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

by Tao Orion, David Holmgren (Foreword)

Invasive species are everywhere, from forests and prairies to mountaintops and river mouths. Their rampant nature and sheer numbers appear to overtake fragile native species and forever change the ecosystems that they depend on.

Concerns that invasive species represent significant threats to global biodiversity and ecological integrity permeate conversations from schoolrooms to board rooms, and concerned citizens grapple with how to rapidly and efficiently manage their populations. These worries have culminated in an ongoing “war on invasive species,” where the arsenal is stocked with bulldozers, chainsaws, and herbicides put to the task of their immediate eradication. In Hawaii, mangrove trees (Avicennia spp.) 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 (Spartina alterniflora) growing in estuaries. The “war on invasive species” is in full swing, but given the scope of such potentially dangerous and ecologically degrading eradication practices, it is necessary to question the very nature of the battle. 



Beyond the War on Invasive Species offers a much-needed alternative perspective on invasive species and the best practices for their management based on a holistic, permaculture-inspired framework. Utilizing the latest research and thinking on the changing nature of ecological systems, Beyond the War on Invasive Species closely examines the factors that are largely missing from the common conceptions of invasive species, including how the colliding effects of climate change, habitat destruction, and changes in land use and management contribute to their proliferation.

There is more to the story of invasive species than is commonly conceived, and Beyond the War on Invasive Species  offers ways of understanding their presence and ecosystem effects in order to make more ecologically responsible choices in land restoration and biodiversity conservation that address the root of the invasion phenomenon. The choices we make on a daily basis—the ways we procure food, shelter, water, medicine, and transportation—are the major drivers of contemporary changes in ecosystem structure and function; therefore, deep and long-lasting ecological restoration outcomes will come not just from eliminating invasive species, but through conscientious redesign of these production systems.

Genres: Ecology, Nonfiction, Nature, Science, Gardening, Environment, Biology

336 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 17, 2015

Reviews

[Emma Bec · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was presented to me as a thoughtful critique of mainstream conservation practices by someone in the field. Instead it turned out to be a polemic against straw persons with highly cherry picked sources. Also, looking at the timeline she gives, she could not have worked more than a couple of years in restoration. I am an ecologist and have recently finished the PDC. I also have a bit of a soft spot for things like willows and cats. I wanted to like this book. Or at least get a different perspective. But instead I felt like the author was deliberately trying to mislead people.

Just one example of the misleading information in this book is that she claims zebra mussels are good for the great lakes because they filter the water allowing more light in so native algae can flourish. What she doesn't mention is that it's caused massive outbreaks of algae to bloom and bring bacteria and viruses up from the lake bottom, causing botulism outbreaks that have killed tens of thousands of birds.

An example of her misleading and contradictory views around ecological theories is that claiming European invasion/contact has caused an increase in biodiversity in New Zealand, Hawaii and Easter Island. Yes there are more species there now, but that has not increased biodiversity. It's just made these places more like Europe. It seems odd that she spends a chapter talking about Indigenous people's management of the environment yet claims colonialism has somehow increased biodiversity in these places.

These are just a couple of examples out of hundreds. If I wanted to really get across in depth how bad this book was I'd have to write a very very long review.

Oh and David Homgren's forward was just a bizarre angry rant.

[Stephen Hiltner · Rating 1 out of 5]

Readers should be warned that the arguments being made share deep flaws with other polemics aimed at habitat restorationists and invasion biologists. There's the denial of co-evolution, the creation of strawmen, the view that if a plant has one positive trait, then it must be good for the ecosystem into which it's been introduced. And there's the blanket condemnation of herbicides, which is no more appropriate than the blanket condemnation of nonnative species. Parallel logic would suggest that we forgo all use of medicine simply because antibiotics are abused by the meat industry.

Holmgren's forward is emotion-laden, and even drops the "nativism" bomb. Claiming a desire to make peace with invasive species, the forward and intro use distortion and misrepresentation to create a new enemy, a new "Other", to attack. I write this as a botanist, organic gardener, and land manager. I've written detailed online critiques of many books, articles, and opeds in this restoration-bashing genre, and though Beyond the War seems highly researched, it is very selective in its sources and interpretations.

Repeatedly, the book comes to sweeping conclusions based on highly selective logic and sources. It categorically condemns all herbicides, regardless of their varying toxicities, while insisting that invasive species are always a symptom rather than the problem. It takes a very pessimistic view of habitat restoration as currently practiced, saving a wildly implausible optimism for an alternative vision. There is a deep confusion in terminology. The words "native" and "invasive" are used as opposites, even though "native" refers to place of origin while "invasive" refers to behavior. These two terms are used throughout the book, yet are periodically said to lack meaning.

The book's ambitious scope and detail will deceive those who lack the knowledge base to notice the conspicuous omissions. The book claims that chemical corporations, seeking profits, have influenced land managers in government and the nonprofit sector to use herbicides on invasive species, yet doesn't even mention the powerful influence of the nursery and exotic pet trades, which view concern about invasive species, and any consequent restrictions on global trade and marketing of exotic species, as a threat to their bottom line.

Coevolution, which helps explain why a plant's evolutionary context matters, and why some introduced species can wreak such ecological havoc, is given credence only in relationship to smallpox and other introduced European disease pathogens that decimated American Indian tribes. The ash tree, in contrast, is somehow expected by the author to have an inborn resistance to the introduced Emerald Ash Borer. As with other polemics against invasion biology, the book states that wildlife benefit from eating the berries and nectar of invasive species, but avoids mentioning that the native wildlife tend not to eat the invasives' foliage. Herbivory is an important means of limiting rampancy, and if wildlife aren't providing that ecological service, then it's left up to us. Having condemned all herbicide use, the author offers a logistically improbable alternative, in which vast numbers of like-minded people relocate to the countryside and nurture nature's abundance, removing undesired plants by hand.

Yes, we need people to reconnect with the landscape, and herbicides should be used as minimally and selectively as possible, and permaculture has much to offer. But this book is trying to squeeze people and nature into an ideological box.

[Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paperback |

Our generation's 'Silent Spring'. This book is a call to action (or inaction at times) and an education in which both humans and our earth will benefit.

When huge swaths of land are being excavated and replaced by truckloads upon truckloads of soil and replanted with plants that are technically native but don’t serve the same ecological purpose… Tao starts to second guess whether her job is really doing right by the environment. Tao starts to dig into the role invasive species play in the landscape and questions the environmental impact of herbicides and equipment used in the complete eradication of these plants. Also… at what point do we call plants native vs non-native?

Basically the way that we approach invasive species is messed up and there are better ways to save our forests from the growing predators.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in plants, gardening, environmental science, sustainability and science in general.

[Moon Captain · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is so faulty I don't even know where to begin. I'm cycling through the kubler-ross stages of grief the longer I think about it.

