permaculture

["Bart Anderson" <bart@cwo.com>]

I feel ambivalent about the ideas on invasives put forward by
Claude William Genest, Toby Huff and others.  

On the one hand, I agree with many of the criticisms of the 
standard orthodoxy on invasives.

The weak point is that the criticism is not integrated into
a scientific structure.  How do these ideas fit into the
current understanding of ecology?  What are the points of
agreement and disagreemnt with specific theories?  What
research is relevant?

Toby has frequently called for scientific trials of 
permaculture techniques.  I think the scientific approach
is essential as one goes beyond the level of garden and 
farm.  Informal observation is not adqueate to deal with
the huge areas and long time scales over which ecological
change takes place.

Bart Anderson