FILLING THE GAPS TEN STRATEGIES TO STRENGTHEN INVASIVE SPECIES MANAGEMENT IN FLORIDA THE ENVIRONMENTAL LAW INSTITUTE AUGUST 2004 Environmental Law Institute® Copyright © 2004 Filling the Gaps: Ten Strategies to Strengthen Invasive Species Management in Florida Copyright © 2004 Environmental Law Institute Washington, D.C. All rights reserved. ISBN No. 1-58576-085-4. ELI Project No. 033601. An electronic retrievable copy (PDF file) of this report may be obtained for no cost from the Environmental Law Institute website, www.eli.org, in the 2004 Research Reports sub-section of the Publications page. [Note: ELI Terms of Use will apply and are available on the site.] Environmental Law Institute, The Environmental Forum, and ELR - The Environmental Law Reporter are registered trademarks of the Environmental Law Institute. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This publication is a project of the Environmental Law Institute. Funding was provided by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers through the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Program. The report was identified as a critical project by the Noxious Exotic Weed Task Team (NEWTT) as part of their effort on behalf of the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Task Force and Working Group. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers staff, particularly Dennis Duke, Jon Lane, Kerry Luisi, and Bill Zattau, as well as all the members of NEWTT, have provided support and guidance for this project. Brad Klein conducted the primary research and authored the report. Jessica Wilkinson and Jay Austin provided valuable guidance and Katie Wells contributed editorial comment. The Environmental Law Institute is responsible for the views and research contained in this report, including any omissions or inaccuracies that may appear. The information contained in the report was obtained primarily through research of state and federal statutes and regulations and personal interviews conducted from October 2003 through May 2004. We gratefully acknowledge the help of the following people who provided us with valuable insights and feedback throughout the project. Leo Castaneda Craig James Jeff Schardt Miami Inspection Station, Florida Department of Transportation Bureau of Invasive Plant Management, Animal and Plant Health Florida Department Inspection Service Greg Jubinsky of Environmental Protection Bureau of Invasive Plant Management, Ted Center Florida Department Don Schmitz Agricultural Research Service, of Environmental Protection Bureau of Invasive Plant Management, U.S. Department of Agriculture Florida Department Matt King of Environmental Protection Richard Clark Palm Beach County Division of Plant Industry, Skip Snow Florida Department of Agriculture Rob Kipker Everglades National Park and Consumer Services Bureau of Invasive Plant Management, Florida Department Dan Thayer Steve Coughlin of Environmental Protection South Florida Water Florida Fish and Wildlife Management District Conservation Commission Jon Lane Jacksonville District, Bill Thomas Robert F. Doren U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Loxahatchee Wildlife Refuge, Department of Interior/ U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Florida International University Ken Langeland University of Florida Institute Andrea VanLoan Doria Gordon of Food and Agricultural Sciences Division of Forestry, The Nature Conservancy Florida Department of Agriculture Rob Loflin and Consumer Services Layne Hamilton City of Sanibel Florida Panther Wildlife Refuge, Bill Wallace U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Joe Maguire Office of Policy Miami-Dade County and Program Development Scott Hardin Animal and Plant Health Florida Fish and Wildlife Jorge Picon Inspection Service Conservation Commission Division of Law Enforcement, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Joe Walsh Lorraine Heisler Florida Fish and Wildlife South Florida Field Office, Terry Rice Conservation Commission U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Miccosukee Tribe Tom Jackson Art Roybal National Oceanic South Florida Field Office, and Atmospheric Administration/ U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service National Marine Fisheries Service TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION . 7 Purpose of this Report . 7 Methodology . 8 Organization . 9 CHAPTER 2: THE FEDERAL LEGAL FRAMEWORK . 11 Prevention . 11 Control and Management . 14 Research . .19 Education, Outreach, and Public Partnership . .19 Strategic Planning and Coordination . 21 Recap and Pending Legislation . 24 CHAPTER 3: ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION AUTHORITIES AND THE STATE ROLE . 29 South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Authorities . 29 State Agencies and Authorities . 30 Local Invasive Species Prevention and Control . 35 State Programs and Partnerships . 36 CHAPTER 4: GAPS,CONFLICTS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS . .45 Prevention . 