[APWG] Alan Burdick's Discover Article?

[Plant Conservation]

I recently saw a copy of Alan Burdick's article in Discover maagazine's
May 2005 issue.  I'm curious to hear opinions about the article (and/or
his book Out of Eden: An Odyssey of Ecological Invasion) as I haven't seen
too much coverage of it or too much in the way of rebuttals/counterpoints.
Even a google on burdick, discover & invasive species didn't reveal any
counterpoint article links, just links to the article itself and various
blurbs that praise the article/book without any critical comments.

Links to Burdick's article (just the beginning bits, you need to pay for
the full article or check your local library) and also the abstract of a
Conservation Biology article that provides a counterpoint.

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http://www.discover.com/issues/may-05/departments/letter-from-discover/
http://www.discover.com/issues/may-05/cover/
The Truth About Invasive Species
How to stop worrying and learn to love ecological intruders
By Alan Burdick
DISCOVER Vol. 26 No. 05 | May 2005 | Environment

I have seen the future, and it lives in Miami.

The suburbs of Miami, to be exact: in the ever-expanding netherworld
between the potted plants and subtropical nightlife of South Beach to the
east and the tropical plants and deep-rooted wildlife of Everglades
National Park to the west.

The future lives in Homestead. So does Todd Hardwick, owner and primary
employee of Pesky Critters Nuisance Wildlife Control. Noisome possums and
trash-can raccoons are his standard fare, and the money is in alligators,
which crawl out of the swamps and into backyards, the two environments
being ever more synonymous. But the real fun, and Hardwick’s specialty, is
catching exotic species. Miami is the through point of the nation’s
imported animal and plant trade, and virtually everyone in South Florida,
including Hardwick, has a neighbor with a backyard menagerie of lucrative
critters on hold for resale. With so many unofficial zoos so close
together and so little expertise at maintaining them, animals are
constantly escaping into the streets and flower beds, and when someone
spots, say, a pesky cougar on the lawn, Hardwick gets the call.

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Conservation Biology, Pages 31–37
Volume 17, No. 1, February 2003
Nonindigenous Species: Ecological Explanation,
Environmental Ethics, and Public Policy
DAVID M. LODGE* AND KRISTIN SHRADER-FRECHETTE†
*Department of Biological Sciences, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame,
IN 46556, U.S.A.,
email lodge.1 at nd.edu
†Department of Philosophy, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556,
U.S.A.

Abstract:
The public is getting a mixed message from ecologists, other scholars, and
journalists on the topic of nonindigenous species. Misunderstandings and
tension exist regarding the science, values, environmental ethics, and
public policy relevant to invasive species, which are the subset of
nonindigenous species that cause economic or environmental damage.
Although there is a natural background rate at which species invasions
occur, it is much lower than the current human-induced rates at which
species are being moved around the globe. Contrary to some recently voiced
opinions , the fact that some species invasions occur without human
assistance does not confer acceptability on all species invasions. Also,
despite claims to the contrary, the reductions of native biodiversity
caused by nonindigenous species are large and well documented. Even if
that were not true, an emphasis on species numbers alone as a metric for
the impact of nonindigenous species does not adequately incorporate the
high value many humans place on the uniqueness of regional biota. Because
regional biota are being homogenized by species invasions, it has become
an appropriate and official public policy goal in the United States to
reduce the harm done by invasive species. The goal is not, however, a
reduction of numbers of nonindigenous species per se, as recently claimed
by some authors, but a reduction in the damage caused by invasive species,
including many sorts of environmental and economic damage. A major
challenge remaining for ecology, environmental ethics, and public policy
is therefore the development of widely applicable risk-assessment
protocols that are acceptable to diverse constituencies. Despite apparent
disagreements among scholars, little real disagreement exists about the
occurrence, effects, or public-policy implications of nonindigenous
species.