I here you GreenGardener. The problem is that Mother Nature regards the planet as her own and doesn't pay attention to man-made bounderies. Plants are advantageous and they'll use man or animal to migrate. A few years back I became concerned when we had an amazing amount of beginner Winter Sowers who seemed enthralled with sowing as many containers as possible their first year--I'm all for enthusiasm but I was alert that some beginners would also be new gardeners and innocently unaware of the effect their joyful compulsiveness could have on the local environment. WS is wonderful, it's uplifting, it works like a charm...but it shouldn't be used without wisdom. It's important to sow wisely. In response, without a screeching sound of stomping on the brakes, I created a site venue called "Observing the Natural Environment" and made a link table (I had to learn how to do that!) that has many places where someone can go to observe the natural environment. It's been along time since I've worked on that page--it has a few stale links which I apologize for, and will take care of them ASAP. Here is a link that might be useful: Observing the Natural Environment.

Bindweed is nasty and makes my blood boil. As a farmer I have become very dissatisfied with all the chemicals we use and even then we do not eradicate, only temporarily control. There should be holistic, natural ways to deal with this. Older farmers tell me they used salt to sterilize the soil. Chemicals can sterilize and do this. Of course we want to grow things, not kill them and look at bare ground. I also seen a study that said copper could do this. I would like to put some copper or salt 2 foot down into the soil through a pipe to see if that would work. This is where the roots could absorb this. Do roots need a surfactant like we use when we spray the leaves with chemicals? We have to kill the roots. Any suggestions? Desperate farmer

Zack, I didn't post it because I hole heartedly agree with it. Again the "truth" might lie somewhere in the middle. I read "at" issues from many sides. The rancher manages 35,000 acres and I have found that controlling 17 acres is about making choices that have me riding a world where I do not control everything that comes my way. I can only imagine what the uncontrollable issues that he surfs. He has documented yellow star thistle patch and has found that it usually goes away after a decade if left alone. I found that surprising, even confusing. KR bluestem is a species that many people love to hate here in Texas. Yet I do see the butterflies going for their inflourescens during migration. I also see the native bluestem multiplying in the front field amongst them. It appears that on dry summers, it does not make much of an appearance or a very late one, giving the natives a chance to compete.. I know that I do not have the financial nor energy resources to dig them all out. Fire was said to control it but now they have back tracked on it. I am trying to keep it out of the valley where I have a delightful native community of Muhlenbergia s of different sorts. Nor do I want to poison everything out only to have the wind bring more to the empty soil. I was interested in the Monsanto angle of the board of directors mentioned in this Book review .It is more of the same thinking and written by David Theodoreopolis of J L Hudson Seedman fame, so he does have skin in the game and makes money selling possible invasive exotics AND natives. He is a controversial figure. I do find what he says about the fear of change valid and where do we stop the ecological clock since it is a forever changing thing. I just wish it would not change so fast. I have also and aesthetic concern about loosing some ground hugging spring ephemerals to the always land hungry bastard cabbage. Like I said, I do not agree with everything. that he says. I do find that much of the language used by some do or die native guys to be wishy washy as to what is a native and what is not. At the land conservationist meeting here in texas, there are 2 camps about the invasive grass KR Bluestem. 1 states it is a bad bad monoculture forming invasive that is good for nothing and and the other camp says it is a good land stabilizer and good at getting water to penetrate down to the water table. Another is that burr clover that was used as green manure and escaped. It grows in patches and I am tired of digging it up and it will improve my soil. My soil needs soil improvement desperately since invasively farmed cows have been overgrazing it for decades before I got here. Maybe it will disappear as it incorporates nitrogen into the soil.The soil washed away. I won't plant uncontrollable non natives because of the guilt if they escape issue. I prefer natives but I am a practical minded human when it comes to picking battles of whom I eradicate, where and how. The info keeps changing. I do not want to cause harm. But I do not know what is harm sometimes. My thinking is changeable about this subject. There is a lot on his site that is interesting. He uses Holistic land management ideas. He brings up that the removal of all herd animals off the grasslands and high deserts is harmful. .Balancing them is essential but these lands always had herd animals of sorts and many of the natural ones are gone and the niche is filled by cows. There is a connection between the desert tortoise populations and the herding of cows now. Desert tortoise populations have gone down where the removal of all cows have happened. Go figure. The politics of Rancher removal by the BLM is very troubling. Then they seem to give the rights of the land off to Uranium miners. Yes there is uranium under the Hammond's land. OOPS I didn't mean to open that can of worms.

I'm a first time poster on this forum. What an extremely interesting thread!! I have to agree with Ellen and others. Norway Maple is extremely invasive, highly prolific and it doesn't just shade out native plants, it leafs out earlier than many natives, thus not even allowing them a chance. Burning bushes may be used as foundation plantings, but anything that berries easily becomes invasive (e.g. Asiatic bittersweet). Notice where bittersweet grows? Under trees and power lines where birds sit and defecate the seeds! What a great evolutionary trait that they picked up. No wonder there is so much of it in our woods! Burning bush berries are loved by many birds. As you are driving along someday note a BB denuded of leaves. You will notice it quivering with birds (usually non-native house sparrows). You may not notice all alien invasives, but I see plenty of volunteer burning bushes around on road edges and wood edges. If you really start to look for these things, you'll see how bad the situation is. I had read somewhere that poison ivy was brought here as an ornamental in the 1700's. I have a hard time believing that though. You'd think the person that dug it up would have realized its "down" side. Personally, I think a ban is a great idea. It would make some of the housing developers and nurserymen use a little more imagination in choosing foundation plantings and things to sell/plant. How many more Norway maples and burning bushes do we need? At this rate, everyone has one in front of their house or at least 10 in their neighborhood. The other issue is that while you may be right that we can't reverse what is already done, I agree that making it a law is highly educational. The nurseries aren't going to educate people. I, personally, did not know about this issue until after I bought some nasty invasive plants. I have never understood why our government continues to allow known invasives to be sold. They spend millions trying to eradicate some invasive alien weeds. The fact that we can't solve the entire problem is no reason not to attempt to prevent it from getting worse. There are plenty of really nice alternatives to most of the invasives on the list. Anyone that lives in Mass. can go to New England Wildflower Society and see the lovely gardens that they have created with natives as well as buy some really nice, healthy native plants. AND your gardens will probably look quite different from most of the neighbors....which in my mind is a plus. Just my two (twenty?) cents. Here is a link that might be useful: Alternatives to Invasives