[Sara Van Dyck · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am no expert in the problem of invasive species. but we are all familiar with the problems Orion addresses: kudzu or Scotch broom overwhelming a landscape, weeds clogging a home garden, and environmental harm from use of chemicals . There’s a lot to criticize in her book: Many of her suggestions require government support and resources of money, people power, and time, all of which are limited. I look askance at some of her more fanciful proposals, such as communities harvesting (yet-unknown) medicinals from invasives. But she offers valuable insights. Plants have moved around the globe for millenia, invasives are here to stay, and we need to acknowledge that and find better ways to manage and utilize them. Most important, she made me aware that “nature” and “humans” are not incompatible terms. We have always altered the landscape; our idea of untouched wilderness, she says, is a ”myth.” It’s through stewardship, not eradication or a laissez-faire approach, that we can protect biodiversity and promote survival of species. This book is radical, impractical – and worth thinking about.

[Shaun · Rating 5 out of 5]

A tremendous book, well-researched and reasoned. With "Beyond the War on Invasive Species" Tao Orion braves the backlash of the predominant thinking about restoration to present a much more holistic approach that promises to reconcile not only the issues of concern about so-called invasive species but our own human relationships with local ecosystems. In the process she presents permaculture design to new audiences in an accessible way and extends this approach of applied ecology beyond the regenerative food systems to which it is often ascribed. This should be included in ecology and agriculture courses everywhere.

[Prasan · Rating 4 out of 5]

While author Tao Orion may well begin with the question of how to deal with invasive species, that question is used to meditate on much bigger questions: What does it mean to steward land? What does it mean to protect an ecosystem? What is a wilderness?

Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent annually by state and local government to control invasive species. The generally accepted wisdom is that introduced species that spread aggressively and crowd out native flora and fauna are bad, and that the species that dominated before European contact are good. Author Tao Orion argues that instead of focusing conservation efforts on elimination of aggressively spreading introduced species, we should take a big picture approach. We should instead try and understand how the ecology was disturbed in a manner to give those species an advantage, and then, to try to think of ways in which we could utilize those species and their propensity to spread to serve human needs.

An example given in the book is the species Ailanthus altissima — also known as the Tree of Heaven. This tree is widely derided by restoration ecologists for its aggressive spreading nature and its production of compounds to inhibit the growth of competing native vegetation. Attempts to control Ailanthus often include aggressive application of herbicides, which, if applied carelessly, can have negative effects on the land. Instead, the author points to the fact that the tree is the host for the Ailanthus silkmoth, which produces a variety of silk known as eri silk. The author asks: What if, instead of attempting to eradicate this tree, we take advantage of its ability to thrive in poor and acidic soils, and utilize it as a fiber crop.

Similarly, the author provides examples of a host of other invasive species that have food, medicinal, and animal habitat uses. From here, the book takes on bigger questions: What does it mean for a species to be indigenous? What is a wilderness? She convincingly argues that most of North America was not untouched wilderness, but rather, a series of garden ecosystems carefully, lovingly, and intentionally maintained by the indigenous people of North America. The reason food was abundant on European contact was not accident, but a result of deliberate human interaction with “the wild”, and promotion of those species that were especially useful for humans through activities like controlled burning (which favor oak savannas over coniferous forests), the planting of bulbs, seed dispersal, and even pruning. Citing Kat Anderson’s Tending the Wild, she explains that wilderness is seen by Native Americans as a negative term:

"Interestingly, contemporary Indians often use the word wilderness as a negative label for land that has not been taken care of by humans for a long time, for example, where dense understory shrubbery or thickets of young trees block visibility and movement. A common sentiment among California Indians is that a hands-off approach to nature has promoted feral landscapes that are inhospitable to life. ”The white man sure ruined this country,” said James Rust, a Southern Miwok elder. “It’s turned back to wilderness.” California Indians believe that when humans are gone from an area long enough, they lose the practical knowledge about correct interaction, and the plants and animals retreat spiritually from the earth or hide from humans. When intimate interaction ceases, the continuity of knowledge, passed down through generations, is broken, and the land becomes ”wilderness.”"

This is a very different and empowering way to look at our relationship with the natural world. Instead of seeing humans as a form of parasitic or invasive species on the Earth, Ms. Orion posits the idea that man’s correct place is to be a steward of the Earth. It isn’t that we are inherently a burden, but rather that we have become so due to our lack of affection for the places we reside in and occupy.

The author argues that instead of seeing land stewardship as a restoration of land to an imagined past state, we should instead steward land for the purpose of serving human needs without causing ecological devastation. We are, ultimately, dependent on some land or the other for our survival. If we cannot depend for food, medicine, fiber, and building material on the land we do steward, then we must become dependent on the land we do not care for with the same sense of responsibility — and this is a sure path to ecological destruction.

The book helped me answer a lingering question — why is it, that in my own garden, I prefer not to expend much energy in growing ornamentals that have no edible or medicinal use? Why is it that I prefer to grow ornamental edibles or medicinals, even if I rarely use them? I grow red-veined sorrel in my own garden, though I don’t particularly love the taste. I grow it primarily for its ornamental value, but replacing it with a plant I never eat is unthinkable. The fact that it can be eaten, the fact that it is consumed by my family, even occasionally, changes the nature of my relationship with the plant. The presence of food and medicinal plants in a home garden is comforting to the human soul in a way that purely ornamental plants cannot be, because humans, even (especially) those living in the wilderness, have always interacted with nature in this manner.

That said, the book is not without its flaws. The blanket dislike of herbicides appears unbalanced, as the vast majority of people involved in ecosystem restoration do see at least some places where herbicide application is prudent and aids the remaking of a functioning biological system. There are genuine pests that require more aggressive management. But the author is probably right in that there would be a lot less of this kind of aggressive management needed if we had more humans who occupied these lands and stewarded them intelligently and with compassion.

Instead of seeking to reduce our footprint, we should instead think as gardeners: utilize the land for its potential with a sense of genuine reverence for its bounty. The future of our world depends on it.

[LB · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book, I highly recommend it as an introduction to permaculture-based land management and restoration. It sparks the imagination to the limitless possibilities in a redefined culture of utilizing the resources provided to us in our immediate surroundings. The examples illustrated by the author illuminate the insanity of the expensive and destructive approach that is often used in the current restoration paradigm, and the importance of analyzing the role invasive species are playing within an ecosystem.

I would have given it five stars if it included more concrete actionable strategies for the average reader. The author succeeds at presenting a new way of thinking and a lot of ideas, as well as research to back up her theories. But I was hoping there would be mention of additional resources and recommended reading to figure out what to do with the countless other invasive species that weren't mentioned in the book, or what to do on a smaller scale. I will plan on reading several of the included recommended readings in hope to find these answers.

[Tomek · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book offers an interesting, if controversial, take on the field of ecological restoration. I certainly support abandoning the historical reference model of restoration in lieu of a focus on ecosystem services, diversity, and resilience, as suggested by this book. I also appreciate the emphasis of restoring connection to (and in) place, which I find sadly lacking in many technocratic approaches to restoration. However, the whitewashing of invasive species' negative effects is absurd, full of cherry-picked studies, and flawed conclusions. I don't mean to suggest that all their effects are negative, as is evidenced by the willow flycatcher conservation-tamarisk removal debate (surprisingly absent from this text), but this text is disturbingly one-sided in that regard, which unfortunately takes up a majority of the text.

