Y'all:
No habitat, no organism. (Tyson's law) Yeah, I know--there are no laws in
ecology. It is written.
WT
PS: Even so, I ain't always agin' "gardening." I got myself in big trouble
backing the California condor program back in '86 when my Op-Ed piece in the
New York Times hit the street and a lot of other papers picked it up from
the wire and gave it different titles. Audubon "cancelled" my contract, and
a lot of people still don't talk to me or answer my emails (probably for any
number of egregious offenses). I had written a similarly outrageous piece
for the San Francisco Chronicle less than a month before, and I was on a
roll, videotaping and generally making a nuisance of myself, interviewing
guys like Snyder and Toone, and some others. Just to drive a few more nails
in my coffin, I wrote another piece for the Los Angeles Times in '88,
gloating about the hatching of the first egg from captive-breeding
California condors. So yes, my history is littered with mistakes of all
kinds. The California condor program has, I believe, still cost less than
one jet, but I have yet to see one built by the aircraft industry. Over to
you, Chew.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Geoffrey Patton" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 18, 2011 1:27 PM
Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Conservation or just gardening?
I like Colleen's point and would like to add that sometimes there is more to
be learned from the hopeless species that might inform saving others. Plus,
the educational value...
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
-----Original Message-----
From: Colleen Grant <[email protected]>
Sender: "Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news"
<[email protected]>
Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2011 08:24:46
To: <[email protected]>
Reply-To: Colleen Grant <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Conservation or just gardening?
Jason,
And if a species is beyond saving with conservation, how worthwhile is it to
save that species with gardening?
At this point, it might be pertinent to ask what other species are dependent
(for their life processes) on the "gardened" species. For example, is there
an exclusive mutualism that needs to be preserved?
Colleen Grant
--- On Mon, 1/17/11, Jason Hernandez <[email protected]> wrote:
From: Jason Hernandez <[email protected]>
Subject: [ECOLOG-L] Conservation or just gardening?
To: [email protected]
Date: Monday, January 17, 2011, 5:08 PM
This question is inspired by a conversation with a former employer. When do
our interventions cease to be conservation and become gardening?
For the sake of argument, I was taking the purist position: that ideally, we
want to be able to put a fence around a natural area and walk away, letting
nature manage it. But as my employer rightly pointed out, that is just not a
realistic expectation in the 21st century, what with invasive species,
systemic pollution, human pressures on surrounding areas, and countless
other factors which will not go away. But of course, she also knew that
there is a degree of intervention which crosses the line from conservation
to gardening, that is, caring for a population that no longer participates
in its ecosystem processes.
There is, of course, a continuum of interventions. Removal of invasive
competitors is a relatively light intervention; growing seedlings in a
greenhouse and then planting them out is more intensive; maintaining an in
vitro germplasm collection still more intensive. Are there any recognized
criteria for determining the boundary between conservation and gardening?
And if a species is beyond saving with conservation, how worthwhile is it to
save that species with gardening? Can we determine when a species' only hope
is gardening?
Jason Hernandez
Biological Science Technician, USDA Forest Service
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