It is National Invasive Species Awareness Week. For the past hundred years, man-made canals in the Chicago area have connected Lake Michigan to the Illinois River, creating a connection between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River basins. This connection has allowed unwanted aquatic plants and animals to quickly spread between North America’s two greatest freshwater systems. The zebra mussel invaded the Mississippi River and the western US through this pathway, costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars per year in control efforts. Right now Asian carp threaten to move from the Mississippi basin to the Great Lakes, putting a $7 billion/year recreational and fishing industry at risk.
Our top priority right now is to restore the natural separation between the Mississippi River and Great Lakes basins. With quick decisive action we can halt the spread the Asian carp and other species poised to wreak havoc.
More broadly, lawmakers need to get serious about a long-term, comprehensive, and proactive approach to protecting our natural resources from new invasive species. Hitchhiking on the ever-increasing flow of goods and people around the world, transplanted organisms often devastate natural communities where they end up. We need national and international efforts to slow the flood of invasive species that exacerbate already-stressed ecosytems around the world.