[Sylvia Duke · Rating 1 out of 5]

While this book could provide some interesting food for thought for those with a real background in restoration ecology and land management, it also has cherry-picked evidence, a complete lack of nuance, logic fallacies, and ecological un-soundness in almost everything presented. I fear for those readers without an ecology background, who might believe the distorted picture painted by Orion is reality.

[Ria Montana · Rating 1 out of 5]

Untamed Unmasking of Permaculture

“The more the human primate resists its primal nature, the more it rationalizes exploiting and dominating. It disconnects from innate awareness and fully intact empathy, falsely perceiving itself as safe, free and supreme. Detached from organic interconnection within rich, diverse habitat leaves it jaded to suffering as it commits carnage in all forms.”

To Rewild
Just beneath a thick cracking veneer of denial modern humans sense the end throes of civilization. Many compliantly follow the herd sacrificing their lives as fodder for the insatiable beast. Some shed pseudo-life bypassing the leviathan, looking to pre-civ for ways to live feral in collapsing-civ and inevitable post-civ. Being that noncommercial sustenance will be needed in the shifting biota-scape, permaculture is pitching a sale to transitioning rewilders.
Does the pitch reflect the way of wild? While some permaculturists collaterally include a premise of innate compassion for wildlife, does the overarching paradigm remain supreme man in the middle of his designed environment, even incorporating nonindigenous life? Does ‘all plants play an ecological role’ rationale in homesteading permaculture signal acquiescence to humans unrelenting dominating and manipulating the world on their terms? Restorer of native wildlife habitats Benjamin Vogt calls for humans empathetically reconnecting with wilderness by actively reviving local wild lands:
Our gardens are places of arrogance and alienation. We are a species very much alone in the world, trying to find an intimate, stabilizing connection we once had with other species. But somehow we are unable to give ourselves to the rather simple communication of empathy, compassion, and shared fate. In our gardens, we may show the greatest alienation, placing plants how and where we want and using species unrecognizable to wildlife. In our gardens, then, is arrogance- that we matter more, that our passions and loves, our losses and agonies, are separate and even superior to those of other species. While our gardens could ideally function as bridges between our world and the worlds of an infinite number of lives, too often they are walls of hubris and human-made disorder we impose upon a world already ordered to maximum benefit through millions of years of trial and error. What we wish to improve upon may be our own human-made alienation as creatures who struggle with an ethics that must encompass not just different races and creeds, but also animals, plants, and fungi. In a world of climate change and mass extinction, intimate gardens out our back door might be the best places to generate a landscape ethic that evolves into an activist-based global ethic of creation care for all life.1
Whether logically or emotionally, is permaculture intention for rewilding intrinsically breeched with use of nonindigenous species being naïve at best, insensible at worst?

Permaculture Snake Oil
Two nonfiction books flirt with transitional rewilding. While neither fully embraces anti-civ or post-civ notions, distinctions in ethos between the two are revealing. The true story of Carol Ruckdeschel, Untamed: the Wildest Woman in America and the Fight for Cumberland Island2 is archetype of contemporary human rewilded as adaptive creature connected in and contributing to indigenous community. Carol’s kindred shared life with nonhuman others is closer to the connections anthropologist Nurit Bird-David observed of South India foragers, with whom ‘family’ includes an interwoven diversity of biota and abiota coalescing in a place.3 The exposé Beyond the War of Invasive Species, Resilient Permaculture Design, and Transition Homesteading4 is promotion of permaculture through rebuke of restoration ecology, and a calling to surround oneself in a constructed sustaining nature by managing nonhuman others in a manner flourishing in beneficial functions centered around humans. Opposite restoration ecology, permaculture oft incorporates nonnative species into a designed anthropocentric permanent agriculture/culture.
In sync with restoration ecology, Carol in Untamed, for example, discourages expansion of human-introduced feral pigs decimating the island’s indigeneity by turning them into meat to fuel her body’s work saving threatened sea turtles. Since childhood Carol followed her instinctive awareness of and compassion for wild life. More feral than refined, she feels most at home in wild communal life as a pauper sustaining herself on a biologically diverse barrier island; but it’s under civilization’s attack. Fortuitously, being a self-taught published scientist gives her standing to leverage the eminence of science and politics to support her conservation efforts, though she’s most willing to take Edward Abbeyesque action for some quick and fun results. Driven by her primal purpose, she performs washed-ashore sea turtle necropsies, connects with a blind gator, befriends vultures, grieves for human introduced wild horse castaways ailing outside their habitat, and serves witness to a wild mourning ritual. Her intertwined personal life tragedies do not deter her fight for a true wild family, protecting it from commercial development and exploitation.
Colonizing humans transferring species into bioregions, exponentially fragmenting and degrading interconnected assemblages, has left many hard decisions on how to halt their overpowering impact and revive a lifeway embedded in wild. In Beyond the War, Tao Orion, a permaculture design teacher and farmer degreed in agroecology and sustainable agriculture, proposes a strategy to include invasive species based on permaculture principles. Seeing restoration practices as untenable and ineffective, she promotes utilizing invasive plants for uses such as compost, medicine, farm animal feed, and human food. Without knowing how invasives will impact nature in the future, she proposes taking a leap of faith in moving forward into the unknown with inventiveness and tools to create a new thriving of shifting biotic collections for human sustenance. She believes that humans worry too much that some introduced species ‘appear’ to overtake native communities forever altering ecosystems, threatening not only existence of individual species but intact bioregions and global biodiversity. To her, permaculture offers a way to incorporate nonnative invasives through revamping the root cause of ecological destruction: routines of humans’ everyday consumptions, or she’d reframe as productions.

