Does John Kass really need someone to explain the purpose of the Endangered Species Act to him (“Out west, flies can flit in the face of hospital plan,” Main news, June 25)? The ESA is not for the sole purpose of protecting cuddly creatures like cougars and bears. It is intended to protect all creatures–even annoying ones–that are threatened by the sprawl of mankind.
Insects are inarguably among the most diverse and interesting (and economically important) classes of organisms, and they deserve habitat just as much as cougars, bears and John Kass.
We could go on at length about flowers that require specific pollinators for reproductive purposes, and about how the Delhi Sands Flower-loving Fly has formed a biological relationship with the plants that it pollinates. But John Kass needs to take an ecology class anyway, and he can learn about pollination ecology there.
Conservation biologists are tired of folks like Kass, who use their power with the printed word to perpetuate misinformation and outdated attitudes about the complexity of ecosystems and their function.
