Federal and State initiatives simply are not keeping pace with new 

 and spreading alien species. The recent OTA report echoes this 

 concern. It found that our country has no real national policy for 

 controlling harmful alien species. The current system is piecemeal, 

 lacking adequate rigor and comprehensiveness. 



The charts ^ on display (here on your right and my left) illustrate 

 these points. The first is a list of Federal agencies with alien spe- 

 cies responsibihty. It shows that 24 Federal agencies are respon- 

 sible for some aspect of research, prevention, control, or use of alien 

 species. The list, as you can see, is very long. 



The second chart shows the interrelationship among all the 

 major interests — Federal, State, industry, academia, and the gen- 

 eral public — that affect alien species policy. 



The question for Congress to consider is how to achieve a more 

 stringent and comprehensive national policy on harmful alien 

 pests. I hope today's witnesses will offer their recommendations on 

 how to improve on the current system. 



I ask that the witnesses limit their testimony to 5 minutes to 

 provider greater time for discussion. Your written statements will 

 be entered into the record in their entirety, and there is no need 

 to read from a prepared text. The hearing record will remain open 

 until the close of business April 11, 1994, to receive comments from 

 individuals and organizations not present today. 



At this time I am delighted to have a panel of experts. First is 

 Dr. Dewey Caron, Department of Entomology and Applied Ecology, 

 University of Delaware; Mr. Don Schmitz, Wetland and Upland 

 Forest Alien Plant Coordinator, Florida Department of Environ- 

 mental Protection: Mr. Howard Singletary, Director, Plant Industry 

 Division, North Carolina Department of Agriculture; and Dr. 

 James Carlton, Director, Maritime Studies Program, Williams Col- 

 lege-Mystic Seaport. 



We are delighted to have you here and look forward to your testi- 

 mony. Let me call on Dr. Caron first. 



TESTIMONY OF DEWEY M. CARON, PH.D.,2 PROFESSOR OF EN- 

 TOMOLOGY, DEPARTMENT OF ENTOMOLOGY AND APPLIED 

 ECOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE 



Mr. Caron. Thank you, Senator, and good morning. 



I would like to talk a little bit this morning on Africanized bees. 

 Africanized bees are a very special circumstance of a non-indige- 

 nous population of organisms, insects, that have spread naturally 

 into the United States. They are currently occupying three of our 

 Southern States: Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. But it also rep- 

 resents an alien species that there is a continuing need for inter- 

 cept activities, and, in fact, that activity is ongoing, above and be- 

 yond where the population is existing and spreading naturally. We 

 do not know the eventual final distribution of what that population 

 will be within the United States of Africanized bees. We believe it 

 will be considerable. 



Coping with that population now, we have a large conglomerate, 

 all of the agencies or nearly all of the agencies that you have listed 



^See pages 140 and 141. 



2 The prepared statement of Mr. Caron appears on page 69. 



