Undesirable: Invasive Species, Humans, and Where We All Belong

by Amy Crawford

Over the past five hundred years, human exploration, settlement, and commerce have carried countless plants and animals far from their original homes, where they sometimes go on to transform familiar landscapes, cause large-scale agricultural damage, and endanger precious native species. But the young field of invasion biology has been wracked by controversy and haunted by ethical quandaries as it has sought to destroy some species for the benefit of others. Invasive Species, Humans, and Where We All Belong brings this complexity to light, illuminating the often dubious moral and even ecological and economic bases for many anti-invasive policies.

Undesirable reveals a multi-faceted story of how humans have irrevocably disrupted nearly every ecosystem in the world. We have introduced new species, destroyed habitat and changed the climate―but it's not always clear how to hold ourselves accountable in the quest to bring balance and sustainability to this new natural world. Through case studies, historical surveys, media criticism, and conversations with both experts and the ordinary people who serve as foot soldiers in the war on invasive species, this book explores how confronting our deeper anxieties about nature and our roles in a changing world can help us see our "unwanted" neighbors in a new light and teach us all to be better stewards.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Nature, Audiobook, History

288 pages, Hardcover

Published August 3, 2026

Reviews

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think the strengths of this book is letting you decide where you choose to draw your own line. Do you want to protect native species and what does that mean? Does it mean brutally culling species or editing DNA? Could the language we choose to do make our arguments inculcate within us xenophobia and violence? Are our are efforts just furthering colonialism as predominantly white scholars decide what is pristine wilderness, is scientism still rooted in the same mastery of the savage wilds that, especially American rhetoric, used in conquering and forever changing the North American landscape?

Theyre all good questions. There are no easy answers.

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

It did present an interesting perspective covering the complexities of the issue and how scientists are divided not only on how to deal with invasive species but also whether to deal with invasive species.

Where this book fell short though was in that it treated one of the positions with a lot less critical thinking than the other. In the "let's do nothing about invasive species” camp, the author presented some perspectives that were factually incorrect or pseudoscientific and then didn't include the fact checking or refutation of those points that she did when presenting other points in other parts of the book. Some examples were along the lines of these: "I have spent a lot of time in nature and therefore I know that invasive species are fine" which should have pointed out that a single woman's experience in her own garden did not equate to actual science much less evidence that could apply to ecosystems outside of her garden, and "invasive species have never made any native species go extinct" which should have included at that point some of the counter examples of native species that have gone extinct because of invasive species (referenced at other points in the book but not when one of the key figures the author was describing made a claim along these lines) and also should have pointed out that going extinct is a pretty high bar and complete extinction should not be the only metric of harm to a native species.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love nonfiction that pulls back the curtain on how a system actually works and points out all the contradictions people tend to ignore. Amy Crawford does that here with ecology and the whole idea of “invasive species.”

Instead of just accepting the label, she looks at who gets called invasive, who gets protected, and how much human bias and bad policy shape those decisions. The most fascinating parts were about the extreme lengths people have gone to eradicate certain species.

New Zealand’s predator eradication program is especially wild in both its scale and ambition. The sections about completely removing rats from island environments were just as interesting. The amount of planning, money, poison, tracking, and labor involved is staggering.

This book asks much bigger questions than whether invasive species are good or bad. It looks at who gets to decide what belongs, what gets removed, and whether humans are really as objective as we like to think.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative and a good look at both sides of the invasive species debate. However, it hopped around a bit and I almost wish it had spent more time on fewer examples.

Thanks to @libro.fm for the free audiobook through their ALC program!