Invasive Species

By Sam Murphy, Bailey Madrzyk, and Patty Lidbury

Quote: “War is being waged all across the country against the invasive plant and animal species - some 50,000 of them - now spreading across the U.S.”
-Nancy Gibbs

Invasive species are animals or plants that usually spread causing damage to humans or the environment

Transport and tourism, spreading alien species all across the world. Transport and tourism helps the nation, yet the tourism brings the alien species to their new home

Exotic pets are released into the wild once they have grown too big to care for.

Helping your pet, but hurting your ecosystem.

The alien species that are being released, can hurt the rest of the ecosystem, because they can kill the predators in the ecosystem causing the prey's population to spiral out of control.

Some impacts are, not able to walk around at night because of all the mosquito biting at you.

Zebra Mussels in the Great lakes region

Zebra Mussels were introduced to the great lake region in 1988. This Muscle is very invasive. It clings to pipes, and clogs water cleaning systems.

Yellow starthistle is a widespread problem in Northern California but land managers at Yolo report promising results in preventing yellow starthistle from taking over the ranch and destroying valuable grazing land. According to Casey Stone, approximately 15 - 25% of the 7,500-acre Yolo ranch is infested with yellow starthistle. "It will eventually take over an area and crowd out everything," he explains. The weed chokes the growth of native grazing plants, and its spiny thatch is difficult for dogs and horses to maneuver through. A variety of weed management methods have been tried at Yolo including biological, chemical, and mechanical control, all of which are used primarily on flat terrain. Chemical control methods have proven the most effective for the Yolo Land & Cattle Company and have been used extensively by the Stones to stop yellow starthistle in its tracks. They have achieved success in controlling the weed by rotating the use of chemicals to avoid weed resistance. Greatest success was achieved by applying chemicals every other year, and performing controlled burns whenever possible.

Crooks sneaked in through the East
Cruelty deeply buried in their mindset
Cunning as they were, begged for space for their hut
Cleverly amassed with brute force state after state Started their venture from Plassey
Stocks of traitors made their plans easy
Simple dictum of divide and ruin
Simplified oppressors’ avarice for the rein

Crushed thousands of innocents in Jalian
Cold blooded murder – at the helm was a hooligan
Coward was gifted a sword in absurd approbation
Coteries licked their boots to earn a medallion

Millions lost their lives in sacrifice
Masters plundered wealth at ease
Maimed the protesters with cruel force
Mahatma stepped in to guide the surge

Rest is all history well known
Stressed beyond strength, left the goon
Still managed to sow seeds of deep division
Self realization sine quo non in our sojourn

Rangarajan Kazhiyur Mannar

Plants- If you see an invasive plant that is taking over other plants space, pull it out and prevent it from spreading more than it already has.
animals- Do not release exotic animals into the wild, because it could disrupt the ecosystem, and you could be hurting other animals.

Clean your boat, for clean waters

When lowering a boat into the water, inspect the bottom to make sure that no animals, like mussels are clinging to the bottom.

When traveling to exotic places, the security guards at the airport should make sure you are bringing acceptable items back into the U.S.

Be responsible

Don’t release exotic pets into the wild. If you plan on getting an exotic pet, do your research and make sure that 1 the pet is right for you, and 2 make sure it will not grow to an uncontrollable size.

If something is not done about invasive species, all of the beloved animals in our ecosystem will suffer from a foreign invader. And after all, do you really want that on your beaches?