Resources – Just Language in Ecology Education

Essential Readings

Resource	Summary	Source Type
Reo, N. J., & Ogden, L. A. (2018). Anishnaabe Aki: an indigenous perspective on the global threat of invasive species. Sustainability Science, 13(5), 1443-1452.	The multiple ways Anishnaabe people think about invasive species provide alternatives to native–non-native binaries that dominate much of the scientific discourse about invasive species.	journal article
Mastnak, T., Elyachar, J., & Boellstorff, T. (2014). Botanical decolonization: rethinking native plants. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 32(2), 363-380.	The authors argue that planting and displanting humans and plants are elements of the same multispecies colonial endeavor. In contrast to those who equate native plant advocates with antiimmigrant nativism, they see native plant advocacy as part of a broad process of botanical decolonization.	journal article
Warren, C. R. (2007). Perspectives on the alien ‘versus native’ species debate: a critique of concepts, language and practice. Progress in human geography, 31(4), 427-446	This paper reviews the key criticisms of the native/alien construct, xenophobic associations, disjunct between promotion of a multicultural human society and the persecution of `foreign’ species. They advocate for an alternative framework based on a `damage criterion’ rather than arbitrary biogeographical origins.	journal article

Mixed Media Projects & Presentations

Fink, L. (2020). “Unsettled Ecologies: Alienated Species, Indigenous Restoration, and U.S. Empire in a Time of Climate Chaos” YouTube. Oregon Humanities Center.
Future Ecologies Podcast (2021) Episode “Dama Drama” January 27.
Liou, J. (2022). The Invasion That Sustains Us: Himalyan Blackberries and Invasive and National Discourses in the Native Plant Conversation. YouTube. Washington Native Plant Society: South Sound Chapter. March 10.
Rethinking Invasive on Instagram
Williams, C. (2020). The “Invasive” Chinese Mitten Crab: Biological Socio-ecological Impact and Language of the “Other”
Yadrick, M. (2022). Just Language About “Invasive” Species. YouTube. Arbor Day Foundation: Pre-Recorded in advance of Partners in Community Forestry Conference.

Relevant Essays

Ana, O. S. (1999). Like an animal I was treated’: Anti-immigrant metaphor in US public discourse. Discourse & society, 10(2), 191-224.
Anderson, B. J. (2017). The Politics of Pests: Immigration and the Invasive Other. Social Research: An International Quarterly, 84(1), 728.
CBC Radio. (2018). ‘Every plant and animal is useful to us’: Indigenous professor re-thinking how we deal with invasive species’ – Interview with Nicholas Reo. April 22.
Crawford, A. (2018). Why we should rethink how we talk about ‘alien’species. Smithsonian Magazine.
Doiron, G. (2021). Invasive Plant Relations in a Global Pandemic: Caring for a “Problematic Pesto”. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 25148486211066109.
Essl, F., Dullinger, S., Genovesi, P., Hulme, P. E., Jeschke, J. M., Katsanevakis, S., … & Bacher, S. (2019). A conceptual framework for range-expanding species that track human-induced environmental change. BioScience, 69(11), 908-919.
Head, L. (2012). Decentring 1788: beyond biotic nativeness. Geographical Research, 50(2), 166-178.
Inglis, M. I. (2020). Wildlife ethics and practice: Why we need to change the way we talk about ‘invasive species’. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, 33(2), 299-313.
Liou, J. (2020). “Am I An Invasive Species?” High Country News. July 9.
Perrin, S. (2020). Aliens & Invaders & Exotics, Oh My: The Language of Invasive Biology. Ecology for the Masses. July 2.
Reo, N. J., Whyte, K., Ranco, D., Brandt, J., Blackmer, E., & Elliott, B. (2017). Invasive species, indigenous stewards, and vulnerability discourse. American Indian Quarterly, 41(3), 201-223.
Sax, D. F., Schlaepfer, M. A., & Olden, J. D. (2022). Valuing the contributions of non-native species to people and nature. Trends in Ecology & Evolution.
Shinozuka, J. N. (2013). Deadly perils: Japanese beetles and the pestilential immigrant, 1920s-1930s. American Quarterly, 65(4), 831-852.
Subramaniam, B. (2001). The aliens have landed! Reflections on the rhetoric of biological invasions. Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism, 2(1), 26-40.
Trigger, D., Mulcock, J., Gaynor, A., & Toussaint, Y. (2008). Ecological restoration, cultural preferences and the negotiation of ‘nativeness’ in Australia. Geoforum, 39(3), 1273-1283.
Simberloff, D. (2003). Confronting introduced species: a form of xenophobia? Biological invasions, 5(3), 179-192.
Warren, C. R. (2016). Alien and native Species. International Encyclopedia of Geography: People, the Earth, Environment and Technology, 1-8.
Zhang, Y., Majumdar, I., & Schelhas, J. (2010). Changes in woodland use from longleaf pine to loblolly pine. Sustainability, 2(9), 2734-2745.

Relevant Books

Kimmerer, R. (2013). Chapters “Skywoman Falling” and “In the Footsteps of Nanabozho: Becoming Indigenous to Place” in Braiding sweetgrass: Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and the teachings of plants. Milkweed editions.
Hoffert, B. (2022). Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains. Ecco Press.
Hogan, L. (1999). Power. WW Norton & Company. (mention of kudzu)
Leopold, A. (1989). Chapter “Axe in Hand” in A Sand County almanac, and sketches here and there. Oxford University Press, USA.
Martin, L. J. (2022). Chapter “Mood of Wild America” in Wild by Design: The Rise of Ecological Restoration. Harvard University Press.
Marris, E. (2013). Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Oladipo, J. (2011). “Porphyrin Rings” in Deming, A. H., & Savoy, L. E. (Eds.). Colors of Nature: Culture, Identity, and the Natural World. Milkweed Editions.
Orion, Tao (2015). Beyond the War on Invasive Species: A Permaculture Approach to Ecosystem Restoration. Chelsea Green Publishing.
Ozeki, R. (1999). My Year of Meats: A Novel. Penguin. (mention of kudzu)
Pearce, F. (2016). The New Wild: Why Invasive Species Will Be Nature’s Salvation. Beacon press.

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