On the podcast Ancestral Health Radio self-described “ancestral health coach, rewilding advocate, and 21st-century hunter-gatherer-gardener” James Broderick interviews Tao.5 Some of their topics include supplementing chicken feed with grains for egg production, buying land for homesteading, vegetable gardening and animal husbandry products. In suggesting people dig up noxious knotweed to use the root for medicinal purposes, the lack of depth of Tao’s awareness of plant behavior is revealed when she neglects to caution that any 4” cutting of this plant landing on soil can re-root expanding the habitat invasion, cascading into suffocating aquatic life like juvenile salmon.6 Acknowledging that there’s not enough wild game to support hunting, her theme is on creating an agricultural society where humans acquire enough land to support their diet. It is clear that Tao’s permaculture homesteading is intended as the anthropocentric endpoint, not a feasible transition toward a rewilded human embedded in rewilded Earth. Akin to how Leirre Keith’s The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice and Sustainability7 failed in logic for carnists’ leap of faith out of speciesism, so to Tao Orion fails in logic for permaculturists’ leap of faith out of human supremacy.
Tao’s minimizing the concern over civilization’s introduced species’ impact on wilderness resilience is reckless and uninformed. 8, 9 Essential truths are misconstrued and ignored such as 1. Many indigenous animals depend on indigenous plants to thrive, for example, wildlife are generally not adapted to eat introduced plant foliage 10 2. Indigenous plants and animals have co-adapted in intricate and complex ways with defense mechanisms to establish balance,11, 12, 13 3. Docile nonindigenous plants and animals can become invasive as conditions change,14, 15, 16 4. Alien plants beget alien animals up the food chain, exponentially expanding competition with native species,17 and 5. Hybridization of introduced species with natives has subtler but insidious impact contributing to decline and extinction of native species.18 Only folly would refute that introduced invasive plants and animals degrade indigenous habitat sparking spirals of vulnerability for other nonnatives to move in.
While fair to critique restoration ecology, it’s unreasonable to dismiss and re-apply it with blatant bias. For example, coevolution is dismissed if it explains species’ community interconnectedness, and how some introduced species wreak ecological havoc, but is given credence when convenient in backing her nonnative integration ideal. Yes, species shift their ranges, but it’s on their own terms, usually slowly, sometimes quickly and rarely with enough aggressiveness to destabilize robust diverse communities. Yes there are natural mass changes such as volcanoes where waves of species colonize the disturbed space in succession. But Tao seems unaware that domesticated humans shuffling species about, out of and into various habitats at a spiraling rate, outpaces ecological dynamics.
While Tao’s criticism of herbicides is a popular and valid critique, she fails to dig deep enough in addressing the root cause of wilderness devastation: anthropocentric command over nature.19 The hollowness of her ideas is revealed in what she does not contemplate. For example, instead of using herbicides as pretext to cultivate nonindigenous species, rewilding permaculturists could collaborate on nonnative species control through targeted harvesting for the goal of recovering indigenous habitat. Top priorities could go to removing small patches of new nonnatives before they spread,20 and species with excessive advantages over others outside their indigenous habitat (e.g. allelopathic properties) such as Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata). Strategies could include awareness of risks of harvesting plants that for example spread vegetatively from segments left on soil, like notorious vegetative propagator Japanese Knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum).
Regarding indigenous plants behaving invasively, in remnant wild communities, herbivory plays a crucial role in limiting rampancy. If indigenous herbivores are no longer playing that ecological role because they are waning under civilization, then rewilding permaculturists could either give indigenous animals back their habitat, or if that’s not possible replicate the function. However take caution, substitutes such as cattle for bison degrade the system further.21, 22 Addressing ethos directly, intercepting human domination by restoring indigenous ecosystems could take the form of honing and collaborate on more gentle, responsive approaches timed with natural rhythms, such as the Bradley Method.23
While living within the local natural environment is key to rewilding, using that setting to rationalize craftily introducing, maintaining or propagating nonnative species that risk escaping into and degrading other areas is more of the same dominating doctrine. Civilized humans have so rapidly introduced species that most wildernesses have succumbed to fundamental permanent losses leaving skeletons of themselves as sitting targets vulnerable to ever increasing invasion. The problem of civilization cannot be resolved with a more appealing version of civilization that alleviates fears of sustenance in preparation to survive societal collapse. Returning habitat and setting it free from civilization overcomes humans’ domesticating ethos.
While Tao points to native people wild tending and the notion that nativity is not a fixed state to promote permaculture, (pgs. 148-50) indigenous people are connected members of indigenous habitats, something permaculture cannot replicate. Primal biocommunities emerge and transform their characteristics, relationships and ranges, on their own terms. For permaculture to attempt to co-opt wild tending is the epitome of supremacy. A more respectful and cautious ally approach would be for permaculture to invite and assist native food plants supporting members of local native ecosystems, encouraging resistance to civilization’s introduced invasives. Incorporating invading colonizing plants reflects an invading colonizing ethos where colonizer preferences take precedence over indigenous habitat needs. Permaculture reasoning exposes domination culture and power positioning used to willfully ignore or justify human supremacist control over others.
Tao’s book is swimming in human supremacy bias with faulty oversimplified reasoning. She brews an impassioned tincture of logical and illogical thinking and proposals based on valid and invalid criticisms. She makes claims of an invasive species’ benefits while neglecting to mention more significant massive detriments. She bases colonial misbalanced ‘biodiversity’ on indigenous people’s wild tended habitats without seeing the difference. A fallacious book like this can be dangerous for indigenous life if accepted by well-intended humans lacking fuller understanding on how to assist an injured place to return its vitality, much less embed within it.

Primal Empathetic Rewilding
For eons since origins humans like all animals found their food and medicines based solely on instincts and primal senses.24 Science is less about increasing this kind of primitive awareness and more about rationalizing domineering manipulation reflective of a supreme human within contrived hierarchal power structures. A keen eye is needed to sift through civilization bias. If the only egalitarian way for humans to live wild is located at wild tending or earlier, how will humans undo what they can of domestication’s impact on wilderness during transition toward post-civ? How can humans shift the locus of control back to wilderness as they adapt into ecologically contributory roles?
Humans across the wild-civilized spectrum on some level intuit intensifying globalization pressures lunging toward a boiling point. Introducing plants and animals began with agriculture for settling lands and grazing domesticated animals for human colonization of new lands.25 While behavior change from introduction to invasion can be delayed, once introduced into homeostatic habitats nonindigenous species can outcompete, eat, infect and hybridize with indigenous species, exponentially impacting flora and fauna. This harm is often compounded by overarching dynamics such as climate change.26 Even with civilization’s science confirming ecosystems everywhere are degrading and collapsing under human linked invasions, tamed humanway cannot begin to envision renouncing its terra-conqueror thrown. Nor is permaculture, however charming and benevolent, relinquishing humans’ peculiar omnipotence over nonhuman others.
There are endless unintended consequences of domesticated humans rearranging species about on domestication’s terms. Introduced, domesticated and wild species are all puppets and victims of colonizing, predatory human folly. With palpable ignorance of primal ways, the best domesticated humans can do is attempt to undo what they can of the harm domestication has done. Domesticated humans liberate themselves and others by re-engaging with wilderness in a recompensing liberation ethos of de-colonizing restoration, such as returning indigenous plants co-adapted to a site and freeing them to naturally evolve over time. “If we garden with native plants that form living communities… we begin to cross-pollinate again. We begin to learn to speak languages we’ve forgotten. We mend. We bind.”27 With ecological dynamics returned species will reestablish their niches and spread seed until they settle into spots with others they remember and prefer, rekindling thriving resilience.28 But continuing to promote architecting the world around humans only emboldens domestication’s menace.
To be anti-civ comes from primal pain of deep losses and resolve for restoration. Untamed Carol is a wild warrior whose personal story is the story of wildness under siege, and a plea for humans to let go of civilization’s primacies, to become deeply aware of indigenous life around them, to take action to assist wild recovery. To be rewilding human in transition times is not preparing oneself to live through changing conditions. Instincts will manifest sustenance in the moment, tis the way of the nomad. Accepting wild fate is the cost of free living. To rewild away from colonizing lifeway is to rejoin the primal force through action based on innate empathy, tending to wilderness not for human dominion but simply for wild.

