Time To Bomb Endangered Species?

A study on US military bases in Germany shows one effective way to improve biodiversity is to bomb the heck out of habitat. A report on news@nature.com ("The Best in Science Journalism") tells why:

Military exercises are boosting biodiversity, according to a study of land used for US training manoeuvres in Germany. Such land has more endangered species than nearby national parks.

The land is uncultivated, but also churned up by tank tracks and explosions. This creates habitat both for species that prefer pristine lands and those that require disturbed ground, explains ecologist Steven Warren of Colorado State University in Ft. Collins.

Military land can host more species than agricultural land, Warren told a meeting of the Ecological Society of America in Montreal. What's more, its biodiversity can also exceed that of natural parks, where species that need disturbance cannot get a foothold.

Working with Reiner Buttner of the Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology in Hemhofen, Germany, Warren found natterjack toads breeding in tank track ruts, and documented that species count and biodiversity in former Soviet training camps around Berlin have dropped since German unification.

This is just more evidence of the cluelessness of environmentalists who think of they can manage the enviroment simply by setting man apart from it. The desire to ban humans from the land, the urge to depopulate, de-road and tear down dams does not take into account the natural ecology of the planet. Man has been a part of the ecosystem for tens of thousands of years. We've turned dirt, set fires, dammed streams, cut forests and built roads the entire time we've been here, and nature has been with us all the time.

We're all part of God's plan ... but environmentalists seem to think they have a better plan.