Beyond the War on Invasive Species: A Permaculture Approach to Ecosystem Restoration

By any means necessary. That s the mantra of today s efforts to eradicate invasive species, and too many of us are serving on the front lines of this unexpected war.

So, what are we to do?

Invasive species are everywhere from forests and prairies to mountaintops and estuaries and there are ongoing concerns that they represent significant threats to global biodiversity and ecological integrity. The resulting, and ongoing, war on invasive species has unleashed an arsenal of bulldozers, chainsaws, and herbicides with the task of immediate eradication. In Hawaii, mangrove trees are sprayed with glyphosate and left to decompose on the sandy shorelines where they grow, and in Washington, helicopters apply the herbicide imazapyr to smooth cordgrass growing in estuaries.

Given the scope of such potentially dangerous and ecologically degrading eradication practices, it is necessary to question the very nature of the battle.In In Defense of Invasive Species, author Tao Orion offers a much-needed alternative perspective on invasive species and the best practices for their management based on a holistic, permaculture-inspired approach. Missing from this discussion, Orion notes, is our understanding of how the colliding effects of climate change, habitat destruction, and changes in land use and management contribute to their proliferation.

As we enter into an uncertain climatic future and embrace the possibility that the production systems we have come to rely on may rapidly become untenable, Orion urges us to think of what a managed invasive species could offer such as compost, animal feed, nectar for bees, medicine, food for people, bioremediation, and more. In this context, In Defense of Invasive Species asks us to think of restoration as a process of moving forward into the unknown, not back to an idealized past, and using our creativity and the tools available to us to create the conditions in which life can thrive."