along with more caterpillar hunter beetles (neither of which is invasive). I’d dangle a canker worm on it’s thread in front of a beetle, and managed to feed some that way. It was oddly satisfying!!

The general rules for the local open space district for which I volunteer are that nothing is to be removed. One of the resource management biologists had commented once that they didn’t want us (docents) to pull out invasives on our own, even knowing there’s a separate group of volunteers who do th…

[image] zabdiel: In the UK you can be held responsible if you fail to control it and it spreads. If only it was like that with Himalaya blackberry in Washington State!

It’s still all over the place though, at least near towns & cities. I doubt that many people have been taken to court over it. Knotweed only spreads by vegetative means here. I assume the blackberry sets viable seeds?

An interesting flip-side to the question might be, “What are the ethics of not removing invasive plants?” The problem is (at least in CA, but I suspect in many other places as well), there are highly invasive plants which can be identified and removed by the proper agencies, but there is a lack of k…

[image] pmeisenheimer: vigilante weeding Also off topic: A phrase I never thought I’d see.

I somewhat wonder if this topic varies from place to place - I feel the Idea of preserving a local flora and fauna to be more prominent in places that are relatively new to human influence, like the Americas or Australia. In central Europe, after thousands of years of humans manipulating floras we a…

It may. I have wondered that as well. I am a US citizen and resident and consider any species that did not exist in the Americas prior to any European contact to be an exotic. I think since we are talking about only 550 years with early documentation of the existing flora and fauna on the continents…

Also easier to decide (if not to do) for us in the Southwestern Cape, where we have a mediterranean climate and an entire floral kingdom. Is it fynbos or invasive or commonorgarden or…

[image] elizabeth1067: I am a US citizen and resident and consider any species that did not exist in the Americas prior to any European contact to be an exotic. Right, but that is a different kind of exoticism. @pmmgarak was speaking of the postglacial expansion of plants within Europe, and w…

The ethics of removing invasive plants

Nature Talk

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The ethics of removing invasive plants

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