Ria Montana, Forest and Wetland Rewilder
https://veganprimitivist.wordpress.com/ 
Endnotes
1. Voigt, Benamin. A New Garden Ethic: Cultivating Defiant Compassion for an Uncertain Future. New Society Publishers, 2017. Pgs. 96-7.
2. Harlan, Will. Untamed: the Wildest Woman in America and the Fight for Cumberland Island. Grove, 2015.
3. Bird-David, Nurit. Us, Relatives: Scaling and Plural Life in a Forager World. University of California Press, 2017. Pg. 173.
4. Orion, Tao. Beyond the War of Invasive Species, Resilient Permaculture Design, and Transition Homesteading. Chelsea Green Publishing, 2015.
5. Broderick, James, and Tao Orion. “Tao Orion: Beyond the War of Invasive Species, Resilient Permaculture Design, and Transition Homesteading.” Ancestral Health Radio, 15 Mar. 2017, ancestralhealthradio.com/podcast/tao.
6. Compared to restoration ecologists, permaculturists don’t commonly studiously know or aim to know invasive behavioral implications of plants they work with, such as Japanese Knotweed (Fallopia japonica), now hybridized into Bohemian Knotweed (Fallopia x bohemica). In addition to re-rooting vegetatively from dropped cuttings, cutting itself triggers root growth up to 4’ deep and 20’ across. Large roots’ physical properties destabilize soil, and along waterways this triggers soil erosion that degrades aquatic habitats such as salmon-bearing streams. Juvenile salmon cannot handle the sediment load. Handling plant without cautious awareness of that plant’s characteristics and behaviors can inadvertently cause chain reactions overpowering nearby indigenous biotic communities, even on immense scale, replacing biodiverse species communities with virtual monocultures. Human-triggered species invasions can become such a threat to indigenous biotics that they can result in management practices such as herbicides that most permaculturists and restoration ecologists alike abhor.
7. Keith, Lierre. The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice and Sustainability. Flashpoint Press, 2009.
8. Simberloff, Daniel. “Introduced Species, Impacts and Distribution Of.” Encyclopedia of Biodiversity, 2013, pp. 357–368., doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-384719-5.00251-3.
9. Jarić, Ivan, et al. “Crypticity in Biological Invasions.” Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 2019, doi:10.1016/j.tree.2018.12.008.
10. Tallamy, Douglas W. Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants. Timber Press, 2016. Pgs. 52-4.
Ninety percent of native fauna are slow adapting specialists (pg. 58) unable to complete their life cycle with nonnative plants. Entomologist Douglas Tallamy studied the ability of native insects to utilize nonnative plants to support various parts of their life cycle. Comparing insects eating native and nonnative species, the native vegetation supplied four times more insect biomass simply because the insects’ chewing mouthparts were unable to process nonnative plants (pg. 328).
11.

[Vallerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. This book made me think about my current attitude towards invasive species and refine it. Invasive species can be bad but blatant eradication without planning is stupid and is not going to work. I think Tao said a lot of important things and gave a lot of good examples. I have seen another comment that said this is our generation's silent spring and I couldn't agree more. There are some things where I feel they are over reaching or thinking unrealistically but they even mention in the book that they like to think optimistically. Highly suggest reading if you are interested in wildlife and ecosystems.

[Stanley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Made me rethink my perspective on invasive species. In ecological restoration, there are many equally or even more important goals besides the removal of non-native plants and animals. And the removal method itself can be harmful or beneficial, depending on how it is executed. We need to address systemic issues and the root causes of invasion and degradation, using environmentally regenerative techniques.

[Jose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very appreciated however controversial take on invasive species. I would maybe disagree with some of the proposed solutions in the managing of these species, and even some of the interpretations of the evidence but it’s overall a very interesting and refreshing thesis.

[Izzy · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolute must-read for anyone interested in ecology. It’s right up there with Braiding Sweetgrass for me.

[Charlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know it's not a real review, but I like to do a review in some of my favorite quotes or things that stood out to me.

"Rachel Carson dedicated a chapter of 'Silent Spring' to denounce the use or organophosphate herbicides (which include glyphosate), which The Nature Conservancy now recommends. In an ironic twist of fate, Carson, who died an untimely death from breast cancer, dedicated one third of her estate to The Nature Conservancy. Today, The Nature Conservancy website named Mansanto, the manufacturer of DDT, Agent Orange, and other agricultural chemical whose use Carson opposed, as a corporate partner." (p. 38)

"The EPA has established that each of these chemicals is safe at some low level, and it regulates products containing them to ensure exposure is at or below these levels during the course of normal application. Of course, determining that it is 'safe' to drink 3 ppb of atrazine does not mean that anyone should drink atrazine - ever, let alone every day of their lives. Establishing baselines of 'safety' allows for widespread use of these as long as they are dispersed widely enough in the ecosystem to diminish their concentrations. This approach assumes that exposure to potential toxins is an inevitable and necessary part of economic health. It's biased toward the industries that benefit from promoting this belief, and ensures that these products can be kept on the market by imposing a regulatory framework for their continued use rather than working from a baseline of severely limiting or prohibiting their application." (p.42)

"Glyphosate chelates zine, copper, manganese, iron, calcium, and magnesium, so when it comes in contact with these elements, they bind with the molecule and become biologically unavailable. When these vital elements are 'locked up' by the glyphosate molecule and the shikimate pathway - a finely tuned series of enzyme interactions used by plants, fungi, and bacteria to synthesize amino acids - is interrupted, the immune system of the plants to which it is applied is compromised. In other words, glyphosate does not actually kill plants per se; it renders them vulnerable to soil-borne diseases by destroying their immune systems. Mineral deficiencies make their way through the food web: People and livestock who are exposed to glyphosate residues in food are prone to (potentially pathological) mineral deficiencies, and birds, fish, insects, and other mammals are also affected as minerals are bound up in the soils of sprayed forests and wetlands.

Because glyphosate interferes with the shikimate pathway, which is the primary means by which many bacteria access energy to proliferate, it was patented as an antimicrobial in 2019. One genus of bacteria named in the patent as targets of glyphosate are Pseudomanas. Some species of this genus cause plant diseases, but others assist with phosphate mobilization in soil, and others aid in the suppression of the soil-borne plant pathogen Fusarium.

