Invasive species concern Arizona council

PHOENIX—Arizona needs a faster, better-coordinated effort to fight invasive plants and animals and should do more to educate the public about the threat, members of the Arizona Invasive Species Advisory Council said this week.

On Tuesday, the council began public meetings across Arizona to gather feedback on draft recommendations for a comprehensive invasive species action plan. The group plans to finalize its proposals by June 30.

Ed Northam, a council member and president of the Southwest Vegetation Management Association, a statewide organization that promotes awareness of the invasive species threat, said the problem could worsen as the state continues to grow.

“People are coming in and out of Arizona all the time, and the potential for them bringing something new in is very high,” Northam said. “We’ve got a history of 120, 130 years of non-native plants coming into the state, and now we’re beginning to see some of those were mistakes.”

Invasive animals and plants can harm the environment and the economy and threaten human health. Their effects can be widespread and devastating.

African buffelgrass, which is spreading in the desert of Southern Arizona, grows quickly and burns at such a high temperature that the thing most likely to grow back is more buffelgrass.

The quagga mussel reproduces rapidly and consumes large amounts of the phytoplankton that are at the bottom of the food chain. The mussel has been found in lakes along the Colorado River, in the Central Arizona Project canal and in Lake Pleasant north of Phoenix.

The state has already spent more than $700,000 over the last two years fighting the glassy-winged sharpshooter, an insect that threatens the wineries of Southern Arizona by spreading a type of destructive bacteria.

“In California, that one bug hurt the state’s economy by hundreds of millions of dollars,” said Ed Hermes, spokesman for the Arizona Department of Agriculture, which is a leader on the council.

Gov. Janet Napolitano created the council by executive order in 2005 and made it permanent last year, just after the quagga mussel was found in Arizona.

The council’s plan calls for more cooperation among state, local and federal agencies, and among ranchers, landowners, universities and other interests. It also encourages state agencies to establish a hub for invasive species management and research.

Fred Amator, a council member who represented the Arizona Crop Protection Association, said the center would help the public learn more about invasive species.

“There is a lot of data out there on some of these different invasive species, but they haven’t really reached the public, nor have they reached some of the agencies that may be able to help,” Amator said.

Another recommendation would provide $1 million to help agencies fight harmful plants or animals as soon as they’re detected.

That money is unlikely to come from the Legislature anytime soon because of the state’s budget deficit, Hermes said.

Cronkite News Service is an intensive professional experience for advanced print and broadcast students in Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.