In chapter 6 of her book, Marris does something similar to what she did in chapters 1 and 2. As she has presented new ways of looking at nature as something that can coexist with humanity, in the later chapters of Rambunctious Garden she presents her case against the long held negative prejudice of invasive species and the exotics and a case for breaking away from such prejudice. That some invasive species can actually flourish and help the native species. She reminds the readers that the cause of interrupted and destroyed ecosystems is usually not the invasive species but humans. She says, “Ultimately, the enemy is not exotics; the enemy is us (98).
There is no doubt that when some new species are introduced to a new place, they might be detrimental to others living in the same parts of the same ecosystem. For example, the brown tree snake introduced on Stephens Island killed off “ten of twelve native forest-dwelling birds”. And consequently, the extinction of the native species negatively affected and has forever changed the dynamics of the island’s fruit trees. As demonstrated, Marris does not deny that movement of species at times have detrimental results on the area.
On the other side of the argument, nonnative species might help native species flourish. They might also “create more diversity in the future(109)” and support rare natives. For example, exotic plants with special qualities such as being able to suck metal out of soil found in Chinese brake fern can be intentionally placed with the purpose of cleaning the soil. Marris even goes to claim that maybe “the despised invaders of today may well be the keystone species of the future’s ecosystems, if we give them the space to adapt and don’t rush in and tear them out (109).”
The “exotic-dominated ecosystems” are what Marris calls novel ecosystems. It is a new approach to embracing invasive species instead of rejecting them. One example she gives of a flourishing novel ecosystem is the “mango forest”. Long time ago, mangoes were planted in a new place and they have grown and flourished bearing much fruit. Not only are they growing, they are thriving with other species in a “healthy ecosystem” (115). There are mosquitoes as well as trumpet tree, strawberry guava and rose apples from around the globe in Asia and even a white owl as well as pigs. Mangoes have thrived in a new environment. This new approach, Marris says, “can also mean ecosystem services, increased diversity, and brand-new species (122).”
In chapter 6, when Marris poses the question of why we despise and attack new species so much, whether it’s because we truly fear the extinction of native species or just fear any change in the ecosystem itself, it is something worth pondering about. As much as I was convicted to move on from the older and therefore inaffective view of nature in the beginning of the book to the more appropriate and affective perspective of nature, I am convinced that it’s important to let go of our prejudices on exotics and invasive species and make ourselves open to new approaches.
