"Battle Royale"

I happened across the blog Invasive Notes the other day. It's an interesting read, written from a scholarly but personal standpoint, and appears to have a focus on plant politics and policy. I'll probably return from time to time for a larger perspective on native and invasive plants.

The article that caught my attention was Invasive Species: a Wicked Inconvenience; a battle royale which is commentary on the controversy at San Francisco Parks Bond: pennies for habitat! located at the Bay Area Bird Blog.

If you have a spare 30 minutes or so, it might be worth reading both blogs and the commentary on the Bird Blog.

If you'd rather spend the time organizing your sock drawer, you'll have to trust me to summarize: Bird Blogger bemoans the state of funding for SF Bay Area natural parks, he's verbally assaulted by activists with the opposite points of view, he responds even handedly, ad hominem attacks ensue, accusations of Nazism are thrown about, the activists are revealed to have a hidden agenda related to preservation/expansion of dogs-off-leash areas and mis-directed personal ax grinding. This is summarized at the meta-level on Invasive Notes, with appropriate policy insight, concluding with, "As with most issues related to the environment and related issues, fuzzy definitions are occasionally batted about, contributing to what I call the wicked inconvenience of, not only invasive species, but their obverse, endangered species. Ecosystems are a type of wicked problem, and this fascinating discussion thread highlights the chaos of competing stakeholders’ end views used to create particular group dynamics."