Stephen Kessler | Ode to the coast and its lovely invasive species

Stephen Kessler | Ode to the coast and its lovely invasive species

Lately I’ve been walking a lot on West Cliff Drive where the ice plant is blooming, blanketing the bluffs with pink and yellow flowers and stabilizing the land against erosion, which I bet is why it was introduced in the first place, before anyone realized it was “invasive” and thus offensive to the native species. The politically correct yet somehow reactionary defense of native plants strikes me as uncomfortably akin to current grumblings abou…