Globalization... not just for big corporations anymore!

Jacqui

"MLF" wrote in message
...
FYI: From the New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper. We Lousisianians are
counting on you folks to take this to heart.

Michael Fermanis
New Orleans, Louisiana USA (Remove the POTATO to reply)
================================================== =========

PLACE INVADERS

By Bob Marshall
Outdoors editor
January 15, 2003

In a world economy where employment is never guaranteed, it's a good bet
biologist Mark McElroy has job security. He's the head of Louisiana's
task force on invasive species.

It may be the state's largest growth industry.

"We've got everything coming in: insects, plants, fish, mammals,
birds -- you name it," said McElroy, a veteran biologist for the state
Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. "Unfortunately it's never ending.
We have a real serious problem, and it's only getting worse."

America's greatest immigration crisis has nothing to do with humans,
biologists say. The nation's natural habitats are under assault, being
reshaped by a staggering list of nonnative species invading the country
by land, sea and air. Many of them find their new world not only
welcoming, but irresistible, bringing dramatic change to ecosystems and
crowding out native species -- even driving some into extinction. A
growing war to control invasive species and repair the damage to natural
resources and the economy already carries a national price tag of $137
billion annually.

And this might not surprise you: Louisiana is one of the fiercest
battlegrounds. Researchers say about 1,000 nonnative species have made a
home Louisiana.

"The state has just 4 percent of the nation's land area but ranks second
in invasive species, behind Florida," said Alysia Kravitz, director of
the Center for Bioenvironmental Research at Tulane and Xavier
universities. "It's very serious."

The long list of invaders -- from beautiful plants (water hyacinths,
Chinese tallow trees) to flashy fish (carp, Rio Grande cichlid) to
insatiable mammals (feral hogs) to deadly microbes (West Nile virus) --
has moved in and is taking over. The state is being clogged, trampled
and, in the two most notorious cases -- nutria and Formosan termites --
eaten.

"It's the biggest environmental threat not just to this country, but
globally," said Steve Williams, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service. "It's something everyone needs to take very, very seriously."


'One of the ground zeros'

Louisiana's scientific community certainly is.

"This is a problem that affects us in every way: our industry, our
recreation, our personal health. It affects our way of life, because
these species are taking over and changing habitats," McElroy said.

"The public is very familiar with some of the problems. Everyone knows
the nutria is eating our coastal marshes and threatening our fisheries
and our communities with flood damage. And most people are aware of the
Formosan termite problem that causes about $100 million worth of damage
each year, just in New Orleans.

"But the thing about this issue is that it's ongoing. How many people
have heard about cogon grass? That's a relatively new one, and it seems
like we get a new one every month."

And it doesn't even make the task force's list of most-troublesome
invasive species, which includes:

-- Hydrilla and water hyacinth. Two aquatic plants introduced to the
United States for ornamental value in fish ponds, they can take over
even deep, navigable waterways, displacing fish and wildlife and
preventing boat travel. The state spends about $2 million a year in a
failing control effort.

-- Chinese tallow trees. Brought here for their quick growth rate and
the radiant red leaves they display in the fall, the tallow takes over
any open space in local forests, pushing out pines and even hardwoods.
The forest industry spends millions trying to control it, and wildlife
pays a price in lost food and shelter.

-- Salvinia. The Brazilian water fern didn't arrive until about five
years ago, but already it has choked most of the freshwater swamps
surrounding New Orleans, as well as threatening some of the state's top
fishing waters, such as Toledo Bend Reservoir. It has no value to fish
and wildlife; in fact, some waterfowl biologists think it is one reason
for the recent decline of wintering waterfowl in the region. The state
hopes an imported beetle will curb its growth.

-- Australian spotted jellyfish. In the summer of 2000, it appeared
along coastal marshes in such massive clouds that its food-gathering
tentacles formed a barrier preventing shrimp and fish larvae from
entering the estuaries. Biologists say a larger invasion could have
serious economic consequences for fishers.

-- Nutria. This one you probably know about. The South American rodent
was well-loved as the backbone of the state's nation-leading fur
industry for 50 years. But when the fur market collapsed, there was no
trapping to control its numbers. Now its diet of marsh grasses is
contributing to the rapid rate of coastal erosion.

