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      Alien Invasion? An Ecologist Doubts the Impact of Exotic Species

      Many conservationists have dedicated their lives to eradicating invasive plant and animal species, but Mark Davis wants them to reassess their missions

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      Alien Invasion? An Ecologist Doubts the Impact of Exotic Species
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      Credits: BRENDAN BORRELL

      Alien Invasion? An Ecologist Doubts the Impact of Exotic Species

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      • Kudzu Killer For ecologist Dan Simberloff of the University of Tennessee Knoxville, understanding and fighting invasive species has been a lifelong project, and he doesn’t buy Mark Davis's arguments... Todd Campbell
      • Water Sucker The tamarisk tree has been called the "second-worst invasive species in the United States," and millions of dollars have been spent on its eradication. Early studies had reported that tamarisks used more water than native vegetation, and one author wrote that they sucked up "almost twice as much water per year as the major cities in southern California." Forgotten in the hubbub were later measurements that failed to replicate those studies, and no one has established whether the tamarisk causes soils to go salty or if it simply has a higher tolerance for salty soils... University of Nevada, Reno
      • I Heart Tamarisk Matthew Chew of Arizona State University stands in front of the tamarisk tree, or salt cedar, a nonnative species vilified for displacing native vegetation and sucking up scarce water resources... Matthew Chew
      • Fast and Loosestrife Davis's doubts date back to early attempts to eradicate purple loosestrife from around Minnesota lakes and waterways.  Eradication proponents argued that the imported plant, which has spread across North America, was seriously displacing the native plant species that muskrats and ducks eat, thereby displacing the animals... Marion County
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      • Naysayer Mark Davis of Macalester College has been one of the most vocal critics of invasion biology alarmism, but his perspective is still controversial in a field that considers all-native ecosystems to be the pinnacle of restoration... Mark Davis
      • Toad Busting Australia is one big island—a continent, actually—and ever since Europeans arrived there in the 18th century, it has been wracked by outbreaks of nonnative rabbits, mice and even camels... Kimberley Toadbusters
      • Snakes Alive! After World War II, the brown tree snake arrived on the U.S. Pacific island of Guam, 6,100 kilometers west of Hawaii. It has since extirpated 10 of the island's 12 native forest bird species, and ecologists are now studying the wider impacts of these bird extinctions on the forest... United States Geological Survey
      • Mussel Madness For ecologists Mark Davis of Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota and Matthew Chew of Arizona State University, rhetoric over invasive species has crossed the line from science to propaganda... California Department of Water Resources
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      • Kudzu Killer
      • Water Sucker
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      • Mussel Madness
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