RE: Purple Loosestrife


> Why not? Are there not some species of insects or even animals that
> can only eat a particular kind of plant? Can Monarch butterfly larvae
> eat other plants than milkweed? Can Pandas adapt to living without
> bamboo?

Of course they can adapt.  There are some examples of plants & 
wildlife that are extremely specific in terms of their environmental 
requirements.  They generally will die off as a species; we've seen 
this time and again.

But far, far more manage to adapt too well, this is true especially of 
intentional imports. Birds, plants, insects ... in every category of 
living thing there are numerous instances of adaptation to ensure 
survival in an alien environment.   .... This tendency is precisely 
what Darwin was talking about, right????.  

Peregrine falcons living on skyscrapers instead of mountaintop 
scrapes is a positive example of environmental adaptation.  
European Starlings are a "good" example of an import that has 
proven to be so adaptable as to be terribly detrimental to many neo-
tropical bird species.  

Just as loosestrife, bull thistle and other examples too numerous to 
name, have adapted to an alien environment, many thrive and are 
horrendously destructive.  What would make you think an imported 
insect would necessarily be unable to adapt in several generations?
So-called killer bees have managed, in a very few generations, to 
begin adapting to our winters.  Ditto, fire ants.  Both species are 
spreading north.

My concern about this program, which has been going on for some 
years now, is their apparent lack of long-term study of these 
insects in a **loosestrife-starved** environment.  If they have done 
the research, it has not yet been published ~ or I haven't been able 
to find it.  Lack of damage to native plants where loosestrife has 
been suddenly removed is far different from adaptation in response 
to a population slowly, steadily dropping as the loosestrife supply 
is exhausted.  That is when the adaptations begin.

It may or may not happen.  We won't know for years to come, at 
which point it will be expensive to fix the error, if indeed it can be 
fixed.  Why aren't there laws against the sale or importation of 
loosestrife in the lower 48?  Some states have them, others do not. 
I still see people in NJ merrily growing it in their gardens.  

As humans, we simply have this problem.  We always want to 
control everything in our world and act before fully understanding 
the all the consequences of our short-sighted, short-term actions.

IMHO, not being absolutely, positively certain before action is 
taken is nothing short of irresponsible, bad science.  Which we will 
all pay for eventually.

regards,
jaime
nw nj, z6/5, where we have lost thousansds of acres of wetlands to 
loosestrife & phragmites invasions.


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