-- Formosan termites. A homeowner's nightmare, it arrived on ships in
the 1940s and began eating its way through the city. Difficult to detect
and, until recently, impossible to control with normal pesticides, it
costs the nation $1 billion annually, and New Orleans alone about $300
million.

-- Carp. This nonnative fish was imported from the Far East for
aquaculture and later used in the wild to control the growth of another
import: hydrilla. Now they're finding the Mississippi River drainage a
wonderful home and crowding out important commercial and sport species,
posing a threat to boaters. And they're moving south.

-- Feral hogs. Hunters released imported European boars, which mated
with escaped domestic livestock, and the result is a thriving population
of big eaters that cause severe damage to forest ecosystems. Feral hogs
out-compete deer and turkey for food, and destroy levees and other
water-control structures.

-- Asian tiger mosquito. Along with the Aedes aegypti, this bloodsucker
has been key in spreading the West Nile virus, which can be fatal to
humans.

-- Fire ants. Imported fire ants probably came in through Mobile, Ala.,
on ships from South America. Their bite stings, but that's not the half
of it. They spread rapidly, building huge mounds, and can destroy crops,
drainage and irrigation systems and even kill wildlife and livestock.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates annual fire ant damage at
about $1 billion nationally.

-- Zebra mussels. Native to Europe, zebra mussels were found in the
Great Lakes in 1988, apparently after hitching a ride on foreign
tankers. It wasn't a short visit. They quickly spread across the nation,
their colonies clogging industrial and water supply intakes in rivers
including the Mississippi, where it is a costly problem.

"Those are the species mentioned most by the task force members, but
there are new ones all the time," McElroy said. "Louisiana really is one
of the ground zeros for this thing."


Perfect climate for problems

It's all an accident of geography, timing and ignorance, say the men and
women heading Louisiana's response.

The state has a subtropical climate, which is hospitable to a large
number of nonnative organisms. And it has 40 percent of the nation's
wetlands, making it one of the planet's most productive habitat bases.

The kicker is the giant port at the mouth of the Mississippi River, a
sort of gatekeeper between the planet and rest of the North American
continent.

"We have the nation's busiest port system in terms of tonnage, and for
centuries that has been a conduit between the world and the rest of
North America," said Rich Campanella of the Center for Bioenvironmental
Research at Tulane and Xavier universities, and a member of the state's
task force. "Ships from every corner of the planet have been coming to
this port for centuries, and that is very conducive to the species being
accidentally or deliberately introduced and establishing themselves.

"The advent of the world economy, and the tremendous increase in
international travel for business and pleasure, has increased the rate
at which nonnative species are moved around the world."

The center points out that border crossings worldwide increased from 25
million to 635 million in the last half of the 20th century, a period
when exports rose from $311 billion to $5.4 billion.

"And human travel is one of the key pathways for species to move about
the globe," Campanella said.

For years, the state's principal response to the invasion was the
Wildlife and Fisheries' water hyacinth spraying program. The task force
signals a major change. Drawing members from state and federal agencies,
business and academia, its mission is to develop a comprehensive game
plan to address the problem. It was organized in response to a federal
program offering grants to states with approved plans.

"We will be developing a management plan that has several goals,"
McElroy said. "We'll need to identify and monitor the list of invasive
species, as well as the pathways they're using to come into the state.
And we need to come up with plans to control their spread and, where
possible, eradicate them."

A major component of the plan will be education.

"Most people just aren't aware of this issue, the dangers, and the role
they play in letting this species come into the country," McElroy said.


From good to bad

Not all nonnative species cause problems. Sugar cane was imported and
has been controlled as a valuable agricultural crop. Azaleas and crape
myrtle trees were brought here for their ornamental beauty and cause no
problems for wild environments. And the nutria once was a hero. But
alien species earn the pejorative "invasive" when they break the bounds
of control and begin taking over habitats. Task force members say at
least 100 of Louisiana's 1,000 nonnative species are now invasive and
that the number is growing.

The problem is the human vectors for such species -- boaters, pet
owners, tropical fish enthusiasts and gardeners -- seldom understand the
risk until it is too late.

"Invasive species have three things in common," said task force member
Maryland O'Leary, a biologist at Louisiana State University Sea Grant.
"They have a superior ability to gain nutrition from the habitat, an
ability that is superior to native species. The zebra mussel has a gill
system which allows them to get much more nourishment from the habitat
than native mussels.

