Review: Unnatural Landscapes: Tracking Invasive Species by Ceiridwen Terrill

Abstract

Review: Unnatural Landscapes: Tracking Invasive Species By Ceiridwen Terrill Reviewed by Lochlanina Tobey Hood College, Frederick, MD Ceiridwen Terrill. Unnatural Landscapes: Tracking Invasive Species, Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2007. 240 pp. ISBN: 0-8165-2523-4. US $17.95. Soft cover, acid-free paper, black and white illustrations, indexed. The domesticated cat has gone feral and threatens the delicate ecological balance of the Midriff Islands in the Sea of Cortez. It is one of many invasive exotic species set loose by humanity. We humans are like Pandora with a box full of organisms we simply cannot seem to resist unleashing on unprepared natural habitats. In an age of global commerce the introduction of exotic life forms occurs with a rapidity that the environment is unable to absorb and the precarious balances tend toward the extinction of endemic populations. With compassionate clarity and amazingly unfailing optimism, Ceiridwen Terrill recounts her experiences with the native and invasive species of four selected island ecosystems in a book that itself is a delicate balance somewhere between an action adventure story, a poetic narrative, and a lively scientific field journal. Her goal, which she accomplishes rather well, is to educate her reader. The educated human, aware of our culpability in this ecological damage, is less likely to perpetuate the mistakes that lead to landscapes dominated by bioinvasives. There is a straight-forwardness about Terrill's writing style, which disarms the reader. Perhaps it is because she does not wail and scream about unfairness; she simply tells us what she saw, what has happened to the native species, what is taking their place, and what is, or is not, being done about it. In revealing her experiences it is almost as though Terrill has created a documentary film, rather than written a book; the readers feel they might be standing beside her watching the scene in real time. Interspersed with the details of her journey (often by kayak) are conversations with scientists, naturalists, and other travelers, so that by the time she reaches the native White Pelicans on Anaho Island, or the 150 year-old alien Eucalyptus groves at Scorpion Canyon Campground on Santa Cruz Island, the reader reaches the scene with her, well-versed in the history, geography, and lore of the area, ready to hear about the flora