Glyphosate's effect on soil microorganisms is not well-researched, but should not be overlooked, since microbes form the basis of the terrestrial food web." (p. 58)

"A recent demonstration at the University of California Cooperative Extension in southern California showed that herbicide applicators working in restoration were applying significantly greater amounts of herbicide than recommended by the manufacturer and that they were mostly unaware of their level of use. The study found that people routinely applies two to fourteen times the recommended amount of herbicide active ingredient during field testing and had no idea they were doing so until researchers measured the amount of herbicide sprayed into a bucket for the same amount of time it took the applicators to cover a test plot. These findings were so shocking to the researchers that they held trainings to teach correct use. The bottom line is that it's incredibly difficult, perhaps impossible, to know how much exposure humans and ecosystems actually have to these herbicides in practice.' (p. 64)

"It's worth noting that evapotranspiration through plants is different from evaporation from bare soil because the water exuded from a plant's leaf surface contains more than just water. Plants also release cloud-seeding bacteria like Pseudomonas syringi into the atmosphere. This organism has a unique ability to encourage the formation of rain and has been found in raindrops throughout the world. The shape and size of this bacteria provides a substrate for the formation of ice crystals, which eventually form together into clouds, and fall back to Earth as rain or snow. (Seeding clouds using silver nitrate is based on a similar idea- putting a substance with lots of surface area into the atmosphere provides a substrate for water vapor to accumulate on, and eventually clouds will form and a rainstorm will commence.)
Pseudomonas syringi also encourages nucleation of ice crystals at higher temperatures than other agents, allowing for rainfall to occur even in a hot, dry desert condition if enough of the bacteria are present for water to condense on. David Sands, who originally proved the existence of such bioprecipitators, also believes that there may be a connection between bacteria like Pseudomonas syringi and the cyclical droughts that plague farmers in arid regions. He argues that by overgrazing or clearing vegetation from the brittle region, the bioprecipitating bacteria lack adequate leaf surface habitat from which to be swept up into the atmosphere. In one interview, he suggests that by planting species known to harbor more bacteria, farmers may be able to improve their regional water cycle and protect from drought." (p. 108)

"Invasive species are considered a detriment to the successional trajectory of an ecosystem because they are though to spread more aggressively or competitively than native plants. However, a team of researchers looked at the seed dispersal rates of 360 native and 51 invasive plant species. The team discovered that contrary to their expectations, invasive and native plants had similar seed dispersal rates, indicating that invasive species are not necessarily more aggressive. The concluded that 'if introduced species do have higher spread rates, it seems likely that these are driven by differences in post-dispersal processes such as germination, seedling survival, and survival to reproduction.' In other words, invasive species, like any other species, spread because they encountered ideal conditions in which to thrive. If we want to reduce the spread of invasive species, then trying to eliminate them won't get us far. We need to address the conditions that enable their spread." (p. 118)

"Though invasive species are considered among the greatest threats to biodiverse ecosystems, there have been only a few attempts to quantify the amount of land covered by invasive species. One of the few took place in the United States and concluded that invasive species cover 18 million acres in twelve southern states (although only 12,188 acres were actually sampled; the rest of the data was extrapolated by the authors). Although the study intended to show that invasive species were threatening ecosystems because they covered such a large area, the study failed to disclose the amount of land covered by agricultural crops, which would have provided important context for assessing whether and how invasive species should bear the burden of blame for threatening regional biodiversity." (p. 133)

"Although Asian carp have spread throughout the Mississippi River, and although they abound in many of its tributaries, they have not driven any other species of fish to extinction. Still, there is widespread concern. Federal, state, and local agencies have spend hundreds of millions of dollars on efforts to ensure Asian carp don't make their way into the Great Lakes, but so far the money has been used to deploy largely ineffective techniques. The US Army Corp of Engineers constructed submerged electric fences designed to shock and kill the fish as they approach the lake entrance, which has been plagued with maintenance issues since its completion. In 2009, when the fence was under repair, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources applied 2,200 gallons of rotenone (at a coast of $3 million), a naturally derived poison that affects all gilled creatures, in an attempt to halt the carps northward spread. Among the tens of thousands of dead fish, researchers found one Asian carp. Other natural resource managers suggest the use of strobe lights or bubble and sound barriers to deter the northward expansion of the carp populations. [...]

And yet, these four species of concern are also dying out in their native range. Is it possible to conserve rather than demonize them in an ecosystem where they are clearly thriving? And if their populations are truly threatening other species, can we devise more ecologically appropriate management strategies? Given the realities of climate change and the fragility of our food production and distribution systems, it would be wiser to think of Asian carp in terms of their multiple potential yields. These fish, which can grow up to 100 pounds, have been a dietary mainstay in their native China for thousands of years and literally leap out of the water into boats as they pass by. These attributes make for easy and exciting fishing adventures - at least with the proper safety gear. (p. 162)

"It is time to start thinking about the species that are thriving in new environments as allies in a quest to more thoughtfully steward out local ecosystems. The $80 million allocated to "control" Asian carp with electric shock fences, bubble strobe barriers, and rotenone could be used instead of support the development of land-based aquaculture systems, small cooperative fish canneries, and fish fertilizer manufacturing facilities. These business would also manage the populations of carp by making use of them, turning their profligate growth into food and long-term, local employment opportunities in the regions where the fish proliferate." (p. 164)

"Looking deeper at the ecological services provided by invasive species has the potential to elucidate heretofore unrecognized relationships, as well as the potential for creative management approaches. Species like spotted knapweed are not present in ecosystems because of some unknown, random, and ecologically malignant purpose. Everything gardens, and knapweed is 'gardening' phosphorous in the places where it is needed most. Learning to see, integrate, and make use of these features is a critical task for the future." (p. 175)

"Invasive species provide opportunities to study the dynamics of ecosystem change given serious declines in ecological function engendered by modern land use practices. Nitrogen-fixing invasive species are viewed as ecologically destructive, when in fact nitrogen is one of the most valuable plant growth nutrients. Rampant growth of invasive species is seen as threatening to ecosystems, when turning diverse ecosystems into monoculture crops destined for human or animal consumption is considered normal." (p. 191)

"The US Forest Service states that 'non-native, invasive species of plants and animals are invading, displacing and destroying native species in wilderness all across the country,' a statement that treats ecosystems as passive objects under threat by outside forces. But ecosystems are dynamic associations of plants, bacteria, fungi, water, nutrients, soil, climate, and animals - including people - that live, die, and affect one another as these processes play out over time." (p. 207)

"But the best reason of all to observe and interact with a piece of land is because it matters to you in a real, visceral way. Your life and the lives of those around you depend on engaging with your home ecosystem. Lamenting the loss of biodiversity and displacement of native species while sitting in a classroom, at a coffee shop, or at the dining room table does little to address them. As the old adage says, 'You can't plow a field by turning it over in your mind.'" (p. 229)

"Although I'm not away of many restoration projects using this kind of strategy, Lani Malmberg's Ewe4ic (pronounced euphoric) Ecological Services based in Colorado is a great example of the kind of ingenuity this can involve. Malmberg, her two sons, two border collies, and 1,500 goats work throughout the intermountian west and prairie states doing weed management, fuel load reduction, and land revegetation for federal, state, county, city, and private landholdings. Malmberg received a master's degree in weed science from Colorado State University, and at the time, she was the only student whose research was not funded by a pesticide manufacturing company." (p. 266)

