[MPWG] Electronic Public Discussion: Evaluating the Invasive Potential of Imported Plants

Bob Beyfuss rlb14 at cornell.edu
Wed Dec 20 11:20:17 CST 2006


Hi Robin
I sympathize with your efforts to deal with these nasty weeds! I suspect 
that your local deer population has grown to a level where all the native 
plants have been consumed. One definition of an invasive plant in a 
forested environment  is "any plant that deer don't eat". Plant scientists 
need to work with other Natural Resources Managers to consider issues like 
the impact of native critters such as white tailed deer on native plant 
populations. I sprayed some multiflora rose on my property with herbicide 
which killed it but it was soon replaced by poison ivy! I then spayed the 
poison ivy with herbicide and it died right where I had sprayed but new 
poison ivy plants sprung up many meters away. In the exact spot that 
formerly had multiflora rose followed by poison ivy a path of garlic 
mustard has appeared!  I am now wishing I had left the multiflora rose 
alone and just learned to live with it!

Farmers have been dealing with noxious weeds forever. American farmers will 
spend close to a billion dollars this year alone on herbicides. I will 
never say that noxious weeds are not a serious problem but my approach to 
the problem is not to pass laws banning plants but educating people on  a 
grass roots level. Think global but act local is an overused expression but 
quite applicable in this situation I think.

The town I live in in rural upstate NY is typical of many towns in America. 
We have 60 miles of town road. At a leisurely stroll of 2 miles per hour, 
one single highway department employee can walk the entire town's roads in 
30 hours. If that one person is trained to recognize noxious weeds and is 
licensed to kill them (i.e. a certified pesticide applicator) by flaming or 
some other means and I surely would not rule out applying herbicides, think 
of the impact that could have in preventing these roadside weeds from 
getting into the surrounding forest. How much would it cost to train and 
hire that part time employee? For his or her training plus the the week or 
two weeks of time it would take to do this, maybe $1,000?  I calculated the 
cost of the salaries of a group of Natural Resource professionals who 
attended a recent Invasive Plant meeting and it came out to over $1,000 per 
hour.

I love the Everglades National Park in Florida. It is a very beautiful and 
special place. I have camped there for more than 30 years and over these 
years I have watched their efforts to deal with noxious weeds that have 
spread into the park. By utilizing a concerted effort and reintroducing 
natural events such as fire, they have been very successful in maintaining 
the ecosystem they have chosen to preserve. I think it makes sense to 
target specific areas for protection. The smaller the area, the more likely 
the chance of success.

Ideally landowners would be taught to recognize and deal with weeds on 
their own property but this is a formidable task. .

