Exotic Pests of Eastern Forests CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS Presented by: Tennessee Exotic Pest Plant Council USDA Forest Service April 8- 10, 1997 Clubhouse Inn & Conference Center Nashville, TN Sponsors: Tennessee Dept. of Agriculture USDA Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service TN Dept. of Environment and Conservation Southern Appalachian Man and Biosphere USDI National Park Service Western Carolina University's Mountain Resource Center Edited By Kerry 0. Britton ii Conference Planning Team Members Dan Brown, Co-Chair Brian Bowen, Co-Chair Kerry Britton Dan Kucera Rick Ledbetter Trisha Brannon Randy Westbrooks Bob Eplee Phillip Gibson Bruce Kauffman Monty Maldonado Carol Ferguson Russ McKinney Phil Wargo Bill Wallner Susan Hooks Levester Pendergrass Deb Hayes Dave Thomas Tom Hofacker Jim Brown Bill Mattson 111 IV Proceedings Exotic Pests of Eastern Forests Conference INTRODUCTION Invasive exotic pest plants, diseases, and insects, have had a dramatic impact on the health and composition of the Eastern forests for many decades. Chestnut blight was discovered in the United States in 1904. Since then, it has virtually destroyed the chestnut population, which once occupied 25 percent of the eastern forest. In the 1860's, the gypsy moth was accidentally released in Massachusetts. Since then, it has become established in 16 states, and for most of the past 15 years, has defoliated a million acres of hardwood trees each year. Kudzu was introduced into the United States in 1876, and later distributed to many states in an effort to control agricultural erosion. It did not control erosion; rather, it became one of the most serious pest plants in the southeast, where it now covers seven million acres. The Exotic Pests of Eastern Forests Conference was developed to make the audience more aware of the many invasive exotic pests in eastern forests, and the impact which they have had on the ecosystem; and to warn the audience of the potential devastation that could occur if prevention and control measures are not developed and utilized soon. In selecting topics for the Conference, we attempted to address the most serious invasive exotic insect and disease forest pests of the east. However, we emphasized invasive exotic pest plants-because we felt that insects and diseases have had much more "press" over the years, and a large percentage of the audience· would be unfamiliar with most of the pest plants discussed. Therefore, about 50 percent of the papers are specific to pest plants; of the remaining papers, about two-thirds are specific to insects or diseases, and one-third address all three categories. Based on attendance, the many enthusiastic comments, and participation, the Conference was an outstanding success. The primary reason is the quality of speakers. The Planning Team made a special effort to find people who are authorities in their field of expertise, and who are also top quality speakers. We thank each and every one of them for accepting, and for their superb presentations. At the close of the Conference, the attendees and participants felt that the administrators of the US Departments of Interior and Agriculture should be alerted to the concern which was shared at the Conference; i.e., the seriousness of the exotic pest problem, and they requested an interdepartmental team to provide guidance and support. To this end, a letter addressing those issues has been prepared and will be sent to the Secretaries of those departments, and to Vice-President Gore, who has expressed concern about this issue. Dan Brown Brian Bowen USDA Forest Service Tenneseee Exotic Pest Plant Council Atlanta, Georgia Nashville, Tennessee v vi Vll viii EXOTIC PESTS OF EASTERN FORESTS PROCEEDINGS TABLE OF CONTENTS Biodiversity and the Exotic Species Threat .....•....................•............. 1 Peter White The Exotic Pest Plant Council ......•........................................... 9 Brian Bowen New Strategies For Weed Prevention •........•....................•.........•.• 13 Randy Westbrooks, Lee Otteni, and Robert E. Eplee Barriers To Exotic Weed Management ........•....................•.........•.. 23 Faith Campbell Beech Bark Disease ................•.......•..............................•.• 29 David R. Houston Meteors, Space Aliens, and Other Exotic Encounters ...........................•.• 43 Tom Hofacker Three American Tragedies: Chestnut Blight, Butternut Canker, and Dutch Elm Disease ......•.•.....•................••............... 45 Scott Schlarbaum, Frederick Hebard, Pauline C. Spaine, and Joseph C. Kamalay The Nature Conservancy ............•.......•.................•............•.. 55 Victoria Nuzzo Global Gypsy - The Moth That Gets Around ...•................................. 