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Comment by gandalfgreybeer | Hacker News Reader

Tangentially related. there’s a forest in the Philippines that is hectares of land where only a single species of non-native tree was planted [1]. Go there and you won’t hear any birds or wildlife. It’s spooky. It’s partially because the birds avoid it since they’re not familiar with it and even the insects that they might eat don’t like the tree so they all avoid it.

1. https://iamtravelinglight.com/2012/10/09/the-dark-side-of-bo...

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That may be as much about it being a monoculture of giant trees that don't have particularly interesting fruit for wildlife.

Plant a monoculture of non-native trees with attractive fruit and you'll get a ton of opportunistic wildlife.

Plant a mixed forest of non-native trees with a variety of fruit and habitats and you'll get a lot more wildlife.

Of course in areas that have badly depleted ecologies in the first place, planting native will be most likely to provide niches to the wildlife that is around, and the article is generally great advice. But it's too easy to forget that over time the ranges of species spreads significantly via seed dispersal (which can mean jumps of hundreds or even thousands of miles via the guts of birds).

"Native" for the US very specifically means "existed when western european settlers arrived and cataloged the local fauna".

maybethis also means that "last time when ecosystem looks good"

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