Social and Aesthetics Impacts reduced water quality and quantity (increased erosion and sedimentation) reduced property values. damage to private property and infrastructure. loss of traditional food and medicinal plants.

When a new plant or animal finds it way into an ecosystem, it can have a knock-on effect throughout the whole environment. These species may damage land and water resources, carry disease, prey on native species and compete with native plants and animals for food and shelter.

Invasive species are capable of causing extinctions of native plants and animals, reducing biodiversity, competing with native organisms for limited resources, and altering habitats. This can result in huge economic impacts and fundamental disruptions of coastal and Great Lakes ecosystems.

The economic and social impacts of invasive species include both direct effects of a species on property values, agricultural productivity, public utility operations, native fisheries, tourism, and outdoor recreation, as well as costs associated with invasive species control efforts.

10 Ways You Can Prevent the Spread of Invasive Species

• Clean your hiking and fishing gear.
• Don’t move firewood.
• Fish using native bait when possible.
• Volunteer at removal efforts.
• Talk to your local nursery when selecting plants for your garden.
• Clean your boat before transferring to a new body of water.
• If you see an invasive species, report it.

Removal of invasive species growing alongside a stream or river can also improve the biodiversity of aquatic organisms. Restoration projects to remove invasive plants can make a positive impact on native plant species. “Land managers now have an important new impetus for invasive species management.”

One of those success stories is the eradication of the European grapevine moth (Lobesia botrana) in Northern California after it was found there in 2009.

If left uncontrolled, invasive species can limit land use. Many animals were adversely affected, including the ten species of moths and butterflies that became extinct because they could live only on American chestnut trees.

There are three main methods used for control of invasive species — biological, mechanical, and chemical.

1. Biological control is the intentional manipulation of natural enemies by humans for the purpose of controlling pests.
2. Mechanical control includes mowing, hoeing, cultivation, and hand pulling.

Invasive species are harmful to our natural resources (fish, wildlife, plants and overall ecosystem health) because they disrupt natural communities and ecological processes. The invasive species can outcompete the native species for food and habitats and sometimes even cause their extinction.

Verdict: We’re not an invasive species, though we’re certainly doing harm to the world around us. If you think about it, all of the harm done by invasive species is by definition our collective faults; some kind of human action led to that species being in a new place where it then causes some harm.

Ten of the World’s Most Invasive Species

• Asian Carp.
• Zebra Mussel (Dreissena polymorpha)
• Cane Toad (Rhinella marina)
• European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)
• Kudzu (Pueraria montana var. lobata)
• Asian long-horned beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis)
• Small Indian mongoose (Herpestes auropunctatus)
• Northern Pacific seastar (Asterias amurensis)