Re: worm ecology

I've had a couple of researchers speak about this on my show over the years. They maintain that all of 'our' native worms went extinct during our last mini ice age (wooly mammouth time), which I find hard to believe.
Anyway, they say earthworms are changing the flora in the forest by enriching the soil too much for some native plants that love crappy soil. But I suspect this type of change is and has always been constant--with species moving in and out, up and down--and have never understood why so many people seem to think that evolution and natural order should all cease on their personal 30th birthday.
None of these guys say that worms are bad in gardens or agriculture. When I've asked what they think people should do about all this, if anything, they simply ask that people not move worms into the woods.
----Mike McG
----- Original Message ----- From: "Nadel-Klein, Jane H" <Jane.NadelKlein@trincoll.edu>
To: "Community Garden" <community_garden@mallorn.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 18, 2005 2:37 PM
Subject: [cg] worm ecology


I just returned from a landscape symposium where a Cornell researcher spoke about the damage worms do to forest ecology. He also mentioned that worms are not indigenous to North America. Do we know anything about the implications for our encouragement of worms in the garden for ecosystems beyond the garden?

Jane Nadel-Klein


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