63 William Wallner The OTA Report on Harmful Nonindigenous Species .................•.........•.. 71 Phyllis N Windle Biological Control of Purple Loosestrife In North America ............•............ 79 Bernd Blossey Siberian Forest Insects: Ready For Exp~rt ..•.•...........••.......•.........••. 85 Yuri N Baranchikov Economic Effects on Invasive Weeds on Land Values ...........................•.. 93 Charles Weiser Exotic Invasive Plants in Southeastern Forests .•................................. 97 James H Miller How Illinois Kicked the Exotic Habit .........•.............................•.. 107 Francis M. Harty Highway Corridor Responsibility ............•....................•..•....•... 125 Bonnie Harper-Lore ix Selective Herbicide Applications for Low Impact Vegetation Management of Exotic Species and Enhancement of Native Plant Communities .•.........•.•.... 129 Max Williamson IPM- How It Works In The Smokies .....................................•.... 137 Kristine D. Johnson Hands On Exotics ........................................................... 141 Sandy Bivens Ecosystem Restoration: A Systems Approach to Exotic Plant Control ...•.........•. 145 Karl D. Smith Mile-A-Minute Weed In The Northeast ....•.................................... 151 Larry H McCormick and C. Fagan Johnson, Jr. Imported Fire Ants in the Southeast ........................................... 155 David F. Williams Natives: New! Better! Improved! -An Outline ........•........................ 157 Meredith Clebsch The Minnesota Program: Community Partnerships For Effective Pest Control ....... 159 Thomas G. Eiber Dogwood Anthracnose -How collaboration was used in the Southern United States to effectively deal with a new tree disease ........................... 165 Robert L. Anderson How EXOTIC Does an Exotic Information and Education Initiative About the Impact of Non-Indigenous Species Need To Be? .............................. 175 William F.Hammond Monitoring Changes in Exotic Vegetation ....................................... 181 Robert D. Sutter Exotic Insects in North American Forests: Ecological Systems Forever Altered ............................................................ 187 William J. Mattson Mangrove Forests: A Tough System to Invade .................................. 195 Ariel E. Lugo X BIODIVERSITY AND THE EXOTIC SPECIES THREAT Peter S. White Department of Biology and North Carolina Botanical Garden University ofNorth Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, NC Abstract. Exotic species invasions, called by one conservation biologist the "least reversible" of all human impacts, cause harm to economies (e.g., fisheries, wildlife populations, tourism), the environment (e.g., in the form of broadcast of pesticides and herbicides), human health and well­ being (e.g., allergic responses and the increase in fire severity in some landscapes), and aesthetics (e.g., the amount of mortality in vegetation). These invasions threaten biological diversity by causing population declines of native species and by altering key ecosystem processes like hydrology, nitrogen fixation, and fire regime. The earth is essentially a loaded gun of exotic species problems because (1) evolution in isolation has produced continents with a similar range of environmental conditions but a very different array of species and (2) species generally have an ability for exponential increase, particularly when removed from natural controls on their population growth. As a result, the problem is a global one-the exotic species problem is neither trivial nor transitory. The human-caused mixing of formerly isolated biota stems from a failure to base decisions on the ecological and coevolutionary setting or organisms. We must employ many methods from our management tool box: eradication, containment, biocontrol, monitoring, and, most importantly, prevention. Introduction In 1958, the British ecologist C. S. Elton (1958) called dramatic attention to the exotic species problem when he wrote: We must make no mistake: We are seeing one of the great historical convulsions in the world's flora and fauna. We might say, with Professor Challenger, standing on Conan Doyle's 'Lost World,' with his black beard jutting out: 'We have been privileged to be present at one of the typical decisive battles of history-the battles which have determined the fate of the world.' The convulsion that Elton described was the relatively sudden mixing of formerly isolated biota because of purposeful and accidental transport by people. Although I focus today on impacts to natural areas, exotic pests cause a wide range of problems for human economies and even human health (Mooney and Drake 1989, Pycek et al. 1995). These include impacts on: forests, rangeland, lakes, streams, water quality, fisheries, and wildlife populations; aesthetic