At 10:16 AM 12/20/2006, MoonBranch Botanicals wrote:
>All I know is that after 10 plus years of pulling, yanking, cutting out, 
>and becoming painfully entangled in privet, oriental bittersweet, and 
>multiflora rose I am ready to strangle the party that introduced them. I 
>can't speak for the rest of the world, but here these plants grow into an 
>impenetrable thicket allowing nothing else to grow. Maybe if someone could 
>find me a market for these plants that would help, but right now they're 
>in the way of the plants I am growing for income on my farm and I am tired 
>of spending long hours just to rid my place of these nuisance plants that 
>won't go away.
>
>Robin
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Bob Beyfuss
>Sent: Dec 19, 2006 5:40 PM
>To: Patricia_DeAngelis at fws.gov, native-plants at lists.plantconservation.org, 
>apwg at lists.plantconservation.org, mpwg at lists.plantconservation.org, 
>rwg at lists.plantconservation.org
>Subject: Re: [MPWG] Electronic Public Discussion: Evaluating the Invasive 
>Potential of Imported Plants
>
>The concept of plants in themselves being capable of being "invasive" is 
>silly. It is attributing human qualities (implying malice in this case) to 
>unthinking organisms. Plants live, grow, reproduce (some are very 
>efficient at this) and die. New or different plants do not displace 
>established existing plants in healthy, undisturbed  ecosystems. Plants do 
>not appear anywhere due to "spontaneous generation". They are brought in 
>by humans or animals. They may colonize or become naturalized in (neither 
>colonize nor naturalize  imply malice) areas less suited to so called 
>"native" species because human activity has allowed this to happen.
>
>I am offended at the concept that "exotic" plants are somehow inferior to 
>"native" plants. Especially since 90% of my diet and that of most of us is 
>derived from"exotic" plants. Demonizing "exotic" plants as "invasive 
>exotic" is inherently offensive .  Which term is less offensive to you 
>"Invasive exotic" or "opportunistic colonizer"? Now try to answer that 
>question if you happen to be from the Middle east (maybe Iraq), Asia or 
>Africa or Europe and you hear or read an American talking about "invasive 
>exotic species". I am sure the people in the middle east or anywhere else 
>in the world must enjoy reading about our efforts to "combat" (another 
>wonderful term)  "invasive, exotic species".
>
>Personally I like the term "noxious weed" in which a weed is defined as 
>"an unwanted plant". By this definition a "volunteer" (i.e. 
>unplanted)  soybean plant growing in a corn field is a weed.  A "noxious 
>weed" is a particularly undesirable weed. Why do we have to invent new 
>terms that are as offensive as "exotic invasive" or even worse "alien, 
>invasive"?
>
>What I find even more troubling is the knee jerk reaction to their 
>presence. Lets just kill all the bad plants we don't like anymore and 
>everything will be fine. First we gather all their names up and put them 
>on a list. Target these for extermination. Next we will make up more lists 
>of plants that "might" be "invasive" in the future and ban them too. Here 
>in NY State we already have county executives issuing "executive decrees" 
>banning the use of any but "native" species in any future plantings on 
>county property. How dare they do this? Yet, this is a logical extension 
>of the current polices we are formulating. Why should we be denied 
>daffodils, daylillies, tulips or apple trees or Kentucky bluegrass 
>(another exotic import) because someone has decided that they are evil?
>
>In the long run, and I must emphasize looking at the long run or the big 
>picture, every single environment on this planet will ultimately determine 
>what plant and animal species survives there, not some bureaucrat in 
>Washington with a pen making up lists of good versus bad plants based on 
>his or her opinion. This process is called natural selection and it is 
>constant. Black locust is OK in PA because it is "native" but bad in NY 
>because it is exotic? This is crazy. The same species of Magnolias growing 
>in China are identical to some of those growing here. At one time there 
>was one continent so what exactly is "native" and why are "native" plants 
>superior to Non native? Are "native people, i.e. blue blooded Americans 
>inherently superior to immigrants because they were born here? How long 
>must one be here to be considered a "native"?
>
>Global warming will have a far more profound effect on plant species and 
>their distribution than some group of people spraying herbicides on plants 
>they don't like.
>
>An interesting research project along that line might be to study exactly 
>how plants are distributed and become established within any given 
>community.  While highly paid administrators are forming invasive plant 
>councils, attending countless meetings and making regulations, the local 
>highway department employee (@ $10 per hour) is transplanting garlic 
>mustard and Japanese knotweed every time they move the Grade-all machine 
>from one place to another. The people picking up garbage along the highway 
>are also picking up weed seeds and moving them down the road. All the 
>campers, mountain bikers, hikers, 4 wheelers, skiers, and other outdoor 
>recreationist constantly introduce exotic stuff into the environment. 
>Should we pass regulations banning these activities? No, it is much easier 
>to blame the plants for the problems and spray them with herbicides. Or is it?
>
>I recently spoke with the local Executive Director of the Nature 
>Conservancy for the Catskill Mountain region and he estimated that he 
>could easily spend 90% or more of their total annual operating budget 
>trying to eradicate only garlic mustard and only from roadsides in this 
>region and the net result would be that it would be required to do this 
>every year indefinitely with no chance of eradication at all. Is this a 
>good use of our limited resources? Good organizations like Ohio's Rural 
>Action Network are forced to rescue plants from proposed new highways 
>which soon will have their shoulders colonized by "exotic, invasive 
