Wildlife Promise » Mississippi River Delta

Shortsighted Senate Water Bill Will Damage Rivers and Wildlife, Fleece Taxpayers

Lacey McCormick — Wed, 15 May 2013 17:34:22 +0000

Today, the Senate voted 83-14 to pass the Water Resources Development Act of 2013, S.601.

Larry Schweiger, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, said in response:

This shortsighted bill will leave Americans at greater risk of flooding, damage our rivers and wildlife, and fleece taxpayers. Apparently, all it takes is a classic Washington pig roast to break the gridlock in the Senate.

It would cost an estimated $60 billion to build all the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projects currently on the books. Today, the Senate has added to the backlog while undermining the process that identifies which projects provide real value. Time and time again, commonsense environmental reviews have shed light on expensive, damaging proposals that are not in our national interest.The Water Resources Development Act is vital for helping to restore national treasures like the Everglades and the Mississippi River Delta. Unfortunately, language in this bill undermines the bedrock environmental principle that the federal government should look before it leaps. For example, this bill will allow the Army Corps to fine other federal agencies up to $20,000 a week if they aren’t able to meet the new rushed deadlines for environmental review.

Now the debate moves to the House. We look forward to working with our representatives to protect the integrity of the environmental review process, and to enact meaningful reforms that will prioritize low impact solutions and modernize the management of existing projects. This bill must be fixed before the President signs it into law.

Read more about the Water Resources Development Act:

Mississippi River’s newest distributary in danger of being closed

Emily Guidry Schatzel — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 17:35:31 +0000

A river otter enjoys new habitat formed by the Mississippi River’s newest outlet in Louisiana, Mardi Gras Pass.

Last year during Mardi Gras, the Mississippi River carved a small outlet through its bank and found a shorter route to the Gulf of Mexico.This was the river’s way of naturally reconnecting with its surrounding wetlands — a natural delta process that we rarely see today because of levees, but which is still possible in this area known as the Bohemia Spillway.

Shortly after this took place, river otters, beavers, fish, birds and other wildlife began making this small outlet — dubbed Mardi Gras Pass — their home. State and federal regulators are deciding whether or not to issue a permit that would allow a company to rebuild a road washed away when the pass formed. The road fill, with four culverts, would choke off the flow of the pass and interrupt the re-establishment of natural processes. This would destroy wildlife habitat. Before a permit is granted to fill Mardi Gras Pass, responsible authorities should conduct a comprehensive environmental analysis.

The current plan to rebuild the road will effectively close the pass and eliminate encouraging ecological benefits that scientists have been monitoring since the channel’s development. NWF is calling for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the State of Louisiana to conduct a comprehensive assessment and carefully consider all of the benefits of the pass before granting any permit that would close the pass and destroy wildlife habitat.

The State of Louisiana is holding a public hearing on Wednesday, March 20 at 6 pm in the Belle Chasse Auditorium. NWF and its partners in coastal restoration will be there to show strong support for keeping Mardi Gras Pass open and letting the Mississippi River naturally reconnect with its wetlands, providing river otters and other wildlife with new habitat.

Louisiana’s coastal wetlands are important for many species of wildlife including river otters, pelicans, and alligators—and can provide critical hurricane protection for Louisiana’s coastal residents. But these wetlands—otter habitat and so much more—are eroding into the Gulf of Mexico at a rate of a football field every hour. Louisiana’s groundbreaking new plan to restore its vanishing coast includes river-reintroduction projects—something very similar to Mardi Gras Pass—that allow the river to naturally flow to its wetlands.

Since the 1930s, Louisiana has lost almost 2,000 square miles of coastal wetlands and barrier islands. Before the levees to control flooding were placed along the Mississippi, the natural creation of small outlets like Mardi Gras Pass was fairly commonplace.

Keeping Mardi Gras Pass open is important—it’s a chance for the river to reconnect with its wetlands, which is exactly what the river is designed to do.

For Gulf Restoration, Every Dollar Counts

Sara Gonzalez-Rothi — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 15:58:35 +0000

This weekend I had the opportunity to discuss what BP might face at trial for the Gulf oil disaster with some eloquent thought leaders, including Tulane political science professor and MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry. We discussed the continuing “unusual mortality event” of Gulf dolphins, the 565,000 pounds of Deepwater Horizon oil that washed ashore only six months ago with Hurricane Isaac, and other continuing impacts of the disaster.

Click here to view the embedded video.

