30 



the taxpayer, and produce management techniques that are envi- 

 ronmentally palatable. 



So if I am saying a lead agency, at least there is someone you 

 can go to and ask for at least information, what is the current rate 

 of spread, maybe conduct surveys, and pull all the information to- 

 gether out of the various Government agencies. 



Before the OTA report was published, it was impossible to find 

 out what Federal land management agencies were doing. What I 

 am looking for is something similar to like the Centers for Disease 

 Control for dealing with exotics. 



Senator Akaka.. Any other views? Dr. Campbell? 



Ms. Campbell. I tlunk it is possible to pull together teams aimed 

 at particular groups of pests. Certainly on terrestrial plants we're 

 dealing with, actually, probably most of those agencies. But there 

 is a clear agency with legal responsibility for the imports; that is 

 APHIS. And then there is an interagency team of the Federal land 

 managers that is developing policy, and I am not sure they have 

 chosen a lead agency. I have some thoughts on which one would 

 make sense. I think the National Park Service, but other people 

 may not agree. 



In fresh water aquatic systems, the most logical agency is the 

 Fish and Wildlife Service because althoug:h it has, to some extent, 

 limited jurisdiction, it at least has jurisdiction across the country 

 on fresh water. Once you get into the estuaries and bays, then you 

 have a little complexity between them and NMFS, because out in 

 the ocean it is the Commerce Department, National Marine and 

 Fisheries Services. And it is the Coast Guard, of course, for the bal- 

 last water. 



But I think that for specific kinds of problems — well, I think we 

 can divide this problem up into maybe 10 types of situations and 

 find logical lead agencies for each of those 10. The problem would 

 be, other than what Don Schmitz suggested of an overall informa- 

 tion source, which I think would be a good idea, to try to address 

 everything across the board I think would be too time consuming 

 to try to construct, even if we could get everybody to agree on juris- 

 diction. 



Senator Akaka. Any further views on this? Many citizens are re- 

 luctant to accept the reality of an alien species invasion. They see 

 the abundance, the diversity, and aesthetic value of our indigenous 

 species and cannot seem to grasp the threat as being real. Why is 

 this public perception so different fi'om scientific resQity? How can 

 we best educate people about the dangers of non-indigenous spe- 

 cies? Dr. Carlton? 



Mr. Carlton. When you ask that, my first reaction is that the 

 public perception about virtually every environmental issue is dif- 

 ferent from scientific reality, so that this is nothing unique in 

 terms of invasions. There is always a major gap between what the 

 public perceives about what is going on in the environment and 

 what scientists believe is going on in that same environment. 



Certadnly, and directly, it is because many people do not know, 

 do not recognize, and do not understand the history of what is 

 around them. Environmental history is not taught generally in any 

 curriculum, and so what people perceive as natural is usually rel- 

 ative to what they grew up with. An aboriginal State of nature for 



