[acn-l] Scientists' Letter to Al Gore: Please Join Us (fwd)

peter.unmack at asu.edu
Tue, 18 Feb 1997 21:16:48 -0700 (MST)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 18 Feb 1997 15:53:49 -0800
From: James T. Carlton <James.T.Carlton at WILLIAMS.EDU>
To: FISH-ECOLOGY at SEGATE.SUNET.SE
Subject: Scientists' Letter to Al Gore: Please Join Us

18 February 1997

The letter below, to be sent to Vice President Al Gore in March, has been
posted on "ecolog-l", "aliens", "marine pests" and "marine biology". We
are now sending this to annelid, crustacean, mollusk, and fish workers, to
reach those not on the previous lists, in order to achieve the widest
possible circulation. If you know of other similar, general lists please
do feel free to repost this! (if you do, could you let me know which ones
you post it to?)

The letter is mentioned in last Friday's issue of Science (14 February,
vol. 275, p. 915), and newspapers around the country carried an AP story
on Sunday, Monday, and today, based on its being mentioned at the AAAS
meetings in Seattle this past Sunday morning.

The letter (and a sign-up form) referred to are also now on the University
of Florida's web site for the Center for Aquatic Plants
(http://aquat1.ifas.ufl.edu/). We have more than 200 signatures so far
from the U.S., Canada, Europe, and elsewhere.

The deadline for sending in your signature is March 14.

Thank you, everyone,

Jim Carlton

James T. Carlton
Professor of Marine Sciences, Williams College
Director, Department of Maritime Studies
Williams College -- Mystic Seaport
P. O. Box 6000, 75 Greenmanville Avenue
Mystic, Connecticut 06355 U.S.A.
telephone: 860-572-5359
FAX: 860-572-5329
email: jcarlton at williams.edu (same as james.t.carlton at williams.edu)

Date: Tue, 4 Feb 1997 00:01:51 -0500
Sender: "Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news"
<ECOLOG-L at UMDD.UMD.EDU>
Subject: ECOLOG-L Digest - 2 Feb 1997 to 3 Feb 1997
To: Recipients of ECOLOG-L digests <ECOLOG-L at UMDD.UMD.EDU>

Date: Mon, 3 Feb 1997 09:30:45 -0500
From: Phyllis Windle <pwindle at crosslink.net>
Subject: Scientists' Letter to Al Gore: Please Join Us

Below is a letter to Vice-President Gore from scientists and resource
managers regarding harmful exotic species. In the finest tradition of
American democracy, we are petitioning our government for help.
Specifically, the letter asks that a Presidential Commission evaluate new
strategies to prevent and manage invasions. We hope to have many hundreds
of signatures when the letter is mailed in March.

If you regulate, manage, or conduct research on harmful exotics, would you
like to add your name to ours? George Beck, Jim Carlton, Ron Carroll, Gary
Meffe, Hal Mooney, Don Schmitz, Dan Simberloff, Howard Singletary, Peter
Vitousek, E.O. Wilson, and I have already signed, all people who have
worked on this issue for years and worry that current efforts are too
little, too late.

To add your name, please fax or mail the following information to Don
Schmitz (fax 904-488-1254) or Jim Carlton (fax 860-572-5329): Name, Title,
Organization; Business address, City, State, Zip; Telephone no., Fax no.,
E-mail address; Signature, Date. YOUR NAME WILL NOT BE ADDED UNLESS WE
HAVE YOUR SIGNATURE ON FILE IN HARDCOPY (FAX OK).

Questions? Call Don at 904-488-5631 (schmitz-_d at ngw.dep.state.fl.us) or
Jim at 860-572-0711, ext. 5190 (James.T.Carlton at Williams.edu).

We all hope you will help. Thanks! Please DO post and forward this
message to colleagues.

Phyllis Windle
College Park, MD

_______________________________________________
The Honorable Albert Gore, Jr.
The Vice-President of the United States
Office of the Vice-President
Old Executive Office Building
Washington, DC 20501

Dear Vice-President Gore:

We write as a group of scientists, agricultural officials, and
environmental experts to request your assistance in, and support for, the
formation of a commission whose purpose would be to recommend new
strategies to prevent and to manage invasions by harmful exotic species.

A rapidly spreading invasion of exotic plants and animals not only is
destroying our nation's biological diversity but is costing the U.S.
economy hundreds of millions of dollars annually. Biological invasions
produce severe, often irreversible impacts on agriculture, recreation, and
our natural resources. In some instances, they even have major human
health consequences. The 21st century holds the clear threat of further
devastating invasions unless a coordinated national effort is established.

