PESTS!

First, If you're working on your kiwi accent, pronounce it "pist", not pest. "Bat" becomes "bet", bet becomes "bit", and I think "bit" might become "but", but don't quote me on that.

Second, if you want to get an automated email whenever there's a new post, send one of us a message and we'll add your email to the list. Haven't found an easier way of doing it yet.

Check out this massive aloe plant:

Kiwi birds may or may not be native to New Zealand. Kiwis as a nationality certainly aren't native, and kiwifruit aren't native either. In fact, most of what's in New Zealand wasn't in New Zealand 1000 years ago. It was the Maori who first started introducing new species. Kumara, for example, is still a very popular sweet-potato-esque food that was brought onto the land very early on. I'm not sure if any species introduced way back then have become weeds/pests, but they did hunt the moa, a bird bigger than an ostrich, to extinction. By the time white people arrived, the Maori had already cleared (slash and burn, baby) 45% of the forests. Captain Cook can be blamed for the wild pigs, but the Brits and their contemporaries took it a step further, bringing with them, intentionally or inadvertently: red deer, argentine ants, hedgehogs, goats, ferrets, possums (overrepresented in roadkill), horses (they excaped!), rats, wasps, and weasels, among others. The only mammals before the Maori were bats, seals, dolphins, and whales. Without predators, birds like kiwis didn't need wings.

As for native flora, this included many ferns, palms, the massive Kauri trees, relatives of cedar, and a whole bunch of weird stuff I'd never heard of. Gorse is NZ's version of Broom, but pricklier. Lots of blackberry too. Conifers like Douglas fir and pine were brought in, but only to log (they mature at least twice, or even three times as fast as BC's trees, on average). So the country is in an awkward position. Famed for its beauty, yet nothing is as it was, or very little anyways. Remaining uninvaded stands of forest are protected (and very noticeably different than the average bit of bush). Farmland abounds. The north island had presented us with so many pastures that potential hammock sites were few and far between (but Google Maps, satellite view certainly helps).

Does BC have invasive species? Aside from broom and a few garden weeds, none spring to mind and I can't think of a single animal that wasn't always there. Deforestation in BC is of course a huge threat and biodiversity levels will probably never recover, but at least it could potentially regain balance in the long run. The Department of Conservation really has its work cut out for it, managing (i.e. trapping, poisoning) pests, let alone taking care of all its outdoor recreation responsibilities.

-Dan