Defend New Jersey from invaders

By: centraljersey.com
"Star Trek" fans will recall Starfleet’s prime directive when encountering an alien civilization was noninterference.
But for alien species invading this state we’re in, the opposite is true.
Nearly one-third of New Jersey’s 3,000-plus native plant species now are considered rare. We are losing our native wildlife to invasive flora and fauna of every form from the Old World. On the heels of National Invasive Species Awareness Week, it’s clear we need to take action before it’s too late.
Here’s why:
Fungus – White-nose fungus wiped out wintering bat populations in New York state caves and is spreading through New England and along the Appalachians. Northern New Jersey’s common bats are virtually gone.
Viral/bacterial – Sudden oak death pathogen kills trees and threatens ecosystems like the California redwood forest. Infected rhododendrons from the Pacific Coast recently arrived in southern New Jersey nurseries, but were detected by keen agricultural inspectors and destroyed before they could infect our native flora.
Insect – New Jersey’s agriculture and environmental protection agencies have long been combating the Asian long-horned beetle, which arrived in our ports stowed away in wooden shipping pallets. The insects began killing street trees in the Linden/Carteret area.
To halt the spread of these lumbering beetles, trees in entire neighborhoods were destroyed. But the prospect of their return is very real, and if they enter a heavily forested area, they could tunnel into and kill nearly every tree in the forest.
Mammal – After being introduced for sport by a few ill-advised hunters, wild hogs now roam the woods of the Delaware Bayshore, disturbing and destroying habitats for native plants and animals.
Fish Highly aggressive bighead carp have ruined Upper Mississippi River fish habitats and cost millions. New Jersey Conservation Foundation had its own run-in with this alien fish after preserving land in Hunterdon County that included former commercial fishponds. The ponds were not inhabited with the long-established Asian common carp we expected. Rather, there were bighead carp.
In the process of eradicating the carp, the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife discovered the new world’s first population of Chinese pond mussel – a species wreaking havoc in Europe. Now this mussel must be eliminated before it makes its way into the Delaware River watershed.
Tragically, in the face of so many threats by aggressive invaders, New Jersey has adopted what amounts to its own "noninterference prime directive."
For example:
– Sixty percent of the 40 most-damaging alien invasive plant species have been introduced by the nursery/horticulture industry, yet our state has few restrictions on the sale of known or potentially invasive species.
– New Jersey published an invasive species control plan in 2009, but Gov. Christie eliminated the state’s Invasive Species Council in 2010.
– Those on the front lines of identifying, controlling and destroying invasive populations – the New Jersey Department of Agriculture’s Philip Alampi Insect Research Lab or the Central Jersey Invasive Species Strike Team, for example – find themselves like the crew of the Enterprise – virtually on their own without the resources to fulfill their mission.
But this isn’t TV drama. No cavalry will save the day when things look bleakest.
To find out more about invasive species and what can be done, visit www.urwa.org/stewardship/cjisst.html or www.nisaw.org.
Michele Byers is executive director of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation. For more information, contact her at [email protected] or visit NJCF’s website at www.njconservation.org.