It’s difficult to quantify the harm in an environmental disaster. The Gulf is enormous and oil gushed from over a mile below the surface of the ocean. Because water and wildlife move, it would be near-impossible to find every bit of damage. Researchers found evidence of Deepwater Horizon oil in pelican eggs in Minnesota last year! To compound matters, the impacts are far-reaching into parts of the ecosystem that scientists don’t know much about. For instance, a substantial amount of the oil moved southwest of the Macondo well and settled into a deep underwater canyon.

But for multinational oil companies like BP, the profits are obvious, and they are high.

BP’s 2012 annual report indicates that Chief Executive Bob Dudley, who spoke at the CERAWeek Energy Industry conference yesterday about just about everything but trial, made $2.67 million last year. In the three years since the spill, BP has netted close to $40 billion, even after covering the cost to cap the well, run ubiquitous “our beaches are open” commercials, pay individual claims and pay the largest corporate criminal penalty by the Department of Justice.

Anchor-handling tugboats battle the blazing remnants of the off shore oil rig Deepwater Horizon. U.S. Coast Guard photo.

Testimony at trial thus far indicates that BP chose to maximize profits by cutting costs — no matter the consequences. BP’s own investors are suing for fraud arguing the oil giant hid information about the size of the spill and publicly claimed it was operating safely while ignoring warnings by employees. Even the CEO of ExxonMobil says BP’s actions “were not up to industry standard” and that the disaster was “avoidable”.

The law that governs oil spills is clear: since profits from offshore drilling are so high and the consequences are so dangerous, unsafe drillers who spill must compensate for all damage and face penalties. This helps discourage putting profits over safety.

Unbelievably, on the day of our panel, the Washington Post ran an editorial arguing that BP should not face severe penalties. The editorial posed the question, “How much is too much for BP?” In what must be a tagline meant for an April Fool’s Day piece, the editorial continued, “A bill anywhere near that large is impossible to justify.” This is precisely why polluters engage in willful blindness to legal requirements: environmental laws are viewed as somehow less legitimate than tax evasion, racketeering, or labor laws. But crime is crime.

Testimony from the trial shows that this multi-billion dollar corporation had an “every dollar counts” mentality that led them to take egregious safety risks to cut costs, resulting in the loss of eleven lives and over 172 million gallons of crude oil spilled in one of the most productive ecosystems in the world. Misplaced sympathy for BP’s liability is akin to taking pity on Ponzi schemers facing punitive damages for their crimes. BP made calculated business decisions to take dangerous shortcuts in search of profit. The only way to prevent such behavior in the future is to balance the scales of justice so that the reward no longer justifies the risk.

Almost three years after the spill began, the Gulf’s dolphins are still dying in high numbers. Ask the Department of Justice to hold BP fully accountable so we can restore the Gulf of Mexico!

Speak up for River Otters in Louisiana’s Mardi Gras Pass

Lacey McCormick — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 15:44:08 +0000

Last year during Mardi Gras, the Mississippi River did something perfectly ordinary and yet utterly extraordinary: it carved a small outlet in its eastern bank and found a shorter route to the Gulf of Mexico.

Otters in Louisiana’s Mardi Gras Pass could soon find themselves out of a home. Protect river otters and restore Louisiana’s vanishing coast here! Photo courtesy of Dan Dzurisin.

Shortly after, river otters began making this small outlet—dubbed Mardi Gras Pass—their home. Unfortunately, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the State of Louisiana might allow an oil company to effectively close the outlet, which would destroy habitat for the otters.

Louisiana’s coastal wetlands are important for many species of wildlife including river otters, pelicans, and alligators, and provide critical hurricane protections for Louisiana’s coastal residents.

But these wetlands, including otter habitat and so much more, are eroding into the Gulf of Mexico at a rate of a football field every hour.

Louisiana’s groundbreaking new plan to restore its vanishing coast includes a river-reintroduction project—something very like Mardi Gras Pass—in almost in the exact same location.

Since the 1930s, when levees to control flooding were placed along the Mississippi, Louisiana has lost almost 2,000 square miles of coastal wetlands and barrier islands. Before that time, the natural creation of small outlets like Mardi Gras Pass was fairly commonplace.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the State of Louisiana should deny the permit and give themselves time to carefully consider all of the benefits of the pass.

Tell the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the State of Louisiana to work with the river—not against it—and allow the otters to stay in their new, naturally-created habitat.

