Minnesota Final ProjectMr. KnappShannon Quanrud

Invasive species of Minnesota

What is an invasive species?

Invasive alien species are plants, animals, or other organisms that are introduced to a given area outside their original range and cause harm in their new home.

Problems…………..

• No natural enemies to limit their reproduction.

• Spread rampantly.

• One of the leading threats to biodiversity.

• Impose enormous costs to agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and other human enterprises, as well as to human health.

The annual cost to control invasive species and the damage they inflict on property and natural resources in the US…………………..

$137 Billion

Profiles of invasive species are available in five groups of species:

1. Aquatic animals 2.Terrestrial animals 3.Aquatic plants 4.Terrestrial plants

5.InsectsA grocery cart infested with zebra mussels.

1. Invasive Aquatic Animals ………

1. Zebra mussel………….Type: Mollusk

Origin: Caspian Sea region of Asia, accidently released into Lake St. Clair in ship ballast water.

Extent: Lake Superior and two other lakes, Mississippi River.

Damage: Voracious feeders that out compete native animals: fouls boats and clogs intake pipes at power plants and municipal sources.

Crayfish infested with zebra mussels.

2. Round Goby……….Type: Fish

Origin: Black and Caspian Seas in Europe; introduced via ship ballast water in 1990.

Extent: Found throughout Minnesota water bodies and Great Lakes.

Damage: Displaces native fish and eat their eggs; are able to survive even in poor quality water.

3. Asian Carp (Bighead, Black, Silver)…………………

Type: Fish

Origin: Asia; introduced in the 1970’s for aquaculture and escaped.

Extent: Imported by catfish farmers in the 1970's to remove algae and suspended matter out of their ponds. During large floods in the early 1990s, many of the catfish farm ponds overflowed their banks, and the Asian carp were released into local waterways in the Mississippi River basin.

Damage: Voracious eaters that outcompete native species for food sources; silver carp pose physical danger to boaters due to their leaping abilities.

YouTube - Wild Jumping Carp On Illinois River

Click below to watch a video of the Silver carp!!!

4. Silver Sea Lampreys……..

Type: Eel- like fish

Origin: Construction and improvements on the Erie and Welland Canal (between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie) around 1921 allowed sea lampreys to get through the canals to the next lake.

Extent: Native to Atlantic Ocean, Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River. Now in The Great Lakes.

Damage: Historically the most devastating invader of The Great Lakes. This eel like fish attaches its suction-cup-like mouth to a host and feeds on their blood. One sea lamprey can upset the ecosystem and food chain by eating an estimated 40 pounds of fish or more in its lifetime. Multiply this by the 22,000 lamprey found in just one river, you have a lot of dead fish!

Distribution of Silver Sea Lamprey Infestation.

5. New Zealand Mudsnail…….

Type: Mollusk

Origin: Native to New Zealand, accidently introduced with imported rainbow trout in Idaho in the 1980’s and into the Great Lakes via ballast water from ocean going ships.

Extent: First discovered in the Snake, Idaho, and Madison Rivers, they quickly spread to other western rivers. In 2001 they were discovered in Lake Ontario, Thunder Bay, and Lake Superior. Then, in 2005 they reached Duluth-Superior harbor.

Damage: Densities can reach 100,000 to 700,000 per square meter. They outcompete species that are important forage for native trout and other fishes and provide little nutrition to fish that eat them.

6. Rusty crayfish………………….

Type: Crustacean

Origin: The first observation of rusty crayfish in Minnesota was in 1967 at Otter Creek in southern Minnesota.

Extent: Their range has expanded to approximately 50 different lakes and streams spanning 13 counties.

Damage: Aggressive invaders who harm native fish communities by feeding on their eggs and young. They drive out or hybridize with native crayfish and eliminate aquatic vegetation.

The distribution of the Rusty Crayfish

Invasive Terrestrial Animals…………….

1. Mute swan……….

Type: Waterfowl

Origin: Native to Europe and Asia, also escaped from captivity, or intentionally released on ponds for ornamental use. They are also used as ineffective and illegal means to deter geese from an area.

Extent: Population in The Great Lakes is increasing at about 10-20%.

Damage: Very aggressive animals even towards people. They chase water birds including loons, and they keep those birds from nesting. One bird can uproot about 20 pounds of submersed aquatic vegetation daily, reducing important aquatic plants.

