The simple answer:

The answer to that question is” Billions of dollars in damage and control efforts, and the most significant loss of biodiversity in history!

We are talking serious, almost irreparable damage to eco systems, and it has gone global! A vine that might be fine in China, may swallow an entire forest in the Southern part of the United States! An aquatic fern may present no problems in it’s native South America, yet engulf rivers, ponds and lakes in the Southern U.S.

Such are the cases of Kudzu and Salvinia Molesta. There are dozens of others, and with the nature of global commerce and global travel, we can expect many more!

When these plants invade, they may be relatively inactive for years, then make giant leaps, seemingly, over night! Salvinia Molesta can double in 5 to 7 days, moving from 1 plant to 60 million in under 2 months, and I have personally watched kudzu grow measurably on a warm summer day!

The numbers:

According to the National Invasive Species Information Center, some estimates put the economic cost associated with invasive species damage and control efforts at more than $100 billion a year in the United States. That is some of the economic damage, but the cost in terms of lost native species is beyond our capacity to fully understand!

A plant native to Asia sprouts. It is pulled from it’s native waters and shipped to an aquarium wholesaler in South Florida. It is bought by a family in a goldfish bowl along with some gravel, and a small goldfish. The goldfish is forgotten during the family vacation, the goldfish dies, and is buried at sea, along with the contents of the bowl.The plant from the fish bowl survives, and likes it’s new home. It produces more plants, which, in turn, produce even more, now growing exponentially. An out of state boater doesn’t clean his boat well after a fishing vacation to the area, and travels back to his state with a hitch hiker or two. These plants survive the trip, and find a new home in the first lake the boater puts into.

They like the new lake, and thrive. More boaters do the same through various parts of the country. The plant becomes the dominant species in it’s new homes, and gradually eliminates all other plants in these lakes. the small fish that enjoyed the new cover in it’s early stages, now have lost the plants that support the micro invertebrates that fed them. They disappear. The larger fish that survived by eating the smaller fish, now begin to dwindle. Other animals that consumed the larger fish, and some of the now missing native plants for survival, now move to other areas, and populations decrease.

Fishermen, who once thought that the cover provided by the invaders was good for fishing, now find their favorite spots devoid of fish, and move to other spots, possibly taking the predator with them along with their sport fishing dollars, and the local bait and tackle shops close. This strains the local economic resources, and some local services are no longer available.

The animals who once fed on the fish, have moved away, no longer eat another of the invasive plants (brought here on purpose, and heretofore, seemingly dormant) in the forest, which now takes over the sub canopy, and eliminates the food that deer used for browsing. Scarce food, and unusual disease (brought on by lack of nutrients from some of the now defunct native species) force the dwindling whitetail population to move out of the area. Hunting and the tourism trade in the area now cease.

The proprietors of the local hunting and fishing store close down shop and move to South Florida where they open a small aquarium shop, no longer able to survive in their native area.

They can no longer pay into their children’s college funds, and one of the children, who was destined to discover a cure for cancer, turns to petty theft to help support his family. The cure is lost forever. Little Timmy is bound for a life of crime, and the cancer cure was found in a plant that existed only in a small pond in his native home, which was destroyed by the invasive aquatic plant.

A little heavy on the pathos, perhaps, but not far from the truth! This fictitious(?) story illustrates some of the problems related to exotic plants and loss of biodiversity.

• Exotic plants move. They do not stay in the same area forever, and they have many means of locomotion.

• Each change in an ecosystem brings about other changes, which in turn, bring about other changes…

• These changes eventually effect the human population economically and in other ways.

Learn more about our dwindling native species population and biodiversity.