Controlling Invasive Species

“We are living in a period … when the mingling of thousands of kinds of organisms from different parts of the world is setting up terrific dislocations in nature.”
—Charles Elton, 1958
Source: Elton, C. S. 1958. The Ecology of Invasions by Animals and Plants. Reprint, University of Chicago Press, 2000.

The economic and ecologic impact of invasive (exotic) species—plants, animals, and microbes that have not evolved in concert with an area’s native species—is a global problem. By some estimates, these species, which include tamarisk, Asiatic bittersweet, kudzu, West Nile virus, feral pigs and goats, hemlock woolly adelgid, zebra mussels, and Africanized bees, cost the U.S. economy $138 billion annually. In the case of national parks, exotic species are recognized as one of the most serious threats to the integrity of park natural systems, including rare native plants and animals, and are implicated in the decline of approximately 40% of the species listed as threatened and endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Today, exotic plants infest some 2.6 million acres (1.1 million ha) of national park lands, while 234 parks contain invasive animal species in need of management. Controlling exotic species is an urgent priority for the National Park Service, and the articles in this chapter describe some of the ways parks across the nation responded to this challenge in 2004, particularly invasive plants. These articles show that NPS Exotic Plant Management Teams and the creation of extensive partnerships among federal and state agencies, universities, and local citizen groups have emerged as hallmarks of successful control efforts. Protecting the parks from harmful exotic species is a daunting challenge, but certainly an essential part of sustaining our natural heritage and meeting the mission of the National Park Service. 

Since 2003 the NPS Exotic Plant Management Teams have attracted and spent more than $4 million and directed the equivalent of more than two years of work by volunteers to begin controlling the more than 2.6 million acres (1.1 million ha) in the National Park System that are infested with invasive plant species.

Controlling Invasive Species Introduction

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