USGS Home Contact USGS Search USGS

Maps, Imagery, and Publications Hazards Newsroom Education Jobs Partnerships Library About USGS Podcasts/RSS

From Microbes to Mammals - Invasive Species

Biological Aliens

The following links are articles from the July/August 2000 issue of People Land & Water, the employee news magazine of the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Invasive plants have created biological wastelands of more than 100 million acres in the United States. An area twice the size of Delaware is lost to invasive plants each year. Exotic animals and microbes add to this silent invasion that costs the nation more than a hundred billion dollars annually in lost resources and productivity and robs America of its biological heritage. Interior scientists and land managers are counter attacking, leveraging scarce resources in myriad partnerships to develop a coordinated national strategy to fight one of the most serious ecological battles of the 21st century.

• Invasive Species Threaten America's Biological Heritage

  Chip Groat, Director U.S. Geological Survey

• Bugging Purple Loosestrife

  Bureau of Reclamation

• Cogongrass, Chinese Tallow Tree Invade Coastal Prairie Habitats

  Gaye Farris, U.S. Geological Survey

• Exotic Crayfish Prey on Rare Southwestern Fishes

  U.S. Geological Survey

• Exotic Mussels Expand Range

  Amy J. Benson, U.S. Geological Survey

• Hawaii: A Model for Addressing Invasive Species

  Lloyd Loope & Joan Canfield, U.S. Geological Survey

• Leafy Spurge Costs Great Plains $100 Million

  Diane Larson, U.S. Geological Survey

• Mapping Invasive Plants

  Kathryn Thomas, U.S. Geological Survey

• Non-native Grasses and Fire Create Double Jeopardy

  Todd C. Esque and Cecil Schwalbe, U.S. Geological Survey

• Pepperweed: A Growing Threat to Western Wildlife Habitat

  David S. Gilmer, U.S. Geological Survey

• Prescribed Fire and Grazing Impact Sierran Forests

  Jon E. Keely, U.S. Geological Survey

• Saltcedar, Russian-olive Invade Western Riparian Ecosystems

  Jonathan Friedman, U.S. Geological Survey

• Spring Brings Hope for Native Plants

  Dick Hammerschlag, U.S. Geological Survey & Susan Salmons, National Park Service