> I don't need a logical bridge.  I love and respect the diversity of both human and nonhuman life forms.

Of course, same here. And we could have a very interesting discussion about native American Religion and the reverence for life; or about Nature as worth preserving from an aesthetic point of view, and I agree that those viewpoints are perfectly valid and defensible. 

But can Nature or Biodiversity be assigned some scientific definition and does it have value that depends on that definition? Certainly the signature of nature is diversity, but there are plenty of thriving ecosystems that are vastly less diverse than others, so great diversity can hardly be claimed indispensable. 

For example, I may think honeybees are appropriate on BLM lands, and also have no objection to thriving non-native plants and insects. By virtue of its success, this would be an natural ecosystem. But someone else would argue that it cannot be natural if it is radically different from some prior pre-Columbian state.

PLB

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