Since they have detected dust and other particles from dust storms in India
being deposited down on the eastern US coastline, natural includes a global
environment. Nature changes the range of plants all the time, man is just
better at it than most. Ducks carry fish eggs on their feet, depositing them
into sterile ponds, birds spread seeds (and viruses) throughout their range.
And seeds have been known to cross oceans on non-manmade rafts, been swept
for
hundreds of miles via hurricanes and tornadoes (as well as dust storms). For
many plants, it is just a matter of time before they spread, if they are as
successful at it as Purple Loosestrife. And their natural preditors don't
always make the trip with them.

Of course, with man changing the actual habitat these plants are in
(draining
swamps, improving rivers by channelizing and building flood dikes), native
plants can end up at a much greater disadvantage than they would normally
have done.

Too bad Kudzu is such a destructive pest. It is a very pretty plant (when it
quits growing long enough to make it out), has beautiful fragrant flowers
(only
last a short time here), is edible (GA farmers actually cultivate it for
cattle
fodder and are resisting effors to ban it's cultivation) and makes a good
houseplant (hanging baskets are sold in the NY area, or used to be).  Here
in the
upper SE US, however, it is eating up the landscape, covering many square
miles
and killing EVERYTHING in it's path, including mature trees. There are some
areas
in the mountains close by where you can see nothing else for miles -- the
trees
that used to be there are just stumps now.

Loosestrife, on the other hand, struggles here (despite 60" of annual
rainfall),
as most of the area is deciduous forest. In non-wetland gardens, it seldom
grows
over 1" in spread a year (any many gardeners have it from before the bans).
The
beetles they are going to import, however, will no doubt be just as bad as
the
loosestrife in a few years. If they were successful in eating it all, they
would
not just "die off" as the proponents insist, but would then develop other
food
sources. Or, they may prefer some other vital item in our landscape that
does not
exist in their native land -- which we won't know until they have been here
for
several years. If they are as voracious as claimed, they could become the
next
japanese beetle plague in the US. Perhaps, then the GM proponents will breed
us a cross between the two that will eat up all the kudzu (just what we
need,
more efficient japanese beetles).

-K

-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Yarnell

I think it's a matter of what you consider "natural."

The problem with non-native invaders like Purple Loosestrife, Star
Thistle, ScotchBroom and others is that they have been transported long
distances without the accompaniment of the conditions or predators which
keep them under control in their original range.

If they are allowed to thrive in new ranges, they can (and do) overwhelm
native species on which other plants and animals depend.