Swap An Alien

[wildmanofthewoods]

Today you have the power to swap an alien for another. Mammal, plant, bird, Fish? Whatever you want, you have the power.
Tough question. Do you get rid of Grey squirrels, to give our delightful Reds a chance of recovery or do you get rid of an invasive plant like Japanese Knotweed? The choice is yours.
But what do you replace it with, think hard, it may cause more problems than the one you ditched!

[Mercadante]

The squirrels are really tempting, but I'll go for the Japanese knotweed, because I hate using glyphosate.

In return I'd like to import something large, so that it's easier to control if something goes wrong. I'd love the European lynx, but I suppose you won't allow it because it used to be native here? In which case, I feel we could make do with a species of tiger.

[Adam Cheeseman]

I'd like to get rid of Australian Swamp Stonecrop Crassula helmsii and replace it with a nice herd of European Water Buffalo to help sort out some of the wetland management problems we have on our sites in Hounslow.

Cheers,

Adam

[tufftie]

Get rid of the grey squirrels, obviously!! (no!) Seriously though, I think before we start considering swapping pest species around we should be looking at out own actions; as we are by far the biggest pest on this planet, alien or no.

There seems to be a big question mark as to whether Red Squirrels are in fact native to the UK - if it turns out they aren't (unless fossil evidence found we'll never know for sure!!) then I think i'd like to replace them with Fox squirrels as they look more hugable !!!

[badgerwatcher]

I wonder what we'd end up with if we got rid of everything that didn't start off in the uk. Most of us wouldn't be here I'm sure. I've got loads of different nationalities in my ancestry. And loads of my garden plants would have to go, along with lots of the creatures.

[Mercadante]

Nearly every species immigrated here originally - that's not the point. New arrivals are dangerous because they have the potential to cause cascading extinctions in our ecosystems, in the way an imported snake wiped out all the forest birds of Guam. The arrival of the grey squirrel was bad news not just for the red, but also for some of our trees, such as hazel - and that in turn affects other species, such as Dormice.

But I've had second thoughts about the knotweed, because at least we can control it, with some effort. Imported fungal diseases, like Dutch Elm or Phytophthora ramorum or Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, are much harder problems.

[ron1863]

The wildly frustrating, twitching Oddie

[Kayleigh]

Originally Posted by ron1863

The wildly frustrating, twitching Oddie

What would you replace him with

[wildmanofthewoods]

Originally Posted by Mercadante

Nearly every species immigrated here originally - that's not the point. New arrivals are dangerous because they have the potential to cause cascading extinctions in our ecosystems, in the way an imported snake wiped out all the forest birds of Guam. The arrival of the grey squirrel was bad news not just for the red, but also for some of our trees, such as hazel - and that in turn affects other species, such as Dormice.

But I've had second thoughts about the knotweed, because at least we can control it, with some effort. Imported fungal diseases, like Dutch Elm or Phytophthora ramorum or Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, are much harder problems.

This thread was posted as a sort of experiment to see the views of the fellow wabbers. Your post is the sort of response i was hoping for, thankyou. I personally think we have done too much harm playing god, that often trying to fix problems can cause other problems on a smaller or larger scale. Its often best to let nature takes its course and find its own solution.

[Kayleigh]

Originally Posted by wildmanofthewoods

This thread was posted as a sort of experiment to see the views of the fellow wabbers. Your post is the sort of response i was hoping for, thankyou. I personally think we have done too much harm playing god, that often trying to fix problems can cause other problems on a smaller or larger scale. Its often best to let nature takes its course and find its own solution.

I agree on a whole, but I think the alien plants swamping our waterways need controlling.

[wildmanofthewoods]

Originally Posted by Kayleigh

I agree on a whole, but I think the alien plants swamping our waterways need controlling.

yes but it's so hard to think of a correct way to do this whatever anyone suggests, will it be right or wrong?

"For every action there is an opposite and equall reaction"

[Mercadante]

wildmanofthewoods wrote: I personally think we have done too much harm playing god, that often trying to fix problems can cause other problems on a smaller or larger scale.

I certainly agree that we've done a lot of damage when trying to fix the problems we ourselves have caused. I'd add that we're always more eager to save threatened species from other species, than we are to stop taking their habitat for our own use, and to stop importing exotic species in the first place.

Nevertheless, I think we have to try, more cautiously than in the past, to limit the damage that our invasive imports do. Nature is apparently happy for my garden to be a knotweed and rhododendron plantation, but the local wildlife isn't, and neither am I.

[wildmanofthewoods]

Originally Posted by ron1863

The wildly frustrating, twitching Oddie

Do you think that on another planet in some parallel universe they have an Odd Billy

[ron1863]

Originally Posted by Kayleigh

What would you replace him with

A cardboard cutout

[ron1863]

Originally Posted by wildmanofthewoods

Do you think that on another planet in some parallel universe they have an Odd Billy

and do you think they have a wildlife forum talking about him