[APWG] Completely disagree with--Why Invasive Plants Take Over

[Craig Dremann - Redwood City Seed Company]

Dear All,

That news report, that repeats the old myths about exotic plants, and why
they are so successful at

http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2009/090430.htm

This article misses the point completely, that the main reason why exotic
plants invade North America, is becuase we Europeans either truncated or
catastrophically eliminated the perennial native grass and perennial forb
understory across the entire continent, creating hundreds of millions of
acres of empty niches and ecological vacancies to get filled.

You can see what I am suggesting, very clearly by my 2,000+ mile
Megatransect of the western States, at
http://www.ecoseeds.com/megatransect.html and how potentially vulnerable
our lands are to future exotic plant invasions that are yet to happen.

When we quit blaming the exotic plants and their very minor role in being
able to invade,  and start focusing on the historic ecosystem damage that
we are directly responsible for, then we can start to get a clear picture
of what is going on continent-wide, and what we need to do to get those
native North American ecosystems back in shape.

Sincerely,  Craig Dremann (650) 325-7333