Releases

[Michael Gochfeld]

Actually I believe Fred was right about the 18th century at which time 
Aclimatization societies were already active in Europe bring novelties 
from the colonies and encouraging their establishment in private and 
public gardens.  There is even a "Jardin des Acclimatisations" (excuse 
the spelling or lack thereof) in Paris, which got its start that way 
many decades ago. 

Perhaps we should be considering releases in a risk assessment 
framework. What is the probability that something bad will happen. Most 
likely it is small, but what is "small".  Moreover, there are at least 
two dimensions to "risk": probability and consequence.  We need to 
recognize that even highly improbable events might have substantial 
consequence.  Optimists focal on the low probability and pessimists on 
the high cost of being wrong. 

I presume that there are lots of post-release assessments to determine 
how long butterflies (or other creatures) survive and whether they 
reproduce. From such data one could begin to perform a risk assessment. 

At least we're not confronted by the overgrowth of exotic butterflies 
(Cabbage Whites excepted), like the exotic plant community. 

M. Gochfeld



M. Gochfeld