“It's the pest of the month club. We've lost chestnut and lost elm. Now, it's almost a new species or pest is being identified and a new tree or forest is being threatened almost on a monthly basis,” Surely this is the one and only reason plant imports are quite rightly heavily controled? I and others moan about the "terrible" plant restrictions on importing plant material but I wonder what the world would be like without this defence? I accept that not all of these problems are man made and some are natural but I am sure the vast majority are! I too would not be keen to see GMO and intercontinental hybrids replace the original species. But according to the article nature has already replaced the Castanea with oaks. Mark W. Brown 1924 route de la mer, 76119 Sainte Marguerite-sur-mer, France. " Message du 12/10/12 08:38 > De : "Lee Poulsen" > Although not bulb-related, I thought this was an interesting article the just showed up in Nature with regard to our discussions on repopulating habitats with species that have disappeared for whatever reason (natural or human-caused). I have a very uneasy feeling about repopulating the wild with GMO versions of the original species of things that grew there. But I'm also not sure I feel that good about repopulating the wild with intercontinental hybrids either." _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.ibiblio.org http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/