<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1528" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY id=role_body style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"
bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 topMargin=7 rightMargin=7><FONT id=role_document
face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>
<DIV>I took note of Craig's comments about damage to the understory observed in
the eastern US and Marc Imlay's response. I will add two points. We often have
severe problems in fragmented habitat areas (i.e. ex-/sub-/urbanized) around
here thanks to overbrowsing by our native friend the White-Tailed Deer whose
numbers have exploded in recent decades. At Great Falls, the deer likely avoid
the drop-offs. Second, and this is an issue that many of us wish to understand
better, non-native earthworms indeed seem to be "hosing" the top layers of soil
with the result that many areas don't have the natural layer of leaf duff that
should be present. Mineral soil is exposed. This seems to facilitate the spread
of some of our problems like Garlic Mustard and Japanese Stiltgrass even as it
harms the natives that need the organic soil layers. So these issues need to be
considered at least around here.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Cheers,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> Steve Young</DIV>
<DIV> Arlington,
Virginia</DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>