In March, 1993, twenty-five distinguished scientists and resource
managers wrote to you identifying the need for an effective national
program to combat invasions by nonindigenous plants and animals. You
kindly replied that these issues indeed concern your office, and we were
pleased to note that these problems had received your attention.

Since 1993, biological invasions by pest and nuisance species from
foreign nations, and from one part of the United States to another, have
continued almost unabated:

* Recent studies reveal, for example, that San Francisco Bay is invaded
by a new exotic species on the average of once every twelve weeks.
* At least 1.5 million acres in Florida have been invaded by
nonindigenous plants, leading to a severe reduction in available native
habitat.
* Foreign weeds are spreading on Bureau of Land Management lands at over
2,300 acres per day and on all western public lands at approximately 4,600
acres per day.
* Approximately 250 plant species meeting the Federal Noxious Weed Act's
definition of a noxious weed remain unlisted and can still be legally
imported into the U.S.
* In the Mississippi drainage basin, species richness is expected to
decline by 50% within a decade because of zebra mussel spread.
* Exotic species invasion have contributed to the decline of 42% of U.S.
endangered and threatened species.

Although the National Invasive Species Act of 1996 was an important
step forward, the overall national effort to confront this crisis remains
inadequate; it is primarily piecemeal, ad hoc, and reactive. For example,
more that 20 federal agencies deal with invasive exotic species, but their
policies and actions are uncoordinated and largely ineffective. There is
not even a comprehensive data base on the problem. Innumerable state
agencies and private organizations also operate in this arena, often
entirely unaware of one another's problems and actions. Actions of various
managers even inadvertently conflict with one another. Simply coordinating
this effort would not only enhance its effectiveness but save millions of
federal, state, and private dollars.

A commission could consider many potential ways of responding to this
problem. One can imagine, for example, a center analogous to the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a high-level government office
(like that of the Surgeon General) that might serve as a bully pulpit on
this issue, a much-expanded and well-funded interagency task force, and
numerous other possibilities. What is most urgent is to begin a high-level
consideration of possible responses, as the situation is deteriorating
every day. We are losing the war against invasive exotic species, and
their economic impacts are soaring. We simply cannot allow this
unacceptable degradation of our nations' public and agriculture lands to
continue.

The cogent 1993 report of the Congressional Office of Technology
Assessment, Harmful Non-Indigenous Species in the United States, on the
extraordinary economic and health costs to this nation of exotic invasions,
provides an excellent introduction to these issues. Please contact Don C.
Schmitz (904-488-5631), James T. Carton (860-572-5359), Daniel Simberloff
(904-644-6739), or Phyllis Windle (301-345-8516) for more information about
this growing problem.

We look forward to your response to this critical matter, and we offer
any assistance you may need in further developing a strong and committed
response to this national problem.

/signed/

DON C. SCHMITZ, Wetland and Upland Alien Plant Coordinator, FL Dept. of
Environmental Protection, Tallahassee, FL 32311
JAMES T. CARLTON, Prof. of Marine Sciences, Maritime Studies Program,
Williams College-Mystic Seaport, Mystic, CT 06355
DANIEL SIMBERLOFF, Robt. O. Lawton Distinguished Prof., Dept. Biological
Sci., FL State Univ., Tallahassee, FL 32306
PHYLLIS N. WINDLE, Project Director for the U.S. Congress report, "Harmful
Non-Indigenous Species in the United States," Office of Technology
Assessment, Washington, DC.
E.O. WILSON, Prof. of Sci. and Curator of Entomology, Museum of
Comparative Zoology, Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA 02138.
KENNETH GEORGE BECK, II, Assoc. Prof., Dept. of Bioagricultural Sci. and
Pest Mgmt., CO State Univ., Ft. Collins, CO 80523
HOWARD SINGLETARY, Director, Plant Industry Division, North Carolina Dept.
of Agriculture, Raleigh, NC 27611
GARY K. MEFFE, Prof. of Ecology, Savannah River Ecology Lab., Aiken, SC 29802
C. RONALD CARROLL, Director, Institute of Ecology, University of Georgia,
Athens, GA 30602
HAROLD MOONEY, Prof. of Environmental Bio., Dept. of Biological Sci.,
Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA 94305
PETER VITOUSEK, Prof., Dept. of Biological Sci., Stanford Univ., Stanford,
CA 94305