1,000 Days Late and Billions of Dollars Short

Robyn Fischer — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 16:00:07 +0000

Tomorrow marks one thousand days since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, spewing millions of barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico over 87 days. The oil spill devastated the Gulf’s economy, ecosystems, and wildlife all of which is still reeling from the catastrophe. So after one thousand days, I have to ask: has British Petroleum (BP) been held fully accountable for the disaster in the Gulf?

A photo of a struggling pelican coated with oil floating in the Gulf of Mexico now greets workers arriving at the Navy Archives Metro station, close to the Department of Justice’s Pennsylvania Avenue headquarters building.

Well, BP recently agreed to pay $4.5 billion in criminal fines and penalties – the largest ever criminal resolution in the United States. And in May 2012 BP agreed to pay up to $7.8 billion to private plaintiffs. But BP still faces upwards of $21 billion in civil Clean Water Act penalties. Furthermore, if BP paid the same per-gallon fines as Exxon did for the Valdez spill, its liability under the Oil Pollution Act would be in the range of $30 billion. That’s a total of up to $50 billion in civil fines and penalties.

We must hold BP accountable for their actions

For a corporation like BP – that has a net worth of about $81 billion and has reported earnings of $5.2 billion for the third quarter of 2012 (a 40% rise in earnings) – the statutory fines it faces for gross violations of the Clean Water Act are (please forgive the horrible pun) a drop in the bucket. It’s despicable that while BP just paid the largest criminal penalties in U.S. history, the amount was still about one billion dollars less than they earned last quarter alone!

What do teachers do to keep kids from repeatedly breaking class rules? They enforce the rules to the letter of the law. So what will adequately prevent corporations like BP from taking reckless shortcuts that harm the environment and ensure there is sufficient capital for environmental restoration?

Suuurvey says: make them pay! The responsible party must compensate the damaged interests (the Gulf resources and communities that were polluted). A robust settlement will deter future misconduct and simultaneously provide the critical investment necessary to repair and rebuild the Gulf.

B.P. = British Petroleum Better Pay

It’s encouraging to hear that the Department of Justice (DOJ) intends “to prove that BP was grossly negligent in causing the oil spill.” To walk the talk, that means DOJ must pursue the maximum penalties under the Clean Water Act and Oil Pollution Act, so the Gulf can be healed.

Take Action! Urge the Department of Justice to hold BP fully accountable for the oil spill. Stand with us, and support DOJ’s efforts to #makeBPpay!

Lagniappe for the Mississippi River Delta—and the Gulf of Mexico

David Muth — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 19:59:45 +0000

Last Thursday began with a buzz of speculation for those of us in the Mississippi River Delta Restoration campaign. The Justice department was going to announce a settlement with BP of the criminal charges arising from the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Attorney General Holder then announced the largest criminal settlement in history: $4.5 billion. But to our delight, there was more—$1.2 billion of the money BP will pay to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation will be directed to Mississippi River diversions and barrier island restoration in hard-hit coastal Louisiana.

The Mississippi River Delta provides critical breeding, wintering and migratory stopover habitat for 100 million individual birds each year. The type of projects funded by the BP settlement will help restore the delta, which is eroding into the Gulf of Mexico at an average rate of a football field every hour. Flickr photo by Dan Pancamo.

These diversions—actually river re-introduction projects—are critical to restoring a naturally functioning delta, and changing the trajectory from wetland loss to wetland gain in one of the most important wildlife habitats in the world.

Decades of National Wildlife Federation involvement in efforts to restore the Mississippi River Delta are about to see fruition. This was not just serendipity. It followed on the passage of the RESTORE Act and the adoption of the 2012 Louisiana Master Plan for a Sustainable Coast, two signature achievements in 2012—the result of years of hard work and dedication by NWF and its many partners. It is no coincidence that both of these accomplishments were referenced during the AG’s press conference.

Furthermore, an additional $1.2 billion will be distributed through the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to the remaining Gulf States—Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Texas, for restoration purposes. That is great news for NWF’s efforts to restore the Gulf of Mexico.

We are still anticipating a much larger payment from the resolution of the civil case against BP for their violations of federal environmental laws such as the Clean Water Act and the Oil Pollution Act. For now, we welcome that the Department of Justice chose to craft the criminal settlement in the way announced Thursday.

Importantly, the Justice Department made it clear that BP will enjoy no tax advantages from this payment to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and that this will not be used to offset any part of its civil penalties. And Justice also made it very clear that it intends to pursue the civil case vigorously, if BP does not proffer an acceptable settlement.

