Jason, et al- The purist position is untenable. If human agency marks the difference between wild and managed, as soon as we take any action to change (+/-) the fitness of any population or species we move it from the roster of wild biota to the roster of managed biota. Even dividing wild from managed along the lines of intentionally vs unintentionally affected becomes problematic; that puts unintentionally subsidized fitness (e.g., weeds) into the wild category. Attempts to parse all this began in the 1830s. Natural historians then were distinguishing natural history from human history based on evidence of human agency. Absence of such evidence was all that made natives native or wild things wild. This remains the case. In short, ecologists need to 'get over' such distinctions. They aren't ecological. They're cultural. Human agency, intentional or otherwise, now affects everything, and will for the foreseeable future.
Matthew K Chew Assistant Research Professor Arizona State University School of Life Sciences ASU Center for Biology & Society PO Box 873301 Tempe, AZ 85287-3301 USA Tel 480.965.8422 Fax 480.965.8330 [email protected] or [email protected] http://cbs.asu.edu/people/profiles/chew.php http://asu.academia.edu/MattChew
