The logic is almost pre-Darwinian--a place for everything, and everything in its place, all orchestrated by the ultimate bureaucrat--God. I organize plant sales twice a year for a Seattle conservation group. Naturally, they want to see lots of northwest natives on the tables, and I honor this. At every sale, someone wants to argue about the definition of "native". Many people insist that our native flora should be confined to those plants present at first European contact. Totally arbitrary! Why not pre-Ice Age? Leaving aside the issue of botanical manipulation by indigenous people, the most recent ice sheet was deep enough here to bury the Space Needle four times over. Every plant here had to migrate back and re-colonize. Who's to say that that process is finished? Nature will never fit neatly into static categories. Pamela Harlow ____________________________________________________________________________ ______________ Original message: Evidently, I missed the memo where someone put them in charge of keeping nature in exactly the same place as it is today....quite bizarre.