The Brown Treesnake
Control and Research Program

People, Land and Water", June 2008, Searching for Snakes: Agencies Join Forces to Reduce Impacts, Stop Spread of Invasive Brown Treesnake

A Brown Treesnake ready to strike.
[Image taken from The Saipan Tribune]

The Brown Treesnake (BTS) is an invasive species on the island of Guam.  Scientists think BTS arrived in Guam during the late 1940s from military craft.  In the 1980s, people started to notice that native birds were disappearing.  A scientist from Colorado State University found that the Brown Treesnake was the cause of the declining native bird and lizard populations. 

As a result of this finding, in Fiscal Year 1987, the Office of Territorial and International Affairs (now the Office of Insular Affairs) provided technical assistance funding to the Fish and Wildlife Service to conduct biological studies of the snake and to develop methods to control them and reduce damages caused by them. This was the beginning of the Brown Treesnake Control and Research Program, which was created to provide a more coordinated foundation for control and interdiction of BTS throughout the Pacific.

Grant Funding from OIA

Currently, the OIA’s budget for the BTS Control and Research Program is roughly $2.7 million (and combined with all the other agencies the funding amounts to $5-6 million).

In 1998, the OIA increased its budget request from $600,000 to $1.6 million for the BTS Control and Research Program.  The additional funding recognized the need to increase research efforts (no less than $800,000 was to be dedicated to research) and formally incorporated CNMI interdiction funding into the program.  In 1999, the OIA was provided an increase by $500,000 and in 2000-2004, the budget was increased again to $2.35 million.  In 2005 and 2006, the OIA’s budget then increased to roughly $2.7 million per year.

BTS Funding Breakdown FY 2005

The Funding Efforts of the Office of Insular Affairs (OIA) and Coordination with Other Federal Agencies to Control and Contain the Invasive Brown Treesnake

The Office of Insular Affairs (OIA), as a part of the Department of the Interior (DOI), serves as the funding mechanism for parts of the Brown Treesnake Control and Research Program.  The OIA’s primary interest in BTS is to assist in restoration of critical habitat for endangered species on Guam, fund interdiction efforts to prevent BTS from dispersing to other insular areas, and provide a stable source of funding for research related to restoration and control efforts.
The OIA provides funding to several entities.  Funding is routinely provided to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services (USDA/WS), the National Wildlife Research Center (NWRC), Hawaii, the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) and Guam.

Funding is provided to USGS to conduct research on ways to contain BTS and eradicate it.  Their research includes data collection on snake demographics, continued monitoring of BTS prey, and risk analyses of BTS dispersal.  The USGS also responds to snake sightings and conducts training for snake searchers in the Pacific region.

OIA provides funding to FWS to assist with coordination efforts.  The FWS works to prevent the spread of BTS and works with territory government agencies to develop strategies and plans.  With OIA providing the funding to FWS, Guam and the Brown Treesnake Control and Research Program remain a top priority. 

With funding from OIA, the USDA searches commercial aircraft and the USDA’s National Wildlife Research Center (NWRC) conducts specific BTS research on control techniques such as chemical control methods, education/outreach, fumigants, repellants, toxicants, reproductive inhibitors and baits.  The USDA also implements management programs for wildlife damages which use traps, hand capture, detector dogs, oral toxicants and public outreach.  These programs reduce BTS populations in commercial and military ports of exit, power generation and distribution points, military housing facilities and endangered bird breeding sites.

Two Brown Treesnakes caught in traps
set up by the USDA.

Guam, with funding from OIA, maintains BTS traps in order to expand endangered species recovery efforts.  Guam continues to monitor high-risk areas and maintains a public awareness campaign

The CNMI and Hawaii, with funding from OIA, conduct extensive incoming cargo searches and educational outreach programs.

The USDA uses dogs to detect Brown Treesnakes in cargo ships and aircraft.

The Department of Defense (DOD) is a major landowner on Guam, so the DOD has a responsibility to see that BTS is not accidentally exported to other Pacific Islands.  The Air Force and Navy installations on Guam provide funding to USDA to conduct snake searches of outgoing cargo and Aircraft.  Funding is also provided to conduct trapping at military housing sites as well as to support avian monitoring efforts.

• Biology of the Brown Treesnake
• The Effects of the Brown Treesnake on Guam
• Control and Containment Initiatives

Outside Links:

• http://www.fort.usgs.gov/Resources/Education/BTS/
• http://biology.usgs.gov/pierc/Invasive_Species/
  Review_of_Brown_Treesnake_problems_and_control_review.pdf
• http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/
  uscode07/usc_sec_07_00008503----000-.html