Quote Originally Posted by JLC View Post
I may not have the most popular view on this...but what the hell....here goes anyhow....

I get a little frustrated at all the hysteria about the burms in the Everglades...from all sides. Of course the fear mongerers want to blow everything so far out of proportion it's ridiculous and merges into outright lies. But even well meaning herp lovers and conservationists sometimes get all bent out of shape about the issue. And it's that angst that I don't really get.

Yes, I understand that they're not "native" to the area, but how many other well-established creatures are also imported from around the world? Tons...and they've been coming across on ships since the first explorers found the Americas and started traveling here. And not just the Everglades, but all over the world. Sometimes, humans aren't even involved...animals and organisms find all sorts of ways to travel and find new territories and new ways of passing on their genetics to the next generation. They don't care who was there first or if they "belong" there.

The world has NEVER been some kind of static space where every bit of flora and fauna had its particular boundary that it was not allowed to cross. Since the dawn of time, creation or evolution or whatever you believe in, plants and animals and all organisms, have been shifting, moving, evolving, and learning to adapt and fit in wherever they find themselves, and learning to adapt and fit in with whatever else moves in. Thousands upon thousands of species have gone extinct...and humans are only responsible for a tiny fraction of that number. It's just the circle of life.

I DO believe we should do our best to be good stewards of this amazing world. I believe it's what we're here to do. And I believe we should do what we can to prevent invasive species from gaining a foothold, if/when we can. But there is a balance to all of that, as there should be in everything we do. And to be so closed-minded and hard headed as to insist there can be no single benefit to a new species in a particular part of the world just seems...silly....to me. Not to mention a very stress-filled way to live life.

I agree 100%. It may not be a best case scenario but it is what it is. I really don't think there are as many as folks want to say there are anyway though, I think the media blows it completely out of proportion, just to public something else to look at that makes them go oooh and aaaah. The news ONLY reports what they think people will watch so their sponsors will keep giving them money. That is why you only see horrible stuff in the news and I think a lot of this goes back to that. They report and come up with a hundred different statistics to say what they want the population to think. Statistics can be used to say ANYTHING, just depends on how creative you can be. Do I think having evasive species in ANY ecosystem is a good thing... NO, but it is a problem we have and we have to deal with it.