2. Earthworms……………

Type: Terrestrial Animal

Origin: Europe and Asia; arrived with soils and plants or via ship ballast in late 1800’s early 1900’s or more recently as fish bait.

Extent: At least 7 species present in Minnesota forests.

Damage: Invading earthworms eat the leaves that create duff which causes soil erosion, negatively affects young seedlings, ferns, and wildflowers and decreases the habitat for ground – dwelling animals.

3.Gypsy Moth………….....

Type: Insect

Origin: Europe; Invasive forest pest that was introduced in the US in 1869.

Extent: Spread slowly from across New England and into MN. High numbers of male species long the north shore of Lake Superior.

Damage: They are voracious eaters and can completely defoliate entire trees. Repeated defoliation can lead to the death of many trees, changing the mix of tree species and affecting dependent wildlife.

Why is this indicator important? …………Ranked as America’s single most destructive pest of trees and shrubs, the gypsy moth feeds on more than 300 trees and woody plant species.

5. Emerald Ash Borer……….

Type: Insect

Origin: Native of Asia

Extent: First discovered in Detroit, Michigan, and Windsor, Ontario, in 2002. Indications are it may have been introduced to this area as early 1990. EAB has been spread in ash firewood, nursery stock and possibly other ash materials to a number of new areas.

Damage: EAB is an insect that attacks and kills ash trees. The adults are small, iridescent green beetles that live outside of trees during the summer months. The larvae are grub or worm-like and live underneath the bark of ash trees. Trees are killed by the tunneling of the larvae under the tree's bark.

More Information on damage: An estimated 867 million forestland ash trees and ash is a prominent component of our urban forests. The potential economic and environmental impacts of losing these trees is substantial. The cost of removing and replacing a single tree can range from hundreds to thousands of dollars – how many ash trees are in your yard?

Aquatic Invasive Plants……………….

1. Eurasian Water milfoil…………………

Type: Aquatic plant

Origin: Accidently introduced to North America from Europe.

Extent: Spread westward into inland lakes primarily by boats and also by water birds, it reached Midwestern states between the 1950s and 1980s. Spreading rapidly since its 1987 arrival in Minnesota, Eurasian water-milfoil is know to occur in 75 lakes and 4 streams that radiate from the Twin Cites area.

Damage: In nutrient-rich lakes it can form thick underwater stands of tangled stems and vast mats of vegetation at the water's surface. In shallow areas the plant can interfere with water recreation such as boating, fishing, and swimming. The plant's floating canopy can also crowd out important native water plants

Lakes from our area infected with Eurasian Water milfoil……

Isanti County……..

1. Green Lake 2. Long Lake 3.Spectacle Lake

Chisago County………

1.Chisago Lake 2. Ellen Lake 3.Fish Lake 4. Green Lake 5.North Center 6. North Lindstrom 7.South Lindstrom Lake 8. Rush Lake 9. South Center

Eurasian Water milfoil

2. Yellow Iris…………………….

Type: Perennial aquatic herbaceous plant

Origin: Eurasian plant

Extent: Through out the US.

Damage: It competes with native shore land vegetation.

Invasive terrestrial plants…………………………

Purple Loosestrife………………

Type: Wetland Plant

Origin: Europe and Asia.

Extent: It was introduced into the east coast of North America in the 1800s. First spreading along roads, canals, and drainage ditches, then later distributed as an ornamental, this exotic plant is in 40 states and all Canadian border provinces. Loosestrife infestations recorded in 68 of Minnesota's 87 counties.

Damage: Invades marshes and lakeshores, replacing cattails and other wetland plants. The plant can form dense, impenetrable stands which are unsuitable as cover, food, or nesting sites for a wide range of native wetland animals including ducks, geese, rails, bitterns, muskrats, frogs, toads, and turtles.

Purple Loosestrife infestation in Minnesota.

Queen Ann's lace…………………….

Type: Biennial herbaceous plant(Wildflower).

Origin: A native of Europe and Asia

Extent: Called “Wild Carrot” in England, this is another common wildflower that arrived with the colonists . All over the US.

Damage: It tends to decline the native grasses and herbaceous plants.

1.Women have used the seeds from Daucus carota commonly known as wild carrot or queen Anne's lace, for centuries as a contraceptive, the earliest written reference dates back to the late 5th or 4th century B.C. appearing in a work written by Hippocrates.

