From Richard Mabey
Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire
John Drewett is clearly a Vulcan infiltrator (Forum, 14 September, p 48). His
proposal that there should be mandatory controls on alien species is as
unearthly as it is arrogant.
Emotional, biophilic bonds between humans and wild creatures—ruddy
ducks, say—are part of local ecologies, just as alien species are often
crucial colonisers of degraded land. Indian balsam, for example, berated “as
detrimental to the native flora”, is often naturalised by the side of grossly
polluted rivers where more sensitive plants have long vanished. And, in
spectacular flower right now, long after most “native” species, it supports a
vast array of autumnal insect life.
Our lot, simply by being an island in a rapidly changing climate, is to face
a remorseless trickle of wildlife extinctions. If it were not for an equally
steady trickle of opportunist colonisers—escapees, stowaways,
naturalisations—our wildlife estate would become progressively more
impoverished and predictable. We should be grateful for their resilience.
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