Government and habitat

[Kondla, Norbert FOR:EX]

Ron's examples of habitat destruction by government are well taken. My
favorite example of misguided habitat alteration is the transformation of
part of a provincial park in Ontario, Canada. The area once supported
Plebejus melissa samuelis, which has been extirpated from Canada. Some folks
thought it would be nice to plant a whole lot of trees in its habitat (after
all tree planting is always a good thing ???). Sure enough they succeeded in
creating a nice forest but also succeeded in driving the Karner blue and an
entire natural ecosystem into extinction. These were not evil people intent
on wreaking havoc but intent does not matter from the perspective of
results. it is an interesting world we live in :-)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Norbert Kondla  P.Biol., RPBio.
Forest Ecosystem Specialist, Ministry of Environment
845 Columbia Avenue, Castlegar, British Columbia V1N 1H3
Phone 250-365-8610
Mailto:Norbert.Kondla at gems3.gov.bc.ca       
http://www.env.gov.bc.ca


 
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