If you would like to see the text of President Clinton's Executive order,
please let me know.  Jane Clark
===============================================
From: [log in to unmask]
Date: Thu, 04 Feb 99 14:49:47 -0500
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: SSI Alert: Invasive Species Exec. Order pt.I
Content-Description: "cc:Mail Note Part"


 This is Part 1 of a 2 Part Alert.
********************  EXECUTIVE SUMMARY  ********************
ISSUE: President Clinton yesterday (2/3) signed an executive
order to coordinate federal efforts to address the growing
environmental and economic threat of invasive species. The
order instructs federal agencies to avoid authorizing or
funding activities that are likely to cause or promote the
spread of invasive species. It also creates an Invasive
Species Council that is charged to develop a comprehensive
plan to minimize the economic, ecological, and human health
impacts of invasive species and to determine further steps
to prevent the introduction and spread of additional
invasive species.

ACTION: Monitor your local paper and write a letter-to-the
editor.

MAIN MESSAGE: The President's Executive Order is an
important step to combat one of the country's most serious,
yet least recognized, environmental threats -- invasive
species. [Add a second line in your message about a state or
regional invasives problem, if possible.]

DEADLINE: Send your letter by Friday, February 5.

******************************************

*** THE ISSUE ***
   President Clinton yesterday (2/3) signed an executive
order to coordinate a federal strategy to address the
growing environmental and economic threat of invasive
species. At a press conference held at the National
Geographic Society, Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman,
Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, and National Oceanographic
and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Administrator James
Baker announced the Executive Order -- suggesting an
expanded nation-wide effort to combat invasive species. The
Executive Order (appended below):

   ** directs federal agencies to use their authorities to
prevent the introduction of invasive species and to restore
native species.

   ** creates an Invasive Species Council that is charged to
develop a comprehensive plan within 18 months to minimize
the economic, ecological, and human health impacts of
invasive species and to determine further steps to prevent
the introduction and spread of additional invasive species.

   While much remains to be done to effectively combat
invasives, the Executive Order is, nonetheless, an important
step. First, the Order, President Clinton's statement, and
the press conference have focused much-needed public
attention on the issue. The Order also outlines some useful
steps to address the problem -- that is, requiring the
various federal agencies to take a closer look at their
activities relative to invasives, creating a dialog between
the agencies, providing greater impetus for the agencies to
coordinate their work on the problem, and strengthening the
ability of federal agencies to work cooperatively with the
states and other stakeholders.

   President Clinton is also trying to put some financial
clout behind his Order. In the fiscal year 2000 budget,
released Monday (2/1), he proposed an increase of more than
$28.8 million in funding to combat invasive species. This
includes new funding for combating exotic pests and diseases
as well as accelerating research on habitat restoration and
biologically based integrated pest management tactics.

   Recall that SSI helped circulate a sign-on letter from
the scientific and resource management community to Vice
President Al Gore in March 1997. That effort was led by,
among others, Jim Carlton, Don Schmitz, Dan Simberloff, E.O.
Wilson, and Phyllis Windle. Administration sources have now
confirmed that the scientists' letter -- which at least than
10 SSI members signed and many more circulated --played a
significant role in bringing the Executive Order to
fruition, helping convince senior Administration officials
that invasive species are a potent threat to the US
environment and economy. (For some basic information on the
seriousness of this issue, see Supplemental Information,
below.) SSI will be focusing greater attention on the
invasives issue over the coming months -- identifying those
places where scientists input can be most helpful.

*** THE ACTION ***

-- Monitor your local paper and write a letter-to-the editor
(LTE).

   The invasive species issue has been receiving increasing
press attention in the last several months, including
coverage of the recent MIT conference on marine invasives,
several stories on the regulatory effort to control import
of the Asian long-horned beetle, and comprehensive stories
in news magazines like US News & World Report and Newsweek.
We know the Executive Order story was already being carried
by some wire services on Wednesday afternoon, suggesting the
potential for widespread coverage in Thursday's papers. So,
monitor your local paper for the story and respond
accordingly.

   If your paper carries the story, reinforce the coverage
with a LTE. You should first emphasize the seriousness and
scope of the problem. Then, one sure way to give the main
message "legs" is to include a state or regional angle in
your letter. So, if at all possible, use your LTE to focus
attention on an invasives problem in your own community or
state. If your paper does not even cover the story, then
reframe your LTE to emphasize how important this issue is to
your community and that you expect better coverage in the
future.

