Healthier Ecosystems
Invasive Species
As co-chair of the National Invasive Species Council with the Agriculture and Commerce Departments, the Interior Department has developed shared goals, strategies, and performance measures to focus on prevention, early detection, and rapid response and control and management. In addition, the non-federal Invasive Species Advisory Committee, a 32-member committee, provides advice to the Secretary and other co-chairs on policy, budget, and management priorities for invasive species action.
As part of its role in reducing the spread of invasive species, the Department of the Interior is overseeing the construction of the $6.2 million Invasive Species Control Facility at the University of Florida 's Ft. Lauderdale Research and Education Center . The Invasive Species Council has also played a key role in coordinating the Federal government's response to this national problem. USDA is working with states to successfully implement a $10 million project to slow the spread of the European gypsy moth by a rate of 50 percent across the East. USDA also has worked with Russia to prevent the introduction of Asian gypsy moths into the United Stat e s by monitoring North American-bound cargo ships in Russian ports to see if they harbor gypsy egg moth masses.
The nine operational National Park Service Exotic Plant Management Teams (EPMTs) continued to make substantial gains in the control of harmful invasive plants on park lands. During the lst and 2nd quarter of FY 2003 the EPMTs inventoried, monitored, and treated over 100 high-priority invasive species on 412,922 acres of park land.
The National Invasive Species Council is increasing coordination and collaboration among all the Federal agencies to effectively deal with a host of aquatic and terrestrial invasive species threatening the Nation.
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