[Greenbuilding] [BULK] Re: [BULK] Re: [BULK] Re: Compost issues

[Lawrence Lile]

>I've done some research on this, and it is clear that earthworms are
not native to North America--even before the ice age. They were first
introduced here in the 1700's.
 
This is a common myth, which I've submitted to Snopes.  It is true that
non-native species of earthworms were introduced by the colonists.  It
is also true that there were vast areas of the US without native
earthworms, mostly in the North or in deserts. It is also true that
earthworms are changing those non-earthworm forests.   However, there
were many native species of earthworms in most other areas.  Deserts are
a major exception, prairies and midwest or southern forests generally
had worms. The native worms are generally getting trounced by non-native
introductions, like everything else.  Here are a few links to scientific
papers on the impact of introduced species on native earthworms:

https://research.wsulibs.wsu.edu:8443/dspace/handle/2376/956

http://tinyurl.com/23f2zt

http://www.tard.state.tx.us/index.php?mode=Listing&rl_id=2459

googling on "native earthworms" will give you a hundred more papers
discussing the impact of introduced earthworms on native earthworm
species.  


Think this through: Earthworms are hundreds of millions of years old.
They almost certainly predate the breakup of Pangea.  If they can travel
a yard a year, they could wiggle round the planet in 35 million years,
and they've had ten times that to spread their kind. They literally
predate the Atlantic Ocean.  They should be found on any continent that
hasn't been scraped clean by glaciers, blasted by desert sun  or locked
up in permafrost.  


--Lawrence