On Earth Day, Interior Secretary Norton Hails
New Invasive Species Control Facility

Fort Lauderdale, Fla - As part of an Earth Day visit to South Florida, Interior Secretary Gale Norton hailed the $6.2 million Invasive Species Control Facility under construction at the University of Florida's Ft. Lauderdale Research and Education Center as a major step forward in the battle against invasive species in the Everglades.

Norton then attended the release of melaleuca psyllids, small sap-sucking bug that attack and kill the saplings and seedlings of the invasive melaleuca tree, a major threat to the Everglades ecosystem.

"On Earth Day, we celebrate the historic partnership to restore the Everglades and South Florida ecosystem over the next 35 years," Norton said a ceremony at the new facility. "Controlling the spread of invasive species is a major part of this restoration effort. This facility will allow scientists to quarantine and evaluate insects that might be natural predators of invasive exotic plant species."

Melaleuca, a tree from Australia that can grow to 50-80 feet, soaks up large quantities of water and out-competes native vegetation on hundreds of thousands of acres of the Everglades. Melaleuca used to infest more than 500,000 acres of the Everglades. Due to an effective multi-agency management on federal and state lands in the Everglades protection area, the infestation has been reduced to about 350,000 acres.

Biologists are hopeful that the melaleuca psyllid and other biological controls will help stem the tide of the tree and other invasive species such as lygodium, or Old World climbing fern, that has smothered thousands of tree islands in the Everglades.

Currently more than 1,180 naturalized exotic plant species occur in Florida, making up at least 31 percent of the total number of plant species in the state. Florida is the nation's second-most invaded state after Hawaii.

The spread of exotics not only harms ecosystems but also hurts our economy. Nationally, invasive plants cost American agriculture $35 billion a year, while the cost to the economy of all invasive species is estimated at $123 billion a year.

"For South Florida, which is dependent on both agriculture and tourism, controlling infestations and stopping new ones is vital," Norton said.

Norton also used the occasion of Earth Day to reiterate her call for a new environmentalism based on the kind of partnership that is working so well in the Everglades.

She highlighted the new $100 million Cooperative Conservation Initiative in President Bush's 2003 budget as an example of the new environmentalism.

The $100 million will be distributed in challenge grants to landowners, land-user groups, environmental organizations, communities, local and state governments and industries for conservation projects that advance the health of the land and benefit people.

Half the new money, or $50 million, will be distributed to states to fund cost-share grants for innovative conservation projects. This will allow states to work within their communities to come up with innovative solutions to our conservation challenges.

The other half will be used by the National Park Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Land Management to fund cost-sharing grants. For example, a Park Service superintendent working with a private conservation group on a project on a park could obtain a grant to match the contributions of the group so that the project could go forward.

- DOI -