kreemoweet said: There is all too commonly held a rather bizarre notion that every location has a fixed set of "proper" (aka "native" species), notwithstanding the plain biological facts that the species found in any given spot are, will be, and have always been constantly changing. The ranges of species expand and contract continually.
And...
As people continue to plant stuff that has been demonstrated to be harmful in their area... because... Nobody has the right to "dictate" what they can grow in their yard... the world becomes ever more a "Planet of Weeds".
David Quammen wrote that after this continuing mass extinction event that is going on... Mother Nature will bequeath a new diversity after we're gone.... She may only have rats and cockroaches to work from... but evolution has worked from lost diversity before...
An important question is how to help people understand that every time they plant something shown to have toxic effects on the local environment, they aren't just adding an interesting plant to their yard, but seemingly adding something to the entire town or county... once it escapes from their yard... and crowds out the natural diversity... causing habitat loss for the wildlife that depend on the plants the new thug replaces.
