Invasive Species in Landscapes: May 2008 Archives
With today's interest in sustainable materials and plants, bamboo has risen in popularity, both as a building material and as landscaping material. This "grass" is definitely a plant on "steroids!"
Controlling Bamboo tips are available on the website of ...
American Bamboo Society
THIS Landscaping Society provides a wide variety of information about growing and controlling bamboo, as well as source lists and frequently asked questions and events.Controlling Bamboo: While we really are in favor of planting bamboos, rather than eliminating them, we do need to tell people how to get rid of a bamboo when somebody has planted the wrong variety, or the right variety in the wrong place. One of the most common letters we receive starts out “My neighbor planted a bamboo, and now it is coming up all over my yard. I have sprayed it with (product name deleted) and it doesn’t work. What can I do?"
The first thing to remember is that there are many different species of bamboo. In general, however, one can divide bamboos into “Runners” and “Clumpers”. The Clumpers don’t invade. To remove a clumper, just dig it out (and transplant it.) Runners can be well-behaved in cold climates, but some kinds when in a warm climate, and given plenty of water, can become a serious problem. Don’t plant a runner in a small yard in a warm climate, unless you put a barrier* around it.
American Bamboo Society
www.americanbamboo.org
PIVOT's interactive graphics, maps and photos are designed to help users better understand the issues and visually track progress toward achieving habitat restoration goals in the 28 National Estuary Programs.
An interactive graphic shows how everyday human activities along the coast increase pressures on natural habitat and can impact the health of our estuaries in other ways as well.
Links are provided to information about watersheds, maps, and performance measures useful for reporting progress toward improving the health of coastal watersheds.
The National Estuary Program works with local communities to improve the health of our nation's estuaries. Community support and involvement is fundamental to the success of these efforts. Through an extensive stakeholder planning process, NEP communities develop comprehensive conservation and management plans, or CCMPs. These plans serve as documentation of the communities' environmental goals for their estuaries and watersheds as well as blueprints for achieving those goals. As this is a long-term process, keeping the community well informed and connected with plan activities and progress is critical to keeping the plan a vital, living process for the community.
Performance reporting is not only essential for garnering and maintaining community support, it is often mandated. Enabling legislation or other laws—federal or local—may require responsible agencies to report on what progress they are making toward established goals. For the National Estuary Program, several pieces of federal legislation weigh in on performance reporting.
28 National Estuary Programs
Each of the 28 National Estuary Programs was charged with developing and implementing a Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP) which establishes priorities for activities, research, and funding for the estuary. The CCMP serves as a blueprint to guide future decisions and actions and addresses a wide range of environmental protection issues including water quality, habitat, fish and wildlife, pathogens, land use, and introduced species to name a few. The CCMP is based on a scientific characterization of the estuary and is developed and approved by a broad-based coalition of stakeholders.
Threat to Freshwater Ecosystems
Invasive species are one of the largest threats to our terrestrial, coastal and freshwater ecosystems, as well as being a major global concern.
Invasive species can affect aquatic ecosystems directly or by affecting the land in ways that harm aquatic ecosystems.
Threat to Biodiversity
Invasive species represent the second leading cause of species extinction and loss of biodiversity in aquatic environments worldwide. They also result in considerable economic effects through direct economic losses and management/control costs, while dramatically altering ecosystems supporting commercial and recreational activities.
Effects on aquatic ecosystems result in decreased native populations, modified water tables, changes in run-off dynamics and fire frequency, among other alterations. These ecological changes in turn impact many recreational and commercial activities dependent on aquatic ecosystems. Common sources of aquatic invasive species introduction include ballast water, aquaculture escapes, and accidental and/or intentional introductions, among others.
Ballast Water Carries Invasive Species
A major concern is the
introduction of invasive species through ship ballast water carrying
viable organisms from one waterbody to another. All mainland coasts of
the United States - East, West, Gulf, and Great Lakes, as well as the
coastal waters of Alaska, Hawaii, and the Pacific Islands - have felt
the effects of successful aquatic species invasions.
Over two-thirds of
recent non-native species introductions in marine and coastal areas are
likely due to ship-borne vectors, and ballast water transport and
discharge is the most universal and ubiquitous of these.