Thanks to the RESTORE Act we anticipate a great deal more money for restoration, but this restoration money from the criminal case is truly lagniappe, as we say in New Orleans.

Make sure the Department of Justice holds BP fully accountable for the 2010 disaster in the Gulf!

Gulf Dolphins are Still Dying—Don’t Let BP Off Easy

Lacey McCormick — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 04:22:02 +0000

Photo credit: flickr / thepugfather

Two and a half years after BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and sent more than 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf, dolphins across the northern Gulf of Mexico are still dying in high numbers.

Yesterday, BP agreed to pay a record criminal fine for the Gulf oil spill, but vowed to vigorously contest the charges it is facing under federal environmental law. Money from these penalties will go to restoring the Gulf.

BP Must be Held Accountable

Dolphins in one heavily oiled section of the Louisiana coast are suffering and even dying from a variety of symptoms–including anemia, low blood sugar, and lung disease–that suggest exposure to oil.

But media reports indicate that BP might be attempting to negotiate an agreement with the Department of Justice to pay less than half of what the company could face at trial for its violations of the Clean Water Act and the Oil Pollution Act.

Speak up for Dolphins

The Department of Justice and BP have been in intense negotiations and could announce an agreement at any time.

BP’s fines need to be large enough to restore the Gulf of Mexico for dolphins and other wildlife—and to send a clear message that America holds reckless polluters fully accountable.

Gulf dolphins need us to help ensure the Department of Justice holds BP fully accountable for restoring Gulf habitat–please add your voice today!

Will Alligators Return to the Central Wetlands?

Lacey McCormick — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 02:33:55 +0000

49K activists from across the country have made restoration a real possibility.

Much of the Central Wetlands were once a flourishing cypress swamp much like the one in the top image, by photographer Paul Mannix. Click to LIKE and SHARE this image on Facebook!

New Orleans’ Central Wetlands were once a flourishing cypress swamp, home to a dizzying array of fish and wildlife, including alligators and hundreds of species of migrating birds. An easy drive from downtown, the Central Wetlands were also a haven for locals, who often hunted or fished for food in its waters.

Today the Central Wetlands are an open expanse of saltwater, punctuated only by the stumps of dead cypress trees.

Over the past fifty years, approximately 1000 square miles of habitats were damaged or destroyed by a shipping channel known as the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO).

Worse still, during Hurricane Katrina, the MRGO funneled storm surge into large areas in and around New Orleans, dramatically increasing the devastation from the storm.

In Katrina’s wake, Congress ordered the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers—who built and operated the channel—to come up with a plan to restore the damaged habitats. Incredibly, the Corps was openly considering ignoring Congress and taking no further action towards restoration.

But thanks to almost 49,000 emails from activists across the country, today the fate of the Central Wetlands and other habitats damaged by the MRGO is looking a little brighter.

A new report by the Corps’ Chief of Engineers, published early last week, recommends moving forward on a $3 billion plan to restore wetlands damaged or destroyed by the construction and operation of the
Mississippi River Gulf Outlet.

This news was greeted enthusiastically in New Orleans. Locals know that wetlands—particularly cypress forests—can help protect communities by buffering storm surge.

There are still obstacles to implementation: The Corps and the State of Louisiana are mired in a cost-sharing dispute that looks likely to hold up the restoration plan for at least the near future.

But the urgent need for restoration ought to transcend the cost-sharing issue. The MRGO plan—now more than four years behind Congress’ deadline—is critical to restoring the wetlands and wildlife habitats damaged by the canal.

NWF and our partners in the MRGO Must Go coalition have offered other major recommendations to the Corps, including prioritizing the 19 projects in the MRGO restoration that are also recommended in Louisiana’s 2012 Coastal Master Plan.

We’ve also recommended that the Corps expedite the Violet Freshwater Diversion, a project that will bring freshwater from the Mississippi River into the Central Wetlands and help to rebuild the lost marshes and cypress swamps while controlling salinity. These measures will ultimately lead to better resilience in the face of hurricanes—and will help the city adapt to sea level rise.

Want to make a difference for wildlife? Speak up for wolves affected by massive Keystone XL pipeline—urge the U.S. State Department to reject the dangerous tar sands oil pipeline.

Surveying Hurricane Isaac’s Impacts

Lacey McCormick — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 17:21:02 +0000

Story and photos by Jared Serigné.

