successes in invasive extermination

I found the article quite disturbing. I don't disagree with exterminating the ants, but cows, sheep and especially bees? Extinction seems a more appropriate term. What also surprised and troubled me was the role of the Nature Conservancy. Next time they solicit me I'm going to return their propaganda literature with a link to the article.

Sorry to say this, but I really think your view is unfair. Ranchers raise livestock for the purpose of slaughtering a substantial portion of that livestock. Natural selection relies upon over-production of wildlife. From the minority which survive, the species is propagated. In the process where humans introduced — purposely or inadvertently — non-native species to other ecosystems, those humans caused the deaths of innumerable native species, which were forced to compete for sustenance.

Animals, foremost among them our own species, are in a constant battle for survival. In that process, we inevitably cause the deaths of countless other animals. We do that with weapons, starvation, forcing them into inhospitable climates, even by altering the ecosystems from which they must sustain themselves. We will be killing animals. Whether we turn our back to the animal we kill and pretend it was not our fault, or whether we face the animals we kill, the result is the same. We live by killing other animals.

So the real question is not whether we are killing them. We are. The real question is whether we do so in a way that preserves and restores ecosystems and threatened species. Cattle and sheep are nowhere close to being a rare species, and due to human intervention, those cattle and sheep have done their parts to deprive other animals of life. Something so apparently docile as domesticated sheep have caused the death of countless wild sheep.

Against those facts, are we to blame organizations like Nature Conservancy for helping to tip the balance back in favor of native species — against which we humans have been waging centuries-long warfare?

What Travis said. And please remember that the tumbleweed, that symbol of the West, was brought here by cattle from Europe. We have massively changed the ecosystem in places. It's nice to see a few places where we have a chance of making it right again.

While I applaud the effort at getting rid of the ants, and other non indigenous species as well, I'm wondering how long this will last. The Argentine ants are close enough I'm afraid it's only a matter of time until they're back. All it takes is a rotten piece of driftwood washed up on the shore...

Formal permission request to use this thread to rant about kudzu.

Granted. Don't forget salvinia.

I've been involved in conservation botany in varying degrees for decades. I walk almost daily through the fields and forests of Indiana, and have experienced ground truth in a number of other biomes, especially the northern Rockies. Almost none of our country east of the Rockies even vaguely resembles the pre-Columbian ecosystems. Hundreds, possibly thousands of species of specialists have been replaced by species that are generalists. We can only guess at what we have lost. I'm all for some extraordinary efforts to preserve some places that haven't been overrun by exotics. Remember the lessons of "island biogeography," nature preserves are islands that are surrounded by disrupted ecosystems that have been stripped of biodiversity.