[APWG] Plants Alien species Information evaluation and errors

[maryann whitman]

Olivia

Thank you for giving us the "benefit of a doubt" and letting us use our own
"critical thinking".

Please just continue doing what you've been doing.

Maryann

Maryann Whitman, Journal Editor
Wild Ones: Native Plants, Natural Landscapes
 
www.for-wild.org
 
Wild Ones: Native Plants, Natural Landscapes promotes environmentally sound
practices to encourage biodiversity through the preservation, restoration
and establishment of native plant communities. Wild Ones is a
not-for-profit, environmental, educational, and advocacy organization.



-----Original Message-----
From: apwg-bounces at lists.plantconservation.org
[mailto:apwg-bounces at lists.plantconservation.org] On Behalf Of Olivia Kwong
Sent: Thursday, June 11, 2009 12:51 AM
To: apwg at lists.plantconservation.org
Subject: Re: [APWG] Plants Alien species Information evaluation and errors

As I have mentioned on the various PCA lists at various times, I post news 
article not because they are the best or the most correct information on 
invasive plants for this list and other native plant topics for the other 
lists.  I post them because they're what is being reported by the media to 
the general public.  It is up to list members to check out the information 
and do what they think is appropriate - anything from contacting the 
journalist who has gotten the facts wrong to writing a letter to the 
editor to writing their own articles to get good information out.

This is not a list where only peer reviewed information goes out, that's 
what scientific journals are for.  This list is for the purpose of 
discussing invasive plant issues that affect North America.  The people we 
need to educate are the general public and these news article are what 
they are seeing.  I don't think it's a good idea to pretend that incorrect 
articles aren't being published in newspapers, magazines, and websites. 
I'm also not the expert in the realm of everything to do with invasive 
plants, that's why this is a discussion list where members can post and 
not simply an announcement list.  I post things that I notice and if 
people are interested, they discuss the topic.  If you want to post 
pointing out where an article goes wrong or give further information on 
topics, you should do so because that's the purpose of the list.  And I 
also encourage the invasive plant experts to do any of the things I 
mentioned above in order to contact the source to try to get them to give 
the public with corrected information.

While I am sure there are people out there that assume that anything they 
read on the internet is true, I would rather not make the assumption that 
people on this list feel that way.  I prefer to give everyone the benefit 
of a doubt and assume that they employ critical thinking skills when 
reading things and are interested in finding out what others know.

And for those of you who may be curious as to why I don't post the full 
text of all the articles: Beyond the copyright issues, I post the links to 
the articles because websites tend to track how many people are viewing 
which articles.  The more hits articles covering invasive plant issues 
get, the more likely it is that the publications will notice there is an 
interest in the topic & will expand or at least continue covering them.

Olivia
CPC/PCA
http://www.nps.gov/plants/