EPA is working in conjunction with our Federal and State partners to address this source of aquatic invasive species both domestically and internationally.
Solutions For LandscapersWe don't think about how our purchasing habits affect natural systems. But heavy global traffic on the oceans directly affects the invasive species on both water and land. In the water, we are finding clams, water plants are hitching a ride.
These same ships bring containers that contain seeds and eggs for snakes, spiders, even parrots that escape their confines and invade areas with little or no natural deterrents such as wildlife that eats them for food, or bacteria that control their growth and reproduction.
A simple solution is to buy local, native plants whenever possible. Even tools and equipment bought locally or in the US is a move to reduce ocean traffic to a manageable level.
When international trade is essential, it is important to work with reputable distribution systems that have safeguards in place and have stringent control systems that are explained to you...and measured.
The ecological and societal benefits of river corridor and wetlands restoration are substantial:
Rivers transport water, sediment, and nutrients from the land to the sea, play an important role in building deltas and beaches, and regulate the salinity and fertility of estuaries and coastal zones. Rivers serve as corridors for migratory birds and fish, and provide habitat to many unique species of plants and animals, including federally endangered and threatened aquatic species. According to the 1985 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife -Associated Recreation (U.S. DOI, Fish and Wildlife Service, 1988), 38.4 million fishermen spent $17.8 billion for non-Great Lakes freshwater fishing in 1985, with 45 percent of reported anglers fishing in rivers and streams.
Wetlands provide food, protection from predators, and other vital habitat factors for many of the nation's fish and wildlife species, including endangered and threatened species. In addition, wetland ecotypes have economic value associated with recreational, commercial, and subsistence use of fish and wildlife resources and they remove pollutants from overland flows before they reach our lakes, rivers and bays.
Wetlands intercept storm runoff and release floodwaters gradually to downstream systems. When wetlands are converted to systems without water retention capacity, downstream flooding problems increase.
Learn more about restoration of wetlands:
EPA Wetlands, oceans & Watersheds
More than 6,500 nonindigenous species are now established in the United States, posing risks to native species, valued ecosystems, and human and wildlife health.
USGS provides the tools, technology, and information supporting efforts to prevent, contain, control, and manage invasive species nationwide.The current annual environmental, economic, and health-related costs of invasive species exceed those of all other natural disasters combined.
USGS plays an important role in Federal efforts to combat invasive species in natural and semi-natural areas through early detection and assessment of newly established invaders, monitoring of invading populations; improving understanding of the ecology of invaders and factors in the resistance of habitats to invasion; and development and testing of prevention, management, and control methods. USGS invasive species research encompasses all significant groups of invasive organisms in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in all regions of the United States.
Research components of the USGS Invasive Species Program include:
- Prevention
- Early Detection and Rapid Assessment of New Invaders
- Monitoring and Forecasting of Invasive Species
- Effects of Invasive Species
- Control and Management of Invasive Species
- Information Management
INVASIVE SPECIES MANAGEMENT RESOURCES
For a list of the most current Invasives program research projects, visit the USGS Invasive program's Highlighted Projects page.
The Invasive Species Information Node (ISIN) is a data management portal for invasive plants, animals, and pathogens in the United States and a thematic node of the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII). I
The Global Invasive Species Database,
now easier to use, grants access to quadruple the number of invasive
species than when the database began.
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS; http://www.usgs.gov) is a research arm of DOI, and USGS scientists conduct extensive, worldwide research on invasive species that provide a basis for regulating importation and interstate transport of animals in the U.S.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS; http://www.fws.gov), is responsible for fisheries management, regulations, law enforcement, and education. The mission of the FWS is to work with others to conserve, protect, and enhance fish, wildlife, and plants for the continued benefit of the American people.
For More Information, Contact:
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Division of Environmental Quality
Branch of Invasive Species
4401 N. Fairfax Drive, Suite 840
Arlington, VA 22203
(703) 358-2148
http://contaminants.fws.gov/Issues/InvasiveSpecies.cfm
U.S. Geological Survey
Florida Integrated Science Center
Gainesville Office
7920 N.W. 71st Street
Gainesville, FL 32653
(352) 378-8181
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
(800) 344-WILD (800-344-9453)
http://www.fws.gov
