HARMFUL NON-INDIGENOUS SPECIES IN THE 



UNITED STATES 



FRIDAY, MARCH 11, 1994 



U.S. Senate, 

 Committee on Governmental Affairs. 



Washington, DC. 



The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:10 a.m., in room 

 SD-342, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Daniel Akaka pre- 

 siding. 



Presenc: Senator Akaka. 



OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR AKAKA 



Senator Akaka. The Committee on Governmental Affairs will be 

 in order. Welcome to our guest witnesses here today. We welcome 

 all of you to this hearing. Aloha £ind good morning! 



Today's hearing will focus on the problems that alien species 

 pose to our Nation's agriculture, environment, and economy. 



The United States is being subjected to a slow, silent invasion of 

 alien pests. These invaders hitchhike aboard planes, lurk in old 

 tires, hide in household goods, and swim in the ballast of ships. 



We have a pie chart ^ that helps us illustrate this point. Using 

 Hawaii as an example, we can see that alien species use every con- 

 ceivable mode of transportation to invade our State. 



Developing loss estimates due to alien species is inherently dif- 

 ficult. Studies place annual losses to U.S. agriculture, forests, 

 rangeland, and fisheries in excess of $100 million. During high-im- 

 pact years, losses increase to several billion dollars. 



Alien pests represent a serious threat to many, many areas of 

 economic activity. Agriculture must contend with an array of alien 

 weeds, insects, and pathogens. A significant portion of the $7 bil- 

 lion that farmers spend guinugdly on pest control is applied to con- 

 tain alien species. 



Some weeds do not directly harm agriculture, but serve as hosts 

 for agricultural pests instead. For example, crested wheatgrass, 

 which was once planted for soil conservation, harbors the Russian 

 wheat aphid. This pest caused $170 million in losses during 1988 

 alone. 



Chestnut blight, which arrived on diseased plantings from China, 

 killed over a billion chestnut trees during the early part of the cen- 

 tury. Another forest threat, the gypsy moth, was responsible for 

 $760 million in losses during peak years. 



1 See page 138. 



(1) 



