Nature's Best Hope by Douglas W. Tallamy

Author:Douglas W. Tallamy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Timber Press
Published: 2019-02-25T16:00:00+00:00

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This has been a heady and heavy discussion, but it needed to be to cover this complex situation. At this point, enough studies have been completed and enough information gathered that we can now definitively answer the question, Are alien plants bad? The preponderance of evidence says yes. Compared to native plant communities, introduced plants are bad at supporting insects and are thus bad at supporting insectivores. They are bad at supporting specialist pollinators, complex food webs, stable food webs, local biodiversity, interaction diversity, and, most important of all, they are bad at supporting ecosystem function. I recognize there are social constraints on what we can do with this information, but we should no longer accept the notion that introduced plants are the ecological equivalents of the native plants they replace.

Our environmental boat has sprung a leak. Many of us are trying to repair the leak; others are bailing to keep us afloat until the leak is plugged. What is baffling, though, is that far too many of us are dumping new buckets of water into our boat, as if sinking it will not be a problem for them. At this point, each of us must decide what role we will play in the future: Will you be a bailer or a dumper? Your choice of plants in your yard will determine what role you have chosen.

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