Tinkering with Eden: A Natural History of Exotic Species in America by Kim Todd

 

Before it was published Kim Todd’s Tinkering with Eden, was thought to be in queue to enter the lineage of writers such as Stephan Jay Gould and David Quammen. The New York Times, William Kittredge, Discover Magazine and more heaped praises upon Todd’s story-telling chops. But this book never hit big. It met the unfortunate fate of being published in 2001 when the nation’s interests were otherwise focused.  Todd was never invited to Good Morning America; the Discovery Channel never developed a television series based on her narrative as they wisely did for Allen Weissman’s The World Without Us; Oprah never provided her with a success- guaranteed guest spot punctuated with a trademark introduction: “and now here’s Kiiim Toooooood.” All that should have happened.

 

While Todd is an esteemed writer, she’s since published Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis, her first book is not as well known as it should be. This series of stories tells the tale of ecosystems adulterated by purposeful and accidental exotic introductions. Todd’s illuminating narrative illustrates challenges as well as motives of explorers and pioneers seeking to improve a world they don’t understand. In some cases, they are just trying to find a way to stay alive.

 

These are not just tales of silkworms, European grapes, honey bees, and ring-neck pheasants. No, these are as much stories of the history of the people who settled our land and their motivations as they are a primer on short-sighted good intentions. Understanding the context of these exotic introductions by willful and inadvertent means is a salient part of American history. A history that changed the physical, biologic and cultural characteristics of our country.

 

Todd sometimes supposes an event or scene to portray historical events in story form. Her supposings are always explicit and entertaining. Can you imagine the Great Plains hopping with kangaroos in the place of bison? Todd’s yarn of Robert Auld’s late 1800 attempt to establish a wild population of Grey Kangaroos evokes questions about why we don’t see established exotics as foreign. Perhaps it is because we have so little understanding of our native species.

 

It’s doubtful that today’s American would have done any better had we changed places with the struggling pioneers. We wouldn’t have foreseen the results of exotic introductions given the scientific understanding in the 15th through 18th centuries. Now we are much wiser, right?