45 Control and Management . 51 Research . 53 Education, Outreach, and Public Partnership . 54 Strategic Planning and Coordination . 55 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION . 61 APPENDIX: GLOSSARY . 63 TABLES 1. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Aquatic Plant Control Programs . 15 2. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Continuing Authorities Program . .16 3. Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan’s Goal . 17 4. Selected Invasive Species Bills in the 108th Congress . 20 5. Milestones and Key Authories in South Florida Ecosystem Restoration . 32 6. Minnesota’s Four-tiered Listing System for Exotic Species . 47 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION f all the states, Florida is among the most grasses and trees, has spread from one small affected by harmful non-indigenous infestation in 1979 to more than 200,000 acres Ospecies.1 Non-natives can be found in today. Escaped or intentionally released exotic Florida’s reefs, shorelines, estuaries, forests, lakes, pets, including giant Amazonian pythons, are rivers, dunes, swamps, prairies, sand-pine ridges, lurking in the channels surrounding Everglades and beaches—essentially every Florida habitat. National Park, and evidence suggests they are “Parts of South Florida look good to the breeding.6 Unless urgent action is taken, an uninitiated,” writes biologist and Pulitzer Prize- increasing number of experts agree that the unique winning author E.O. Wilson, “but in the naturalist’s and diverse ecosystem that inspired Ms. Douglas eye it is substantially a Potemkin façade of foreign may be forever lost. species.”2 While the majority of these non-native species are benign, causing no lasting damage to their new ecosystems and habitats, others—the PURPOSE OF THIS REPORT invasives3—have the potential to cause extreme ecological disruption by outcompeting native species and altering natural habitats. The state and federal response to invasive species Perhaps nowhere are these impacts more evident in the Everglades and throughout Florida has been than in the Everglades. Marjory Stoneman hampered by a convoluted patchwork of laws and Douglas’s famed “River of Grass” once stretched regulations, most of which were not originally across much of South Florida, the surface and promulgated with invasive species in mind.7 ground water flowing south in a uniform and Jurisdictional boundaries, conflicts in agencies’ unchanneled sheet from the Kissimmee chain of missions and goals, public apathy, and industry lakes to Florida Bay.4 Today, however, the glades opposition have further stymied effective progress. are dissected by a latticework of more than 1,000 Formulating a coherent policy response requires a miles of canals, 720 miles of levees, and hundreds thorough understanding of the gaps and of water control structures—the result of more than shortcomings in the legal authorities currently 100 years of labor to provide suitable farmland and available for invasive species management in a steady water supply to the rapidly growing South Florida. In 2001, an interagency task team Florida region.5 affiliated with the South Florida Ecosystem This “re-plumbing” of the Everglades, coupled Restoration Task Force (SFERTF) identified this with pressures from agriculture and urban need,8 and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has development, has severely stressed the sensitive provided the funding necessary to accomplish this ecosystem and increased its vulnerability to task.9 invasive species. Old World climbing fern, an This report builds on the findings in the SFERTF exotic plant that enshrouds and smothers native report10 and the Environmental Law Institute’s CHAPTER 1 7 invasive species expertise11 to identify and analyze commonly used prevention tools. Pre-screening both the obstacles to and the opportunities for requirements, early detection, and rapid preventing, controlling, managing, and eradicating response/eradication programs also belong in this invasive species in Florida. The centerpiece of this category. As the first line of defense against study is an evaluation of the strengths, invasives, prevention is often thought to be the weaknesses, and gaps in existing legal authorities most effective and cost-efficient strategy and the development of concrete available. recommendations to strengthen invasive species policy in Florida, either through the adoption of 2) Control and Management. This category new laws, policies, or programs, or through covers government attempts to control established amendments to or creative application of existing infestations of invasive species. Because complete laws and regulations. The report covers the entire eradication is not generally feasible for established state of Florida, but devotes a particular focus to species, most of these measures are intended to the role of federal authority in Everglades limit the spread of invasive populations and reduce restoration. Similarly, although