An Interesting medicinal use of Queen Anne’s Lace

2. Research on small animals has shown that extracts of the seeds disrupt the implantation process, or if a fertilized egg has implanted for only a short period, will cause it to be released. There has been some research done on wild carrot seeds mostly in other countries, the results of those experiments have been encouraging. The Chinese view QAL as a promising post-coital agent, "recent evidence suggests that terpenoids in the seed block crucial progesterone synthesis in pregnant animals." 1 When asked about the contraceptive effects of wild carrot, some herbalists have described it as having the effect of making the uterus "slippery" so the egg is unable to implant on the uterus.

Invasive Insects……………

1.White pine weevil……………….

Damage: New weevil attacks become visible in early July when the terminal shoot suddenly wilts. The wilted terminal forms a very characteristic shepherds crook Within a week or two the needles of the current emerging terminal, its laterals and the previous years terminal turn brown-red in color. Weevil larvae, called grubs, feed under the bark of the previous years terminal. This feeding injury is significant and kills everything above the injury, thus killing the new terminal as well. Dead terminals remain on trees for years although they are eventually reduced to a stub. Loss of the terminal results in one or more lateral branches taking over dominance of the tree.

Type: Insect

Origin: The weevil is a native insect whose populations and damage increased greatly in newly established plantations following logging and in stands that originated from natural seeding of abandoned farmland

Extent: Northern half on MN

2.Pine Sawfly…………………….

Type: Insect

Origin: The introduced pine, sawfly in North America was first discovered in 1914 in a nursery in New Haven, Conn. May have been from Holland.

Extent: Since its arrival, it has advanced steadily westward, reaching Pennsylvania before 1920 and Ontario by 1931. The present range in North America is along the Atlantic seaboard from Maine to Virginia, across the, Central and Lake States, through parts of southern Ontario and Quebec.

Damage: Where the insect population is high enough, the host may be denuded in one season. Late season defoliation, when buds are already formed, is sufficient to kill most conifers; and branch killing is common.

The DNR Invasive Species programs goals…………….

• Prevent introductions of new invasive species into Minnesota;

• Prevent the spread of invasive species within Minnesota;

• Reduce the impacts caused by invasive species to Minnesota’s ecology, society, and economy.

• Enforcement: Conservation officers spent 4,843 hours enforcing the invasive species laws and rules.

• Statewide, there were 57 civil citations, two criminal citations, and 16 written warnings issued to individuals for violation of invasive species laws.

• Under Minnesota law, it is illegal to transport aquatic plants, zebra mussels, other prohibited species and water from infested waters. Violators

could face fines up to $500.

Who pays for these alien species? Funding Sources……….Funding for activities conducted by the Invasive Species Program comes from a varietyof state, federal, and local sources.

State Funds……………The primary funding source is a $5 surcharge on the registration of watercraft inMinnesota. The surcharge on Minnesota watercraft generates sufficient funds to allowan annual appropriation of approximately $1,200,000. Federal Funds…………..The DNR seeks funding from federal sources for a variety of program activities. Some of these programs are, Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S EnvironmentalProtection Agency, and the U.S. Forest Service.

Local Funds………Local groups work with the DNR to manage invasive aquatic species and, in some cases, provide funds to expand planned efforts.

What can we do??????????

Prevention and Containment!!!!

1. Prevention2. Early Detection, Rapid Response, and Containment3. Management of Invasive Species4. Leadership and Coordination

Overall approach to invasive species in the Minnesota State Management Plan………

The Plans elements include…….

1.Seek to prevent the introduction of new invasive species in Minnesota.

2.Continue to contain infestations where eradication is not possible.

The state Invasive Species Plan’s desired outcomes …………………………

Six ways we can help stop the introduction and spread of invasive species……

1. Verify that the plants you are buying for your yard or garden are not invasive.

2. When boating, clean your boat thoroughly before transporting it to a different body of water

3. Clean your boots before you hike in a new area to get rid of hitchhiking weed seeds and pathogens

4. Don't "pack a pest" when traveling. Fruits and vegetables, plants, insects and animals can carry pests or become invasive themselves. Don't move firewood (it can harbor forest pests), clean your bags and boots after each hike, and throw out food before you travel from place to place.

5. Don't release aquarium fish and plants, live bait or other exotic animals into the wild.

6. Volunteer at your local park, refuge or other wildlife area to help remove invasive species. Help educate others about the threat.