79 



losses to nursery owners in the 1950s approached $1 million, not including loss of 

 future sales (Zobel et al. 1985). 



Dogwoods and hemlocks are extensively planted. Well-maintained landscape 

 plants can usually survive attack by the alien pest, but the homeowner or park 

 manager may have to pay for pesticide applications. More importantly, the genetic 

 base for continuing horticultural developments is severely eroded. 



Fraser fir is increasingly popular as a Christmas tree. This species, along with 

 balsam fir and Douglas-fu-, make up about thirty-five percent of national market— 

 which sold more than 35 miUion trees in 1993 (Grimsley). 



Americans spend nearly $35 million annually on maple syrup which is made from 

 the sap of the sugar maple (Anonymous). 



mTIGATION COSTS 



Efforts to eradicate or suppress exotic pests vary fi-om year to year, in response 

 to perceived emergencies. Thus, in fiscal year 1992 The Animal and Plant Health 

 Inspection Service (APHIS) alone spent $20 million on efforts to eradicate the Asian 

 gypsy moth near Pacific coast port cities (McGovem, personal communication). In 

 fiscal year 1993 total expenditures by agencies of the U.S. Department of Agri- 

 culture did not quite reach $19 million. Of this total, the Forest Service spent $14.5 

 million (Lorimer, personal communication; Smith, personal communication; and Mil- 

 ler, personal communication). APHIS spent $2.25 million (McGovem, personal com- 

 munication). The Agricultural Research Service spent $350,000 on research on dog- 

 wood anthracnose and $1.9 million on gypsy moth research (Faust). Over two-thirds 

 of all USDA tree pest control funds in FY1993 were aimed at suppression or eradi- 

 cation of the European gypsy moth. 



While I have not completed analysis of FY94 fiscal data, the distribution is prob- 

 ably about the same. NRDC believes that this skewed funding has resulted in inad- 

 equate attention to other pests which threaten to cause the extinction of certain spe- 

 cies or severe ecological disruption. 



In fiscal year 1994, the Forest Service' Forest Insect and Disease Research pro- 

 gram increased its spending on exotic pest research significantly — ^fi-om $1-23 mil- 

 lion to $6,966 million (Smith). The Administration has proposed spending $7,136 

 million in fiscal year 1995. For Forest Pest Management in fiscal year 1995, the Ad- 

 ministration has proposed spending a total of $15 million on gypsy moth suppres- 

 sion and eradication; and up to $2.3 million on a combination of pests which in- 

 cludes all other exotic pests as well as some native pests (Jones). 



Over time, these expenses add up. In an effort to curtail the spread of white pine 

 blister rust, $100 miUion dollars were spent pulling out gooseberry {Ribes spp.) 

 bushes or spraying them with herbicides (USDA Forest Service 1991b). However, 

 these efforts failed to stop the spread of the disease in the West. This approach has 

 proved more successful in eastern North America (Ostrofsky et al. 1958). 



ECOLOGICAL IMPACTS 



According to Ledlig (1992), "Introduction of exotic diseases, insects, mammalian 

 herbivores, and competing vegetation has had the best-documented effects on ge- 

 netic diversity [of forest ecosystems], reducing both species diversity and 

 intraspecific diversity." Their impact has been greater than that of other, more 

 widely recognized, human-caused factors, including forest fi-agmentation, changed 

 demographic structure, altered habitat, pollution, and favoring of certain "domes- 

 ticated" species of trees. 



More than 60 percent of the 165 million forested acres in the Northeast have been 

 seriously damaged by introduced insects or pathogens (Burkman, et al.). There has 

 been little research on the potentially serious effects on wildlife of eastern forests 

 ft-om the loss of nuts and berries formerly produced by vanishing tree species such 

 as the chestnut, butternut and— in many areas— dogwood, and reduced populations 

 of oaks and American beech. The ecological consequences of hemlock eradication 

 could be profound, especially for stream temperatures and siltation loads. 



A high proportion of the remaining "old-growth" forests in the East consists of 

 steep creek valleys populated heavily by eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) 

 (Davis)— which is likely to be eliminated from much of its range in the near future 

 by the hemlock woolly adelgid. 



Eighty to ninety percent of the whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) trees in Glacier 

 National Park and the Bob Marshall Wilderness are infected by white pine blister 

 rust (Schmidt 1992). Whitebark pine seeds are a major food source for the grizzly 

 bear, black bear, red squirrel, and Clark's nutcracker (Kendall and Arno 1989; 

 Schmidt 1992). 



