Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2000 17:28:42 From: SCHLAUER@chemie.uni-wuerzburg.de To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg1312$foo@default> Subject: re: wild collecting
Dear Ron,
> In defense of romantics:
>
> There seems to be precident in the animal world. The California Condor was
> pulled from the wild and returned. And there are currently reintroduction
> projects occurring with grizzly bears and wolves.
Great examples, very illustrative! Without ex horto cultivation (and
with a "standard" hunting/logging agenda), these will become extinct
in situ again; just wait a few years and fell a few more trees...
These species just did never have a fair chance vs. _H. sapiens_.
They do not fit into our civilization.
> There are also numerous wetland restorations going on in California
> where greenhouse grown native plants are being reintroduced into areas
> that haven't been wetlands for decades.
Nice outdoor gardening, indeed. Deliciuosly romantic! But not far
away from horticulture. I do endorse (at least morally) some of these
projects but this is not really what I would consider conservation in
situ.
> another example: The famous/imfamous Albion bog in N. California.
Again, not conservation (to some extent even the opposite!).
> I don't think it's an incredibly far-fetched and silly prospect.
It is not silly as long as we do not take it as a *substitute* for
the conservation of natural environments.
> I look forward to the post nuclear war day the when cockroaches,
> me, and my VFT will be called upon to repopulate the earth.
I do not have a good forecast for you and your VFT, unfortunately...
Kind regards
Jan
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