Posted on 10/29/2004 5:14:37 PM PDT by farmfriend
Feds pay visit, launch invasive species attack
Officials take tour, visit Prineville 'threat assessment center' cite
October 28 - PRINEVILLE - The U.S. Forest Service chose the town of Prineville Thursday to unveil a national effort to prevent and control the growing threat of invasive species and non-native plants spreading quickly across the country.
The step is part of the president's Healthy Forests Initiative to restore forest and rangeland health and protect communities from wildland fire and supports his executive order promoting cooperative conservation.
"Millions of acres of public and private lands are at risk from non-native species," said Mark Rey, Department of Agriculture undersecretary for natural resources and environment. "Each year, the United States loses 1.7 million acres to the spread of these invasives, in addition to spending billions of dollars on control measures."
Prineville was picked for the announcement because it's the site of the Forest Service's new threat assessment center, slated to open early next year, which will develop user-friendly technology and cutting-edge research on invasive species.
"This national strategy will help to prevent, find and contain the spread while working to rehabilitate and restore ecosystems," Rey said.
It was the second Central Oregon visit in 16 days for Rey, who also joined other Bush administration officials at an event in the forest west of Bend to mark the 1-year anniversary of the Healthy Forests Restoration Act (www.bend.com/AR-18635).
On Thursday, Rey visited the Ochoco National forest to tour two sites in the Mill Creek drainage. One was the largest knapweed infestation site on the forest, while the other is being invaded by bark beetles.
The National Strategy and Implementation Plan for Invasive Species Management focuses on four key elements: preventing invasive species before they arrive; finding new infestations before they spread and become established; containing and reducing existing infestations; and rehabilitating and restoring native habitats and ecosystems.
The plan will use one of the new tools developed under the Healthy Forests Initiative - an early warning system to help land managers detect new invasives.
Title VI of the 2004 Healthy Forests Restoration Act called for the Forest Service to develop such a system to improve its detection and response abilities to ecological disturbances across the nation.
Darn, I thought this was about.......something else.
Like uh uh islamo-muslim-fascists?
Well, I think stuff like Kudzu is bad.
Prineville? Nothin' but sagebrush in Prineville and a few stragly junipers, what's left to kill? Did I miss something?
Not to mention Giant hogweed, purple loosetrife, illegal aliens, zebra mussels, and eurasian millifoil.
Property owners should be responsible for the damage invasive species do to their land and their neighbors land.
Yeah. Previous postings on the subject on FR have generally been from nuts under the apparent belief it's some sort of government taking away private property rights deal rather than fighting real threats, however.
Well, I'll back off and sort of agree with Strategerist about those illegal kudzu.:)
You live back east don't you.
I think it's more cost effective to educate people about how to erradicate the invasive species themselves.
Oh yes, I live in a cafe in Greenwich Village and I've never seen a live tree before.
(sarcasm off)
(Snort)
Did he just call you a syrup swillin squirrel worshiper?</p>
There are freemarket solutions to this problem for those who care to fight the problem and maintain our rights. Guess you wouldn't be interested in that.
"about something else."
Was Roswell, NM on your mind......Or was it about our porus southern border?
"about something else."
Was Roswell, NM on your mind......Or was it about our porus southern border?
That wasn't profound enough that it needed repeating-my typing finger just stuttered a little bit.
These invasive species are doing the work native species won't do.
"There are freemarket solutions to this problem for those who care to fight the problem and maintain our rights"
Just curious...suppose a few hundred acres next to yours were full of knapweed and barkbeetles, and owned by an investor who happened to live in New York, where he neither knew about these critters, nor gave a damn.
Suppose you did, because you didn't want them infesting your land, doing whatever bad things it is that they do.
What are the free market solutions available to you?
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