"At The Land Institute in Salina, Kansas, Wes Jackson and other researchers have been working to develop high-yielding perennial grain and legume crops that can be grown in prairielike polycultures. One of their promising developments has been crossing annual grain sorghum with the invasive Johnson grass, a hardy rhizomatous perennial. Drough-tolerant sorghum is grown on 18 million acres int he United States every year, mostly where it is too hot and dry to grow corn, and is mostly used to feed cattle. As climate change intensifies and the plains states become increasingly arid, a perennial sorghum could become an important crop. Johnson grass is reviled by many farmers who see it as a weed, but its capacity to withstand drought, penetrate deep into the soil for water and nutrients, and not require tillage make it a good candidate for creative breeding endeavors." (p. 273)

[Stasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has been on my I-should-read-this list forever, and I totally wish I'd read it a bazillion years ago when it first came into my consciousness. It's particularly relevant for me since I'm semi-embroiled in the restoration field, though luckily not so much that anyone expects me to use herbicides or pesticides to "restore" things. But this was a really nice look at how the entire way that we generally think of invasive species is based on the wrong premises, or at least too narrow a definition of the premises--we tend to think of specific plants as "invading" an otherwise pristine ecosystem (or at least an ecosystem where they "shouldn't" live), but Orion makes a really compelling case that we need to shift our focus to be ecosystem-wide. That is, to think about what role any given plant is playing in a whole ecosystem, and work with permaculture concepts to figure out what to do about it.

There's a lot more too, including thoughts about assisted migration to help mitigate climate change and all sorts of interesting stuff, but that's one of the big thing that sticks out to me.

Orion also offers elegant ways and specific examples of how we could re-conceive of the world as a whole ecosystem, rather than focusing only on specific "problem" plants. I'm so, so far away from being able to think of things the way she does, but I really liked how this stretched my thinking. And it made me psyched to read more about permaculture. Good deal.

[John Yunker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dandelions. Bull thistle. Kudzu. Japanese knotweed. Himalayan blackberry.

From front lawns to woodlands, these are among the most despised of plant species. Species that, we are told, are hell-bent on taking over every square inch of soil, crowding out native species, ruining ecosystems, giving gardeners ulcers.

But what if everything we know about weeds is wrong? What if the invasive species we have grown to hate, have spent millions of dollars on fighting, are not so awful after all? What if they have something important to tell us about our soil, our ecosystems? What if these species have something to offer these ecosystems, something restorative, even beneficial?

Beyond the War on Invasive Species: A Permaculture Approach to Ecosystem Restoration by Tao Orion will open your eyes to the plants we have long viewed as weeds and inspire a permaculture-based approach to gardening.

And don’t let the subtitle intimidate you — this is a book that any gardener will find well worth a read. Frankly, it’s a book everyone should read before running out to the store for pesticide.

Tao Orion opens the book on her experiences in wetlands restoration outside Eugene, Oregon and the invasive species they battled, sometimes with chemicals, in an effort to restore native species. In doing so, they learned that invasive species thrived where reintroduced native species struggled. She came to realize that these invasive species were there for a reason, and they were serving important purposes: “The bees didn’t appear to mind that the nectar they sipped came from a flower that originated in Europe nor did the frogs seem to care that the low-growing thatch of rattail fescue hailed from the same region.”

She took a step back and began to take a “big picture” look at restoration, at the history of the land, disturbances, changes in climate, introduced chemicals. All of these factors play a role in which species thrive in an area and which do not. Labeling a plant “invasive” creates an unhealthy dynamic of viewing plants in good and evil terms. She writes: “The presence of invasive species is not necessarily a problem to be solved, but rather an invitation to delve deeply into understanding the complex ecosystem dynamics to which they are intrinsically related.” In other words, before reaching for the Roundup, take a moment to study your own ecosystem. Better yet, skip the chemicals entirely.

Orion writes about how poorly regulated and understood pesticides are. How we almost always use far more chemicals than we should and how there is no way of knowing exactly what all these chemicals are doing to our bodies over time. It’s safe to say every American has some amount of glyphosate in their systems by now.

Orion challenges the notion that invasive species have made other species extinct. While invasives can be quite aggressive, there is little evidence that they alone destroy other species. There are a host of reasons why native species may be in decline; invasive species are more often correlative than causative.

She cites many examples of how we vilify these species, none more ironic than spartina (or cordgrass) a grass that grows along salt marshes. Over the past few decades, spartina has been labeled an invasive species in bays from San Franscico up north to Wallapa Bay, in Washington. Government agencies have dumped hundreds of thousands of gallons of pesticides on the plants. But on the East Coast, spartina is viewed as a critical member of the coastal system, home to birds and a barrier that helps minimize storm surges. But spartina strands have been on the decline, leading researchers on the East Coast searching for ways to save spartina while researches on the left coast search for ways to eradicate it.

I appreciate how Orion places our experiences with nature in historical terms, focusing on the natives who tended to the land long before Europeans arrived. In a section titled “The Myth of Wilderness,” she writes: “America’s most celebrated wilderness areas were once peoples’ homes, and many of the most prized native plants are remnants from gardens and orchards.” In other words, humans have been gardening from the very beginning and our ancestors did a far better job of it than we are today.

My only criticism of the book is in how the author sidesteps around the destructive forces of animal agriculture. Instead of offering up ways to minimize the damage of grazing animals, it would have been nice to see her question the industry entirely, an industry completely at odds with any permaculture-based worldview.

Scotch broom, widely reviled in these parts, is a nitrogen fixer. Like so many invasive, it plays a critical role in creating healthier soil. And this is what a permaculture-based approach to gardening is all about. In fact, Orion documents numerous examples of so-called invasive species that play a critical role in improving our soil and water.

In truth, we are not at war with invasive species. This war was manufactured by companies trying to sell chemicals. The only war we should be fighting now is with the government agencies and politicians who would maintain the status quo. It’s time to rethink everything we know about how we relate to the land and this book provides the insights and inspiration to get started.

Beyond the War on Invasive Species
Tao Orion
Chelsea Green

NOTE: This review was first posted on EcoLit Books at www.ecolitbooks.com.

[Bram · Rating 2 out of 5]

The low-star critiques say it all.

[Benjamin Felser · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was so ready to love this book, and the first three chapters are incredibly worthwhile, but the limited scope of the research she shares, and the dramatic terraforming possibilities of many invasives go unmentioned in what would otherwise be a paradigm shifting book.

What a beautiful concept, I just wish it had been better researched and had more case studies or even at least a couple of interviews instead of just speculation, and a couple compelling case studies.

I work as a crew lead managing a crew that treats invasive plants (also forages seeds and assists in revegetation, plant monitoring and other plant work!) and come to this book somewhat disenchanted with traditional western/colonial land “management”. Despite this tendency towards idealism, I was disappointed with the limitations of Orion’s central thesis of invasive being unfairly maligned stands. I wish instead that she had focused more on the systemic disturbance/degradation many sites of non-native species introduction experience, and the need for systemic treatments.

