The Aliens Among Us

September 1, 2017 By John E. Riutta in Newly Noted Books Tags: aliens, among, anthony, book, conservation, Ecology, invasive, News, species, us, yale

When I walk out on the bottom lands beneath my home in the hills of northwest Oregon, I am keen to take note of such troublesome invasive species as Nutria (or Copyu, Myocastor coypus), American Bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus), and Scotch Broom (Cytisus scoparius). However as I’m doing so, I’m passing by a number of other invasives without giving them so much as even a passing glance. The reason being that I don’t recognize them as such.

In his forthcoming Yale University Press book The Aliens Among Us; How Invasive Species Are Transforming the Planet_and Ourselves, Leslie Anthony takes up this non-recognition of invasives as well as a number of other aspects of how we think about and handle the myriad species not native to our respective home patches. I, for one at least, shall indeed be glad to learn more about all that I am not presently seeing, and how to better understand it once I do.

John E. Riutta

Founder and publisher of The Well-read Naturalist. Inveterate autodidact. Has repeatedly been found out standing in many fields. Plays well with otters.

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