The Delacroix Island where my grandfather was raised will never exist again. I’m okay with that. I’ve come to terms with it. I love Delacroix for what it is now, and that’s exactly why I went there on Sunday to survey the damage after Hurricane Isaac’s storm surge flooded the area last week.

Delacroix is situated about an hour’s drive outside New Orleans on Bayou Terre-aux-Boeufs in St. Bernard Parish (map). My Spanish and French ancestors settled there in the early 1800s, and I feel a deep connection to the place. I go down there often to experience the bounty of nature while hunting and fishing.

A pelican wounded during the storm sits helplessly on a ridge of destroyed marsh.

The Delacroix marshes in the Mississippi River Delta suffer from the same high rate of land loss as the rest of Louisiana’s dying coastline. This is why I will never know the paradise that I hear the old-timers talk about. Still, it serves as the wilderness home for a wide range of fish and wildlife and is a productive environment even when under stress.

My last trip to Delacroix was on the Monday before Isaac struck. As its tropical storm force winds began to swing their way into the coast, I snuck in a pretty decent fishing trip that yielded an ice chest full of redfish. Everything was very alive on that day. The golden-green marsh grass swayed in the wind, mottled ducks called back and forth to each other, and bait fish and blue crabs scurried in and out of the submerged aquatic vegetation. I took it all in, but in the back of my mind I feared the worst and hoped for the best.

I waited out the storm at a friend’s house in New Orleans. After hearing the news that the town of Braithwaite in Plaquemines Parish was flooded by a surge of up to 12 feet, I knew that Delacroix would have taken a major hit. I decided that as soon as the water went down I would make a trip to survey the damage.

Fishing lodge owner Joe Guinta cleans up after Isaac’s surge, a thick layer of mud below his feet.

As we drove down on Sunday and crossed outside the federal levee system that surrounds St. Bernard Parish, the impact from the surge of Gulf of Mexico saltwater was immediately apparent. Debris hung from trees and anything that would normally be green this time of year had been turned brown. I’m used to seeing that brown color in the marsh in the dead of winter, but in the heat of an early September morning, it was enough to make my stomach turn.Then I saw the mud. The same rich delta soils that formed the marsh now caked the lawns and driveways of the houses and camps that lined the highway.

A large tree washed up onto the docks of this boat shed.

I pulled up to my boat slip to find a large tree washed up on the dock. My friend Joe was busy cleaning up the mess that Isaac left behind. “Judging by the water line on the boat shed I’d say we got about 10 feet of water right here,” he said. He seemed relieved that it wasn’t any worse. But that still didn’t relieve my own fears for the marsh, so we set out in a boat to revisit the places I saw on my last fishing trip.

When I turned from the main bayou out into the marsh, the smell of dead fish and stale marsh mud hit me like a freight train. Chunks of land had been picked up and moved to open water. Small trees and brush were toppled over one another and the once green marsh grass all blended together in a wasteland of grey. This is to be expected when a major surge of saltwater passes over a brackish marsh, but it still stings when you see it.

All of the submerged aquatic vegetation that once covered the shallow ponds was washed up and killed by the surge. These plants are important to the ecosystem. They provide shelter for small fish and crabs, and their seeds are food for waterfowl.

After seeing all the destruction to the marsh it was a sweet relief to land the fish.

I ran back to a spot where I caught most of my fish on the last trip. I could tell that some of the marsh there was washed away because the small islands where we caught fish were now gone. There were still other islands left, so I decided to test the water for any signs of life. I grabbed the single rod and reel that I brought along and sent a gold spoon lure sailing into the murky water. Like clockwork, I felt a familiar tug on the other end of the line as a hungry redfish took the bait. After seeing all the destruction to the marsh it was a sweet relief to land the fish. It was a symbol of the abundance that Louisiana’s coast has to offer and the exact reason why I feel something must be done to restore this great wilderness.

We toured the marsh until the scene had left a lasting impression. The verdict was that the marsh took a big hit with Hurricane Isaac—similar to the effects felt after Hurricane Katrina, but not nearly as bad. Vital marsh land will be lost, and I’m sure satellite imagery from before and after Isaac will reveal approximately how much. What hurts more is that we have once again lost more of our natural protection from storm surge. Most of us were spared as the federal levee system did its job to protect communities, but other areas were not as fortunate as the floodwater inundated areas outside the federal levees. Many citizens must once again consider their plans to rebuild.