"Invasives have an ability to reproduce in great numbers, rapidly and in
adverse conditions. Salvinia can spread across a pond or lagoon in a
matter of weeks. Hydrilla can reproduce from cuttings or from roots,
even roots that have been without water for months or years.

"And invasives have the ability to adjust and survive in environmental
extremes. Some tropical fish species do fine in our water until we have
severe cold, then they die off. Others, like the Rio Grande cichlid, can
handle the extremes. That fish basically has taken over in the drainage
canals around Lake Pontchartrain.

"So when you have a nonnative that has all three of those attributes and
it gets loose in our environment, you soon have a real problem. That's
why the task force believes education will be so important to
controlling these things. People need to understand the risks they are
taking with their own environment and, in some cases, their own health."

There are national and state regulations outlawing the importation of
many species, but they often are ignored. Sometimes, problem species are
just not covered.

Cogon grass is a prime example. It was released in the United States
when it entered the port at Mobile as packaging in shipping crates. But
it also was brought here intentionally by the U.S. Department of
Agriculture for use in preventing soil erosion.

It sounded like a good idea at the time, but cogon quickly went from
"introduced" to "invasive."

"That shows you the problem is not going to be easy to solve," McElroy
said. "In fact, it's doubtful we'll ever be able to totally eradicate
these species. What we'll be aiming to do is control their spread,
minimize their impact.

"But I think the key to all of this will be educating the public on the
danger. I'd like to see this so well-known that, eventually, no one
would think of emptying their fish tank in a bayou, or not cleaning
their boat trailer after fishing in a lake with salvinia.

"If we get to that point where the mere idea of taking that kind of
chance is unacceptable, we'll have a shot at controlling this."

. . . . . . .

Bob Marshall can be reached at or (504)
826-3539.

Original is at:
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpa...s-0/1042613722
266722.xml

they left out kudzu.
mad
--
"Keeping quiet in the first place means you don't
have to say 'I'm sorry' quite so often."
Steve Roberts

From: "Chris Tondreau"
Organization: Bell Sympatico
Newsgroups: rec.ponds
Date: Thu, 5 Jun 2003 12:24:50 -0400
Subject: PLACE INVADERS

Globalization... not just for big corporations anymore!

Jacqui

"MLF" wrote in message
...
FYI: From the New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper. We Lousisianians are
counting on you folks to take this to heart.

Michael Fermanis
New Orleans, Louisiana USA (Remove the POTATO to reply)
================================================== =========

PLACE INVADERS

By Bob Marshall
Outdoors editor
January 15, 2003

In a world economy where employment is never guaranteed, it's a good bet
biologist Mark McElroy has job security. He's the head of Louisiana's
task force on invasive species.

It may be the state's largest growth industry.

"We've got everything coming in: insects, plants, fish, mammals,
birds -- you name it," said McElroy, a veteran biologist for the state
Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. "Unfortunately it's never ending.
We have a real serious problem, and it's only getting worse."

America's greatest immigration crisis has nothing to do with humans,
biologists say. The nation's natural habitats are under assault, being
reshaped by a staggering list of nonnative species invading the country
by land, sea and air. Many of them find their new world not only
welcoming, but irresistible, bringing dramatic change to ecosystems and
crowding out native species -- even driving some into extinction. A
growing war to control invasive species and repair the damage to natural
resources and the economy already carries a national price tag of $137
billion annually.

And this might not surprise you: Louisiana is one of the fiercest
battlegrounds. Researchers say about 1,000 nonnative species have made a
home Louisiana.

"The state has just 4 percent of the nation's land area but ranks second
in invasive species, behind Florida," said Alysia Kravitz, director of
the Center for Bioenvironmental Research at Tulane and Xavier
universities. "It's very serious."

The long list of invaders -- from beautiful plants (water hyacinths,
Chinese tallow trees) to flashy fish (carp, Rio Grande cichlid) to
insatiable mammals (feral hogs) to deadly microbes (West Nile virus) --
has moved in and is taking over. The state is being clogged, trampled
and, in the two most notorious cases -- nutria and Formosan termites --
eaten.