“Good fire” or periodic prescribed burns (as carried out by California native tribes since time immemorial are known to control invasive plants and bark beetles, for example. But these and other invasive organisms can literally terraform our ecosystems, dramatically reducing biodiversity and harming the life we cherish. Buffel grass (introduced as cattle fodder) is taking over the southwest and turning saguaro and desert scrub into non-native grasslands. Tamarisk salts its soil and nothing else can grow. Orion mentions 50 birds use it as habitat, including the oft-mentioned willow flycatcher, but this metric neglects the hundreds which abound in native willow and cottonwood forests.

Now I wish my bosses seriously considered what I view to be the more interesting premise, that these “invasions” only occur in dramatically altered landscapes. The best recorded treatment for tamarisk monocultures is reintroducing the floods desert rivers like the Colorado historically experienced. She never mentions this. This is just one example of the context Orion fails to include, and she proceeds this limited information with ~100 pages of fluff imagining futures of cultivating and channeling invasive plants into permaculture communities. I find it beautiful, but I wish she’d complimented these stunning futures with case studies where these practices have gained traction on the ground. If the goal is to sway managers/land stewards, this method falls short.

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent and extremely well-researched book, with lots of real-world examples, about rethinking the concept of "invasive" species and advocating a systems-thinking approach in considering and (sometimes) managing them. The main point is that we can (and should) look at invasive species -- terrestrial and aquatic plants and animals, though she mainly focuses on plants -- as a reflection of the ecosystem they're part of; they tell us about the underlying conditions of the ecosystem: the soil and water health and makeup, the nutrients and metals in the soil/water, the climate and changes to the climate, the other plants and animals in the ecosystem, etc. The "invaders" don't change the ecosystem so much as the ecosystem determines which species will grow rampantly. Invasive species fill a niche in the ecosystem and provide benefits to the other plants and animals as well as challenges. A secondary point is that no ecosystem is static; all ecosystems are dynamic and characterised by constant change. Ecosystems move through various states (a process called succession) toward a brief --in geological time --  state of equilibrium, and all the while they are subject to natural and human disturbances (fire, storm, flood, drought, human encroachment and fragmentation). An ecosystem that's unrecognisable to us over time isn't necessarily a dysfunctional ecosystem; it may just have transformed itself, or been transformed and adapted to become, a different and functioning ecosystem. I read this in a permaculture reading group over a few months and it worked well.

[Lia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found the way Tao Orion discusses invasive species to be so much more hopeful and inspiring than the the more mainstream discussion that's currently being had. Every plant, like every person, has so much to offer when we treat them with love and respect. The reality is that there is no separation between us and these plants, and if anything I would say that true restoration begins within each us. If we have a warlike, antagonistic relationship to ourselves and others, how can we expect there to be less anger in the world around us? We will see enemies where there are none, including in these plants that must be working to bring their ecosystems back to stasis, just perhaps on a nonhuman-scale timeline. Tao's calm and reasoned responses to those reviewers here who seem to feel so triggered and threatened by her message is evidence to me that she is doing this real work.

I am certain that Gaia, no matter how much we have done to harm her, continues to love us self-important Homo sapiens because we are a part of Her. We are a part of the ecosystems where these plants live. Fortunately we creative, complex and ultimately loving humans can be a force for good again through the practices that Tao discusses here. Thank you, Tao!

[Logan Streondj · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book worth having a physical copy to benefit future generations. It talks about the flaws of reductionist fear/anger based pathways that see nature as battle and the virtues of wholestic systemic understanding that everything is interconnected and that everything is impermanent, and thus understanding the causal factors helps one understand the glory and power of God even through pioneer plants which reductionists dub "invasive". He covers many of the most commonly mentioned ones and their benefits such as knapweed, knotweed, milkweed, Asian carp among others and their many uses and benefits to both the ecology and humans, particularly those willing to be as children learning from God's creation, instead of trying to force their own machinations and hold on to a past which they can never get back.

A very beautiful prose with many insightful passages.

[Ryin Cornett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. That is all I can say. This book. If you are into organic agriculture, gardening, permaculture, agroforestry or the like, this book is a MUST read.
There are certain books you read and from then on, you will never see the world the same again, this is one of them.

The first half of the book is dense, I’ll admit it. Science and history of chemical companies co-opting our forestry services. But it unfolds an entire new understanding of what we call “native” ans “invasive” species.

Read this book. Even if it’s only the second half. It will change your life for those who are in the permaculture community.

[Molly McEachern · Rating 4 out of 5]

Orion’s argument for a holistic, permaculture approach to invasive species management was incredibly compelling and well cited. I was very impressed by the sheer volume of information provided in this book. Gave it 4 stars because the writing was rather dry for me, but the content kept me interested in reading.

A bit idealistic at times and maybe even radical in comparison to many main stream opinions on invasive species management and the current framework for agriculture. Overall, I really enjoyed her observance of how we approach restoration and how she drew attention to the concept (or rather misconception) of “wilderness” and humanity’s place in it all.

[TL Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5
There is some cool information here and lots to think about. Our attitudes on invasive species are going to have to change (though the comparison to human migration overreaches by about a million miles).

The science is made to fit the narrative, instead of the other way around, which does make me wonder about the validity of a lot of what is said.

The biggest issue though for me - it's really boring. I had to really skim a lot due to repetitive info, way too much info/wordiness before getting to the point, etc.

[Ellen Schwindt]

I read this book more than a year ago, but pieces of it have stayed with me. Two are the detailed treatment Ms. Orion gives to the process by which pesticides are "self-regulated" that is to say NOT regulated in the U.S. The other is the vision of our North American continent as a managed permaculture farm of incredible abundance that was functioning in rhythm with nature when the Europeans arrived. Read this book if you want a small part in creating that beautiful vision again.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book about how invasive species fit into efforts to restore ecosystems. Orion challenges the use of herbicides for the eradication of all invasives. the point is well taken. Not all invasives need to be eradicated. Some are probably fine. But equally (and here I think Orion misses the mark) some do need to be eradicated. English ivy is a plague here in Seattle. And some of those can be eradicated without herbicides.

[Боби · Rating 5 out of 5]

Определено не е за всеки, но който се престраши ще бъде променен във вижданията си и никога няма да може да погледне към парче природа със старите си очи. Тази книга ме накара много пъти да цъкам с език дълго и продължително, като покойната ми баба. Защото се изумявах на човешката глупост, суета и самонадеяност. Не ме накара да заобичам айланта или повета, но поне почнах да ги разбирам.

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tao Orion presents a new paradigm for understanding the dynamics of invasions. She places the phenomenon of biological invasion into the larger context of broad scale ecosystem change and adaptation. This is a must read for anyone that has worked with so called invasive species, it will open your mind to very different possibilities.