A week or two ago I wrote about indigenousness. Since then I’ve noticed invasives much more than I had previously. Interestingly, my observations of invasives has caused me to reconsider what ought to be the response to invasives. When I wrote about indigenousness I sort of avoided addressing how to deal with invasives, though I hinted at the possibility of allowing them to integrate. Since then I’ve formed a different opinion. It seems to me that invasives need to be removed from the areas they have invaded.
In this modern globalized culture invasives are endemic. Drive across the United States and it is obvious. Some of the most obvious invasives to me are wheat, corn, cotton, cows, and horses. None of these are native to North America. Yet today they dominate the landscape, driving out indigenous species. It’s obvious that cows live today where buffalo once lived. It’s also odd that a place like Kentucky is known for horses when it ought to be known for the native forests and the indigenous species that lived in those forests. Iowa is synonymous with corn, though it ought to be synonymous with prairies.
What about cities? Cities are invasives as far as I’m concerned. There is nowhere in which cities are native. Yet today they scar the landscape everywhere, driving out indigenous species. Coyotes, wolves, buffalo, foxes, elk, moose, and many other North American species of animal are displaced and forced to near extinction (or extinction) because of invasive cities.
I’ve represented these invasives unfairly, though. It’s not the cows, the horses, the corn, the wheat, the cotton, or the cities that are the real invasives. In fact, without the support of humans it’s possible, maybe even probably, that these species would not be invasives because they would die in their non-native habitats. (Though there are wild horses that have managed in North America since they were introduced hundreds of years ago, which sort of undermines that argument as far as horses are concerned. However, with healthy predator populations it’s possible that might change. In either case, it seems very unlikely to me that corn, wheat, or cotton would exist throughout North America without human support.)
Are all humans in North America invasives? No. There are humans who lived indigenously in North America for thousands of years. It’s the civilized humans who are invasives. The solution is to remove the invasives. Through no fault of their own invasives will kill the indigenous. If you were to introduce a non-native insect to a new habitat where the temperature is ideal, where food is available, and where there are no adapted predators then that insect will kill the indigenous, either directly or indirectly by competing unfairly for the food. It’s not the non-native insect’s fault. They are just doing what they are adapted to do. Likewise, it’s not the civilized human’s fault that they kill the indigenous. Civilized humans do what civilized humans are designed to do, which is to exploit, kill, pillage, plunder, and otherwise convert the living into the dead. You cannot teach the civilized human to be other than what they are just as you cannot teach the non-native insect species to limit their population and share equitably with the indigenous populations. The solution is to remove the invasives. We must remove civilized humans from their non-native habitats. (As far as I know there are no native habitats for civilized humans.) The implications there are far-reaching.