"It's the biggest environmental threat not just to this country, but
globally," said Steve Williams, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service. "It's something everyone needs to take very, very seriously."


'One of the ground zeros'

Louisiana's scientific community certainly is.

"This is a problem that affects us in every way: our industry, our
recreation, our personal health. It affects our way of life, because
these species are taking over and changing habitats," McElroy said.

"The public is very familiar with some of the problems. Everyone knows
the nutria is eating our coastal marshes and threatening our fisheries
and our communities with flood damage. And most people are aware of the
Formosan termite problem that causes about $100 million worth of damage
each year, just in New Orleans.

"But the thing about this issue is that it's ongoing. How many people
have heard about cogon grass? That's a relatively new one, and it seems
like we get a new one every month."

And it doesn't even make the task force's list of most-troublesome
invasive species, which includes:

-- Hydrilla and water hyacinth. Two aquatic plants introduced to the
United States for ornamental value in fish ponds, they can take over
even deep, navigable waterways, displacing fish and wildlife and
preventing boat travel. The state spends about $2 million a year in a
failing control effort.

-- Chinese tallow trees. Brought here for their quick growth rate and
the radiant red leaves they display in the fall, the tallow takes over
any open space in local forests, pushing out pines and even hardwoods.
The forest industry spends millions trying to control it, and wildlife
pays a price in lost food and shelter.

-- Salvinia. The Brazilian water fern didn't arrive until about five
years ago, but already it has choked most of the freshwater swamps
surrounding New Orleans, as well as threatening some of the state's top
fishing waters, such as Toledo Bend Reservoir. It has no value to fish
and wildlife; in fact, some waterfowl biologists think it is one reason
for the recent decline of wintering waterfowl in the region. The state
hopes an imported beetle will curb its growth.

-- Australian spotted jellyfish. In the summer of 2000, it appeared
along coastal marshes in such massive clouds that its food-gathering
tentacles formed a barrier preventing shrimp and fish larvae from
entering the estuaries. Biologists say a larger invasion could have
serious economic consequences for fishers.

-- Nutria. This one you probably know about. The South American rodent
was well-loved as the backbone of the state's nation-leading fur
industry for 50 years. But when the fur market collapsed, there was no
trapping to control its numbers. Now its diet of marsh grasses is
contributing to the rapid rate of coastal erosion.

-- Formosan termites. A homeowner's nightmare, it arrived on ships in
the 1940s and began eating its way through the city. Difficult to detect
and, until recently, impossible to control with normal pesticides, it
costs the nation $1 billion annually, and New Orleans alone about $300
million.

-- Carp. This nonnative fish was imported from the Far East for
aquaculture and later used in the wild to control the growth of another
import: hydrilla. Now they're finding the Mississippi River drainage a
wonderful home and crowding out important commercial and sport species,
posing a threat to boaters. And they're moving south.

-- Feral hogs. Hunters released imported European boars, which mated
with escaped domestic livestock, and the result is a thriving population
of big eaters that cause severe damage to forest ecosystems. Feral hogs
out-compete deer and turkey for food, and destroy levees and other
water-control structures.

-- Asian tiger mosquito. Along with the Aedes aegypti, this bloodsucker
has been key in spreading the West Nile virus, which can be fatal to
humans.

-- Fire ants. Imported fire ants probably came in through Mobile, Ala.,
on ships from South America. Their bite stings, but that's not the half
of it. They spread rapidly, building huge mounds, and can destroy crops,
drainage and irrigation systems and even kill wildlife and livestock.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates annual fire ant damage at
about $1 billion nationally.

-- Zebra mussels. Native to Europe, zebra mussels were found in the
Great Lakes in 1988, apparently after hitching a ride on foreign
tankers. It wasn't a short visit. They quickly spread across the nation,
their colonies clogging industrial and water supply intakes in rivers
including the Mississippi, where it is a costly problem.

"Those are the species mentioned most by the task force members, but
there are new ones all the time," McElroy said. "Louisiana really is one
of the ground zeros for this thing."


Perfect climate for problems

It's all an accident of geography, timing and ignorance, say the men and
women heading Louisiana's response.

The state has a subtropical climate, which is hospitable to a large
number of nonnative organisms. And it has 40 percent of the nation's
wetlands, making it one of the planet's most productive habitat bases.

