Alien invasion: squirrels, hyacinths and new growth

I first heard of the battle of the grey vs red squirrels when I moved to England over ten years ago. For those of you that are not familiar with it, it tells the story of how grey squirrels, first brought to England from the US as curious pets in the 19th Century, made it into the English countryside and have since spread so that they now by far outnumber the native red squirrel. They are stronger and more adaptable and have taken over habitats once dominated by their red cousins. As a result they are resented in English popular culture, often sneered at as yet another American popular intrusion and in places it has gone so far that groups have been set up to kill them. Even young schoolchildren repeat the mantra of ‘reds are good, greys are bad’.

I think it is safe to say that most of us have a knee-jerk negative reaction when we hear about invasive species. Even the term (‘invasive’) is sinister. But perhaps we should question our motives and our reasons, for it turns out – surprise!- that aliens aren’t necessarily as bad as their reputation suggests. In the fascinating book The New Wild, environmental reporter Fred Pearce takes the reader on a journey through history and continents and challenges our thinking in terms of what is alien, what is native and why species settle and thrive in new habitats. Take the case of the water hyacinth in Lake Victoria. Since its introduction in the 1960s, it has wreaked havoc with the lake’s hydropower turbines and killed off the fishing industry. Attempts to eradicate it, using both mechanical and chemical methods, have been met with limited success. Then, in the late 1990s, it suddenly cleared up. Scientists believe El Niño- induced torrential and prolonged rains flushed out the lake and cleaned up pollution that had built up over years. The hyacinth loves oxygen-deprived fetid waters and decided to depart once the lake’s conditions improved. It has since re-established itself in the lake, because of the new build-up of toxins. The lesson here is that the hyacinth was a symptom of the underlying problem of environmental degradation. The new specie took advantage of the situation, but it did not cause it.

The parallels to the human universe, to today’s politics and feelings about immigration, are striking. Nationalism and patriotism are on the rise. What does it mean to be English, or American? Who is native? Why are cross-border movements a problem, and if they are for some – can we do something to fix it?  Like the water hyacinth in Lake Victoria, is our resentment of aliens a symptom of other, underlying problems? Fred Pearce also shows how foreign species often have enriched the original flora, like on Ascension Island where the British Navy turned the island from a barren piece of rock into lush landscapes. Do ‘aliens’ fill a void and bring new skills and a sense of re-birth or do they displace the locals and ruin their sense of identity?

Change is always difficult and humans mostly fear it. But the question we must ask ourselves is: Why not embrace it, manage it, and let new growth and hope spring from it? It is so much more enjoyable to embrace the inevitable, adapt and look forward. As long as we also clear up any underlying problems, of course.