Invasive ? plant lists

William Aley aley_wd@mac.com
Wed, 03 Sep 2008 15:28:10 PDT
I often hear of folk stating that governments are basically inept at  
controlling invasive species or not knowledgeable to tell one invasive  
plant from another that is a passive curiosity. Is there any model or  
method that will predict when a plant species, introduced as a  
horticultural interest  will convert to becoming the next ecological  
invasive disaster? How would one enlighten the policy makers to become  
more attuned to this model, if it existed, that would satisfy the  
spectrum between the ecological purists and rare plant enthusiasts? I  
have read from the broad spectrum of idealistic self interest groups  
ranging between the Nature Conservancy that does not want to allow  
any  international imports or exchange without long, lengthy clearance  
processes to plants men advertising the newest non destructive nothing  
eats or damages tough plant  thing just collected from some remote  
hillside in remote isolated  temperately tropical Shangri-La that just  
cleared customs (maybe). I guess I am a bit curious, it's always easy  
to rant about the social dysfunction without having a better solution  
and encouraging others to pickup arms and contribute to a nebulous  
fight against the process.

William Aley
aley_wd@me.com
http://web.mac.com/aley_wd/aley_wd/…



On Sep 4, 2008, at 5:15 AM, info@auchgourishbotanicgarden.org wrote:

> Leaving aside the excellent comments preceding mine here. One aspect  
> of this wider issue is that those who work for government  
> departments and some NGOs take the view, or so it seems, that to  
> make blanket proscriptions against this or that is a reflection of  
> their being on the ball, or any other silly metaphor, when all it  
> reveals is the paucity of their intellectual talents combined of  
> course by their egregious laziness. Such mindlessness is not  
> restricted to governments in any one country, right now this topic  
> relates to the USA but believe me please, these people are a genetic  
> intellectual subgroup to be found in all countries and can be  
> regarded as one of the ways to soak up the unemployable in the  
> private sector.
>
> Most people can cite instances where such bereft thinking invariably  
> results in the contempt for the regulations themselves and much  
> effort is spent, intellectually or otherwise in circumventing these  
> unnecessary restrictions. This in short order becomes an end-game in  
> itself, as in " lets run rings round these ..........s". Sadly the  
> downside also includes material which should never be acquired,  
> introduced, etc but the whole 'game' assumes a respectability  
> amongst group peers. Here in Scotland we have an ancient and  
> honourable tradition of running rings round government agencies  
> since the Union in 1707, whether it is illicit whisky distillation  
> where nobody who was caught ever suffered the opprobrium from their  
> social network right through to modern times with other activities,  
> doubtless in the US and elsewhere the same 'games' carry on, witness  
> your prohibitions days.
>
> In a previous post or two on this, the point was made about species  
> getting away in one location but never able to do so in others,  
> Cardiocrinum gigantium in south eastern Australia being one good  
> example but it doesn't happen in any other state in Australia. I  
> frequently am asked to send seed of Scots thistles to Canada / USA  
> by some of the Scots Diaspora but never do, most of these thistle  
> species are a notifiable agricultural weed here which require  
> statutory controls on grazing and crop land by owners. Controls are  
> needed, sensible controls based on sound judgement not blanket  
> barring because just nobody has the data to support it nor the  
> intellectual desire to collect it first.
>
> You will usually find folk like those that living in high rise  
> apartments with an extreme disconnect between their urban life and  
> that of the rural one are the same who inroduce these daft  
> regulations. Ce la vie. Fight against it and resist it fellow  
> bulbophiles.
>
> Iain
>
>
>
>
>
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