The kicker is the giant port at the mouth of the Mississippi River, a
sort of gatekeeper between the planet and rest of the North American
continent.

"We have the nation's busiest port system in terms of tonnage, and for
centuries that has been a conduit between the world and the rest of
North America," said Rich Campanella of the Center for Bioenvironmental
Research at Tulane and Xavier universities, and a member of the state's
task force. "Ships from every corner of the planet have been coming to
this port for centuries, and that is very conducive to the species being
accidentally or deliberately introduced and establishing themselves.

"The advent of the world economy, and the tremendous increase in
international travel for business and pleasure, has increased the rate
at which nonnative species are moved around the world."

The center points out that border crossings worldwide increased from 25
million to 635 million in the last half of the 20th century, a period
when exports rose from $311 billion to $5.4 billion.

"And human travel is one of the key pathways for species to move about
the globe," Campanella said.

For years, the state's principal response to the invasion was the
Wildlife and Fisheries' water hyacinth spraying program. The task force
signals a major change. Drawing members from state and federal agencies,
business and academia, its mission is to develop a comprehensive game
plan to address the problem. It was organized in response to a federal
program offering grants to states with approved plans.

"We will be developing a management plan that has several goals,"
McElroy said. "We'll need to identify and monitor the list of invasive
species, as well as the pathways they're using to come into the state.
And we need to come up with plans to control their spread and, where
possible, eradicate them."

A major component of the plan will be education.

"Most people just aren't aware of this issue, the dangers, and the role
they play in letting this species come into the country," McElroy said.


From good to bad

Not all nonnative species cause problems. Sugar cane was imported and
has been controlled as a valuable agricultural crop. Azaleas and crape
myrtle trees were brought here for their ornamental beauty and cause no
problems for wild environments. And the nutria once was a hero. But
alien species earn the pejorative "invasive" when they break the bounds
of control and begin taking over habitats. Task force members say at
least 100 of Louisiana's 1,000 nonnative species are now invasive and
that the number is growing.

The problem is the human vectors for such species -- boaters, pet
owners, tropical fish enthusiasts and gardeners -- seldom understand the
risk until it is too late.

"Invasive species have three things in common," said task force member
Maryland O'Leary, a biologist at Louisiana State University Sea Grant.
"They have a superior ability to gain nutrition from the habitat, an
ability that is superior to native species. The zebra mussel has a gill
system which allows them to get much more nourishment from the habitat
than native mussels.

"Invasives have an ability to reproduce in great numbers, rapidly and in
adverse conditions. Salvinia can spread across a pond or lagoon in a
matter of weeks. Hydrilla can reproduce from cuttings or from roots,
even roots that have been without water for months or years.

"And invasives have the ability to adjust and survive in environmental
extremes. Some tropical fish species do fine in our water until we have
severe cold, then they die off. Others, like the Rio Grande cichlid, can
handle the extremes. That fish basically has taken over in the drainage
canals around Lake Pontchartrain.

"So when you have a nonnative that has all three of those attributes and
it gets loose in our environment, you soon have a real problem. That's
why the task force believes education will be so important to
controlling these things. People need to understand the risks they are
taking with their own environment and, in some cases, their own health."

There are national and state regulations outlawing the importation of
many species, but they often are ignored. Sometimes, problem species are
just not covered.

Cogon grass is a prime example. It was released in the United States
when it entered the port at Mobile as packaging in shipping crates. But
it also was brought here intentionally by the U.S. Department of
Agriculture for use in preventing soil erosion.

It sounded like a good idea at the time, but cogon quickly went from
"introduced" to "invasive."

"That shows you the problem is not going to be easy to solve," McElroy
said. "In fact, it's doubtful we'll ever be able to totally eradicate
these species. What we'll be aiming to do is control their spread,
minimize their impact.

"But I think the key to all of this will be educating the public on the
danger. I'd like to see this so well-known that, eventually, no one
would think of emptying their fish tank in a bayou, or not cleaning
their boat trailer after fishing in a lake with salvinia.

"If we get to that point where the mere idea of taking that kind of
chance is unacceptable, we'll have a shot at controlling this."

. . . . . . .

Bob Marshall can be reached at or (504)
826-3539.

Original is at:
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpa...s-0/1042613722
266722.xml











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