Now that Isaac has passed, it is time to get to work putting the pieces back together here in the Mississippi River Delta. As we tackle the challenge before us, I hope the rest of the country takes note of our plight, but there is no need to feel sorry for us. We choose to be here. We know that sustaining our unique culture and way of life is directly tied to how we manage this dynamic landscape.

We now have a comprehensive, scientifically-sound plan to restore our coast, the 2012 Louisiana Coastal Master Plan. With funding we can begin major projects that will build land and protect our communities.

The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers is taking input until Thursday on an important project that will restore wetlands and help protect communities from hurricanes. Make your voice heard!

Like a Bad Horror Flick, Alien Creatures Invade the U.S.

Kelly Wagner — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 18:25:57 +0000

It reads like a bad 1960s horror film—alien creatures taking over the countryside and leaving devastation in their path. Giant snakes, flying fish, voracious rodents, and swarms of birds are making their way to your community! It seems so far-fetched. Sadly, this monster flick is more likely to be a documentary on NOVA or the NatGeo channel because the invasions are real.

When Monsters Attack

Non-native fish and wildlife are creating havoc in our eco-systems from Minnesota to Florida. They are decimating the landscape, kicking out native wildlife from their habitats, and costing taxpayers billions of dollars. The sad thing about this plot is that some of these invasions were preventable through improved processes in wildlife importing.

Snakes in the Glades

University of Florida researchers holding a Burmese python caught alive in the Everglades in 2009. Photo courtesy of U.S. Geological Survey.

Florida has a long history of non-native species making their way to its land such as the rhesus monkeys in Central Florida. However, no other creature has the dangerous potential of the Burmese python that is slowly taking over the Florida Everglades. It is suspected that the original pythons were escaped or released pets. Estimates suggest that more than 30,000 are slithering their way through the Everglades. Park rangers are overwhelmed with trying to keep the pythons in check.

They pose a serious risk to the endangered Florida panther by competing for the same food sources. The internet is full of photos of battles between these monstrous snakes and powerful alligators.

Their apparent ability to adapt to our southern climates may allow the snakes to migrate further away from the Everglades.

Flying Fish of the Heartland

The south isn’t the only place under invasion from alien creatures. The American heartland is struggling with aquatic aliens collectively known as asian carp. Asian carp is a catchall name for species of silver, bighead, grass, and black carp from Southeast Asia. They were imported in the 1970s to filter pond water in fish farms in Arkansas. Flooding allowed them to escape. They are slowly migrating north up the Mississippi tributaries and there are fears that they will soon reach the Great Lakes. Once established they are virtually impossible to eradicate. Females lay approximately half a million eggs each time they spawn putting pressure on native fish populations. The huge, hard-headed silver carp also pose a threat to boaters. The fish can leap out of the water when startled by boat engines, often colliding with people and causing injuries.

Rodents of Unusual Size

Further south on the Mississippi river a large rodent, known as nutria, is creating a nuisance in the wetlands. Originally imported for the fur trade from South America, nutria currently populate 15 states. They were introduced to Coastal Louisiana in the 1930s and have caused a devastating effect on the fragile Mississippi River Delta. Eating the stems of wetland plants, nutria overgraze a wetland area eventually turning the wetlands to open water.

The Birds

Resembling the Hitchcock film, this flying creature can be found throughout the U.S. and has the claim of the “most hated bird in North America.” The European Starling was imported as a New York businessman’s not-so-brilliant idea to import exotic birds mentioned in Shakespeare’s plays to Central Park. Over 200 million European Starlings are now residents of American farms and cities. These nuisances run off native birds and cause over $800 million in damage to agriculture each year. That’s only the tip of the problems these birds cause.

How to Stop a Monster

All four of these alien invaders have one thing in common—human introduction to North America. The humans may have been well-intentioned, but they did not consider the long-term consequences of bringing exotic wildlife to our country.

There are still no regulations to analyze the risks of non-native species before allowing them to be imported. As a result, native wildlife—and public health—is threatened by additional invasive species. Recently the House of Representatives introduced a bill, the Invasive Fish & Wildlife Prevention Act of 2012, to improve the initial screening process for importing exotic fish and wildlife. While it won’t end the current invasions, it may prevent future ones.

Non-native species create imbalances in our ecosystems, putting endangered wildlife at risk. It costs taxpayers billions of dollars every year to deal with the invaders. It’s time to be proactive about wildlife importations.

Help protect native wildlife, including Florida Panthers, from invasive species like the python.