we know that it is not linear. The growth rate is exponential. There 

 is a complete displacement of native vegetation when melaleuca in- 

 vades into an area, and that results in a catastrophic loss of wild- 

 life diversity. It uses four times the amount of water that native 

 sawgrass communities use, and the melaleuca populations that are 

 expanding in the Everglades threaten the Biscayne aquifer, which 

 is the sole underground drinking water source for millions of people 

 who live in south Florida. 



If we do not do something about this melaleuca invasion in Flor- 

 ida, the melaleuca populations will destroy what Marjorie 

 Stoneman Douglas called "the river of grass," despite past and 

 present efforts to preserve it for future generations. 



More than 900 species of alien plants have become established 

 within Florida's habitats. The majority of them are found in Flor- 

 ida's wetland and upland forests. One-half were imported as land- 

 scape ornamentals, contaminants of agricultural practices, or as fu- 

 ture sources of timber, fiber, and forage. In the early part of this 

 century, even Federal agencies helped spread these invasive alien 

 plant species around. Present estimates indicate that more than 

 2.5 million acres of Florida's remaining natural environment has 

 become infested or infected with alien plant species. These inva- 

 sions can alter ecosystems from once highly diverse biological sys- 

 tems to bland, monospecific structures. 



Most Floridians, as is the case with most Americans, are un- 

 aware of the severe ecological damage that these invasive alien 

 species are doing in Florida's remaining natural areas. Alien trees 

 are destroying what little remains of our fragile beach dune com- 

 munities, with negative repercussions on endangered and threat- 

 ened sea turtles. They cannot nest because of the dense root sys- 

 tems that some of these plant species produce out into the surf 

 area. Hydrilla, which you mentioned in your opening speech, clogs 

 at least 75,000 acres of our waterways. Besides these species, there 

 is another additional 27 exotic plant species that have been identi- 

 fied as being destructive or invasive into Florida's environment. 



Because of a lack of funding, we are only capable of managing 

 one-half of the melaleuca populations found in the Everglades. Fed- 

 eral land management agencies in Florida do not have a dedicated 

 funding source to go out and manage these destructive species, nor 

 can they adequately fund long-term solutions such as biological 

 control research. 



The State of Florida applauds the efforts by the State of Hawaii 

 to protect their island State from alien species invasions. However, 

 this is not an exclusive problem for just Hawaii and Florida. Purple 

 loosestrife, the contaminant of European ship ballast, has ruined 

 milhons of acres of wetlands in the northern United States. Of 

 course, I think all of us have heard of kudzu that has spread 

 throughout the South. The net result is that there is a drastic de- 

 cline in biodiversity when these invasions occur. 



Now, what can the Federal Government do about this problem? 

 First, we need to turn off the spigot of new invasive alien plant and 

 animal species. It does not make a heck of a lot of biological or eco- 

 nomic sense to go out and manage these species when you have 

 new ones that are being introduced. We need to screen all potential 

 introductions for their invasiveness, whether they are plant or ani- 



