>
> >That brings up an interesting epistemological question.  How long does a
> species have to be someplace before it stops being
> non-native/introduced/invasive and starts being counted as indigenous?


Agreed--at some point it's not worth fighting any more.  Here in Northern
Calif, we were invaded some years ago by Yellow Star Thistle (a very good
bee plant when it is abundant).  It soon displaced other vegetation and
completely covered pastureland.  The introduction of biocontrols changed
the scenario entirely--once they got well established (during the 1998 El
Nino season in my area), Star Thistle became a scattered part of the flora,
rather than dominant.  A new balance was reached.

>
> I think we all value the native and non-native pollinators; hope I'm not
> wrong. Interesting that there seems to be a synergy(to our human benefit)
> from having both.
>

Any native bees still extant in the Americas obviously have survived
despite the invasion of the honey bee.  However, there may be specific
reserves for endangered species from which commercial apiaries should be
excluded.


> Would write more but dealing with marauding bears.


A native species trying to eat your invasive species?


-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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