Many talk of other nations taking our jobs and our businesses from the US.
Because I have a huge respect and longing for nature, compiled with the fact I work directly with it I am becoming increasingly alarmed at what else is being taken from us.
Trees.

It is very hard to go back and decipher what is truly indigenous to our region and what is not.
What has established over several hundreds of years I guess is safe to call it indigenous.

Through the imports of other nations there as been many evasive plants and worse insects that carry a disease or blight that our trees have no defence against.
(like the Native American Indians, when introduced to small pox - no immunity = devastation)

- The chestnut blight has all but eradicated the chestnut tree. One of the best resourceful trees there have been.
This moved very quickly because it can be spread by birds.

- The Dutch elm disease. Each year it kills patches of elm trees. (makes it's rounds)


- The recent emerald ash bore. This is really sad. The ash tree makes up the biggest portion of our North American Forest.
It is spread mainly by us. Through logging and distributing firewood. (help link)

Today I read 01/06/07
- An Asian butterfly invasion.
It ravages the leaves of young citrus trees. It is now in the Western hemisphere.

Living by the great lakes, I could go further into the many species of aquatic life that has infected the largest source of fresh water in the world.

The American Phytopathological Society