>Date:    Fri, 4 Jun 1999 09:38:51 -0400
>From:    Kurt Auffenberg <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: pigeons and models
>
>The main thrust of my perhaps vitriolic attack was that more moola and
>emphasis should be placed on field work of an alpha-taxonomic nature at
>this point in our history.  The rest of our questions can wait awhile.  The
>next decade or two spell biologic disaster in the terrestrial Tropics of
>the World.  We need to get these critters (OK, plants too) in museums so
>future generations of enthusiasts can marvel as we have.

Kurt,

I'm a few days behind in my mail but I couldn't agree more with your
comments above.  What really gets to me is all these researchers junping on
every gravy train that passes by.  My latest beef is with all of the funds
wasted on zebra mussel research.  We have spent more $$$ on learning if
caged vs uncaged zebra mussel grow at the same rate or excrete more than
that those held in blah blah blah... than I ever hope or care to know.
NONE of it will make the slightest difference in ridding North America of
these pests.  We spend countless dollars on "research" on an organism that
will be around till Y3K while we watch out native fauna go down the tubes.
We need to document the fauna of the tropics where there is virtually no
primary water treatment and pollution runs rampant before that fauna is
wiped out before we even know what was there.  Oh, if I were king for a
day....


Kevin S. Cummings
Illinois Natural History Survey
607 E. Peabody Drive
Champaign, IL 61820
[log in to unmask]
http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu/cbd/collections/mollusk.html