Mice and non-native grass gang up on native plant in West Marin

http://www.marinij.com/marinnews/ci_15855707

Summary – This article is about how a native plant on the sand dunes of South Beach, Marin County, California, Tidestrom’s lupine, is being endangered by deer mice and European beach grass. Settlers brought the European beach grass to stabilize the dunes, but since this is opposite of what the dunes are supposed to do, the lupine is suffering. The beach grass gives protection to the deer mice from raptors overhead, which allows the mouse population to grow, and they, in turn, are feeding on the lupine. This problem has been brought to the attention of seashore officials, and this fall they will begin to remove some of the beach grass. This will help not only they lupine, but other endangered plants as well.

Opinion – I think this finding is really important, if you think about it on a larger scale. It just shows how humans try to fix everything to make it better for them, without thinking about the consequences, which can change the whole ecosystem. This kind of thing is happening all over the world, with many species of plants and animals becoming endangered and even extinct. Another example of this is global warming, which is happening to the whole Earth. I think it’s good that they will start to remove some of the beach grass, and I think humans all over the world should start trying to fix the problems that our predecessors created.