   Remember to keep your LTE short (no more than 300 words)
and focused on only one or two main points.

   If you do not know the address or who to contact at your
local paper, check on the letters page; the information you
need is usually found right there. Otherwise, call the paper
and ask for the letters editor, who can give you the
information you need. Most papers now accept email letters
and/or faxes. Be sure to include your name, address, and
telephone number with your letter (even in email); most
papers make a confirming phone call before printing a LTE.

-- MAIN MESSAGE: THE PRESIDENT'S EXECUTIVE ORDER IS AN
IMPORTANT STEP TO COMBAT ONE OF THE COUNTRY'S MOST SERIOUS,
YET LEAST RECOGNIZED, ENVIRONMENTAL THREATS -- INVASIVE
SPECIES. [Add a second line in your message about a state or
regional invasives problem, if possible.]

-- TIMING: Send your letter by Friday, February 5.

   To help increase the chances that your LTE will be
published, the paper should receive it either the day of or
the day after the story first runs.

 *** SUPPORTING MESSAGES ***

-- Be sure to reference your professional expertise and/or
interest in this issue in your letter. As mentioned above,
work in a state or regional perspective on the story if at
all possible --  an invasives problem facing your community,
for example, or perhaps some invasives-related research
underway at your university

-- Many ecologists believe the spread of invasive (exotic)
species is one of the most serious, yet least appreciated,
threats to biodiversity. Exotic species are the second most
widespread cause of species endangerment; only habitat
destruction and degradation pose a more serious threat.

-- The total economic impact of invasive plants on the US
economy is estimated by some experts to be about $123
billion annually, including damage to crops and rangeland.

 -- Greater cooperation among the federal agencies and
additional financial resources to combat current threats and
prevent others are useful steps to begin addressing the
invasives problem.

-- The invasive species problem is one issue where
environmental and economic interests can work together to
combat a common enemy.

*** SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION ***

-- Many ecologists believe the spread of invasive (exotic)
species is one of the most serious, yet least appreciated,
threats to biodiversity. Invasives are second only to
habitat destruction in threatening extinction of native
species. Experts estimate that invasive plants already
infest over 100 million acres, and they are spreading on
federal lands at the rate of 4,600 acres per day. Invasives
produce severe, often irreversible impacts on agriculture,
recreation, and our natural resources; in some instances,
they even have major human health consequences.

-- Some examples of economically and environmentally harmful
invasive species include:
** The zebra mussel can shut down electrical utilities by
clogging water intake pipes and threatens to cause an
estimated $5 billion in damages by 2002, if unchecked.
** Leafy spurge causes more than $144 million in livestock
forage damage each year in Montana, North Dakota, South
Dakota, and Wyoming.
** Invading sea lampreys caused the collapse of lake trout
and other Great Lakes fisheries, costing the US and Canada
$13 million annually to control.
** The brown tree snake has led to the extinction of most
native forest birds on Guam and has caused 1200 electrical
outages
** When the Asian long-horned beetle infested Brooklyn, New
York, more than 2000 trees had to be destroyed, costing the
federal and state government more than $5 million. A similar
infestation now plagues Chicago.

-- Clinton Administration officials were joined at the press
conference by several prominent scientists who have led
calls for stronger federal action to combat invasive
species, including Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson; James T.
Carlton of Williams College; Don C. Schmitz of the Florida
Department of Environmental Protection; Daniel Simberloff,
the Nancy Gore Hunger Professor of Excellence in
Environmental Studies at the University of Tennessee; and
Phyllis N. Windle, author of a Congressional report on
invasive species.

-- For a quick yet thorough review of the invasives species
issue, check out Dr. Daniel Simberloff's  'Impacts of
Introduced Species in the United States,' in "Consequences"
(vol 2, no 2 1996), at
<http://www.gcrio.org/CONSEQUENCES/vol2no2/article2.html>.

-- A copy of the President's statement and the Executive
Order are appended, in part 2 of this alert.

***
NOTE: If you send a letter-to-the-editor, please send us a
"blind copy." (A blind copy simply means that you do not
indicate anywhere on your letter that you are sending a copy
to us.) If your letter is published, please be sure to send
us a copy of the letter in the paper. Send to:
[log in to unmask] or UCS, 2 Brattle Square, Cambridge, MA
02238-9105 (attn. Katie Mogelgaard).
***

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