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Giant hogweed is a large flowering perennial imported from Asia that can cause skin irritations.
© Jan Samanek
Introducing Invasives
In science-speak, invasive species are defined as fast-spreading, non-native, human-introduced plants and animals that crowd out native species, causing harm to the environment or human health.
But sometimes it’s easier to describe invasives by the personal impact they have — or might have — on all of us.
Picture New York City, including Central Park, with only half its trees. Imagine your favorite wetland teaming with hummingbirds, crickets, and croaking frogs silenced by the complete domination of one type of plant. Visualize the disappearance of native fish, shrimp and other creatures from your preferred fishing hole in New York, victim of the suffocating spread of exotic algae or mussels imported from Asia or Europe. Think of native birds like bluebirds and red-headed woodpeckers pushed out of their nests by more dominant species like starlings and mute swans (alas, both imported from Europe).
However you choose to think of them, scientists agree invasives are appearing around the world, including in New York, at an unprecedented rate and scale, menacing our ecosystems, protected areas, working forests, agriculture, food supply, industry, and infrastructure.
How real is this threat to New York? Consider that our entire state park system, recognized in 2004 as the number one state park system in the country, is at risk today.
Equally important is the substantial cost associated with invasives, estimated to exceed $120 billion in the United States, according to a Cornell University study. The fight against the Asian longhorned beetle in New York alone has already cost $150 million dollars in the last seven years.
Fortunately, we know what needs to be done to combat invasive plants and animals. The solution starts with taking effective steps to establish prevention, early detection, rapid response, control, and education programs. The truth is we can manage the spread of mile-a-minute vine on Long Island with efforts like the Weed Watchers Volunteer Program. Zebra mussels and carp can be kept from invading Adirondack waterways through the park’s Aquatic Nuisance Species Management Plan. And, if we can come up with the necessary funding, the Asian longhorned beetle can be eradicated from New York City, New Jersey, and Long Island with the well thought out plans that already exist. The solutions vary, but they are real, like the promising biological control program for purple loosestrife currently underway in central New York. Horticultural groups are already proving powerful allies in helping identify native alternatives to common invasive species.
As with climate change, biodiversity loss and energy use, the good news is that we know how to address what appears to be an insurmountable challenge. That’s why The Nature Conservancy will continue to work across New York, with elected officials in Washington and Albany, partner organizations, and the public to establish a fully funded, coordinated, and comprehensive defense system against the invasive species waiting at our border.
We hope this issue of Nature New York will begin to put invasives on everyone’s radar screens.
Henry Tepper
New York State Director
The Nature Conservancy
Spring 2007
<< Back to Nature New York Spring/Summer 2007
Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Jan Samanek (Giant Hogweed); Photo © The Nature Conservancy (Henry Tepper)
