dennis

Please use this thread as a discussion into the proper disposal of aquatic plants. My intention is to use this as a way of learning to protect our environment and ultimately to protect our freedom to grow and exchange interesting plants. To often we are faced with plants being black listed in some state or country. Frequently we hear of fish and plants that escaped into the wild and now are chocking out native species, changing dynamics and in some cases destroying natural ecosystems. Often the fault is the result of hobbyist irresponsibility but more often it is simply, I believe, a lack of education as to how we were the cause of a problem and a lack of tools to prevent it.

Following those ideas, let's use this thread to teach ourselves and to educate others. What are the techniques and steps we should take? As a starting point (but certainly not limited to) please consider the following questions:

• How do we prevent our hobby from escaping into the natural environment?
• How do we be responsible hobbyists?
• What techniques are sufficient to destroy unwanted plants and trimmings?
• What about water change water? Is running the hose to the garden really OK?
• How can we encourage and educate hobbyists and LFS/plant suppliers in order to make sure this idea become common knowledge?
• How can we as dedicated and caring hobbyists educate new people, LFS and suppliers?
• Ultimately, I feel we need to make sure businesses don't feel like they will lose revenue (but will look better by being responsible) and the hobbyists won't feel like they cannot keep plants. The idea is to keep our freedom by ensuring that new situations do not arise and force heavier government regulation, state black-listing, etc. In that regard, this is a subject that is in all our best interest.

Thanks for your time. I look forward to a healthy and informative discussion. Please though, try to keep the thread somewhat to topic as it would be great to start with a single place to start assimilating this information.