>plants". So, should we ban the building of new highways or prohibit 
>logging or timber harvest because of the inevitable consequences? Maybe we 
>should ban all imports of all exotic plants or better yet prohibit 
>cultivation of all but native plants! Or do we proceed as carefully as 
>possible with these projects and realize that there will surely be 
>unwanted consequences as a result?.
>
>Most of the plants now considered as evil, invasive exotic species were 
>introduced for some very good reasons and many of them are still great 
>choices for many situations. If not for Norway maple there would be no 
>street trees in some stressed locations. Like the soybean plant in the 
>cornfield, one situation's weed is another situations wildflower.  Black 
>locust is a wonderful alternative to CCA pressure treated wood, many, many 
>species of songbirds feast on the berries of the exotic honeysuckles, 
>Autumn and Russian olive, bittersweet, barberry, multiflora rose, and on 
>and on.
>
>I don't like the idea of banning books, banning plants or banning anything 
>because it is politically correct. All this talk about "combating invasive 
>exotics"  and the connotations of this language makes me very nervous. We 
>are already engaged in far too many wars for our own good and for the good 
>of our planet.
>
>Thanks for reading.
>Bob Beyfuss
>
>At 11:20 AM 12/13/2006, Patricia_DeAngelis at fws.gov wrote:
>
>>Excuse the cross-postings but it looks like there is something in this 
>>for everyone!
>>
>>This discussion is already underway!  A summary of the purpose and how 
>>you can participate is below.  To see the full notice, see: 
>>http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20061800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2006/E6-18768.htm 
>>
>>
>>- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
>>- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>>
>>SUMMARY: We are advising the public that the Animal and Plant Health
>>Inspection Service (APHIS) is hosting an electronic public discussion
>>on methods that can be used to evaluate the potential of imported
>>plants to become invasive species if they are introduced into the
>>United States. Any interested person can register for the electronic
>>discussion, which will allow participants to upload files and interact
>>with other participants and with APHIS staff.
>>
>>DATES: The electronic public discussion will be held from November 27,
>>2006 to January 26, 2007.
>>
>>FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Polly Lehtonen, Senior Staff
>>Officer, Commodity Import Analysis and Operations, PPQ, APHIS, 4700
>>River Road Unit 133, Riverdale, MD 20737-1236; (301) 734-8758.
>>
>>QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION: We would like participants in the
>>electronic discussion to specifically address the following six questions,
>>although general comments on the issue of evaluating invasiveness will
>>be accepted as well.
>>    1. What criteria, other than whether the plant has a history of
>>invasiveness elsewhere, are most useful to determine the invasiveness
>>of a plant introduced into the United States for the first time?
>>    2. When there is little or no existing scientific literature or
>>other information describing the invasiveness of a plant species, how
>>much should we extrapolate from information on congeners (other species
>>within the same genus)?
>>    3. What specific scientific experiments should be conducted to best
>>evaluate a plant's invasive potential? Should these experiments be
>>conducted in a foreign area, in the United States, or both?
>>    4. How should the results of such experiments be interpreted?
>>Specifically, what results should be interpreted as providing
>>conclusive information for a regulatory decision?
>>    5. If field trials are necessary to determine the invasive
>>potential of a plant, under what conditions should the research be
>>conducted to prevent the escape of the plant into the environment?
>>    6. What models or techniques are being used by the nursery
>>industry, weed scientists, seed companies, botanical gardens, and
>>others to screen plants that have not yet been widely introduced into
>>the United States for invasiveness? What species have been rejected by
>>these evaluators as a result of the use of these evaluation methods?
>>
>>ACCESSING THE ELECTRONIC DISCUSSION:
>>    While anyone can access the discussion and read the comments,
>>registration is required in order to participate in the discussion. You
>>will be asked to register at the time you post your comment.  Participants
>>will be required to enter their name and e-mail address. Affiliation and
>>mailing address are optional. Only the participant names will be publicly 
>>displayed.
>>
>>The discussion will be accessible through a link on Plant Protection and
>>Quarantine's Web page for the nursery stock revision, 
>><http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/leaving.cgi?from=leavingFR.html&log=linklog&to=http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ppq/Q37/revision.html>http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ppq/Q37/revision.html.
>>
>>_______________________________________________
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>>http://lists.plantconservation.org/mailman/listinfo/mpwg_lists.plantconservation.org 
>>
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>>
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>>Conservation Alliance.
>
>
>
>
>Robin Alton Suggs
>MoonBranch Botanicals
>5294 Yellow Creek Road
>Robbinsville, North Carolina 28771
>USA
>
>Telephone: 828.479.2788
>moonbranch at earthlink.net
>www.moonbranch.com
>
>Member:
>American Herbalist Guild
>Co-op America
>Green Products Alliance
>National Network of Forest Practitioners
>North Carolina Consortium on Natural Medicines
>North Carolina Goodness Grows/NCDA&CS
>North Carolina Natural Products Association
>Southwestern North Carolina RC&D Council
>United Plant Savers
>
>"We have no choice but to respect that which sustains us."
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