Chairman Craig, thank you for scheduling today's hearing on invasive species. For the past three Congresses, I have introduced legislation to consolidate and reform USDA's invasive species authority. Known as the Plant Protection Act (S. 83), my bill provides a long-overdue consolidation of plant quarantine laws as well as an overhaul of the Federal Noxious Weed Act.
You recently introduced a closely related bill, S. 910. While we may disagree on specific details of the legislation, there is no disagreement on the scope of the problem that our bills confront. Noxious weeds and plant pests impose an overwhelming burden on farm and range land, and on native plant and animal communities, in Idaho and other Western states. In Hawaii, just like in Idaho, invasive alien species undermine our economic and environmental health. No state or region of the country is immune to these threats.
Invasive species do more than just compete with native plants and animals. They transform the landscape, change the rules by which native plants and animals live, and undermine the economic and environmental health of the areas they infest.
Invasive alien weeds fuel grass and forest fires, accelerate soil erosion, and consume critical water resources. Noxious weeds destroy or alter natural habitat, damage waterways and power lines, and depress property values. Some are toxic to humans, livestock, and wildlife.
Alien species are biological pollution, pure and simple. The worldwide growth in trade and travel has caused an explosion in the number of foreign plant and animal species that plague our nation.
Just how big is this problem? Let me offer an example. Last year, on federal lands alone, we lost 4,500 acres each day to noxious weeds. That's a million-and-a-half acres a year, or an area the size of Delaware. By comparison, forest fires -- one of the most fearsome natural disasters -- claimed only half as many federal acres as weeds.
Noxious foreign weeds have been described as biological wildfire, and for good reason. Forests, national parks, recreation areas, urban landscapes, wilderness, grasslands, waterways, farm and range land across the nation have been overrun by weeds.
The greatest economic impact of this problem is felt by farmers. The Office of Technology Assessment estimated that exotic weeds cost U.S. farmers $3.6 to $5.4 billion annually due to reduced yields, crops of poor quality, increased herbicide use and other weed control costs.
Nowhere is this problem more apparent than in Hawaii. Because our climate is so accommodating, Hawaii is heaven-on-earth for invasive species. Alien plants such as gorse, ivy gourd, miconia, and banana poka are ravaging our tropical and subtropical forests. A few years ago, Hawaii's environment passed an unfortunate milestone: for the first time, foreign introduced plants and animals outnumber Hawaii's diverse native species.
When I introduced the Plant Protection Act four years ago, I was convinced that my bill provided USDA with the critical tools to wage war on invasive plants and animals. With the passage of time, however, and the recent executive order instituting a coordinated federal strategy on invasive species, I have concluded that my bill is too modest to have sufficient impact on a problem so vast - and so complex - as invasive alien species.
Mr. Chairman, we are at a critical juncture in the war on weeds and invasive plant pests. Years from now, future Congresses will look back on us and judge whether we advanced bold initiatives or merely enacted a house cleaning measure to clarify, reaffirm, and consolidate current law. Invasive species are a $100 billion problem that demands decisive legislative action.
We know that USDA operates under a jumble of legislative authorities, some of which date to the early part of this century. These authorities must be consolidated.
But consolidation is not enough. A preliminary review of federal statutes conducted during the preparation of the President's February 3rd executive order identified numerous gaps in federal invasive species laws that urgently need to be closed. With each passing day, invasive species exploit these gaps in federal law, causing economic and environmental havoc in every state and territory.
A good example of the inadequacy of federal invasive species law is the interaction between the Federal Noxious Weed Act and the Federal Seed Act. The Noxious Weed Act prohibits the sale or movement of plants that are dangerous to agriculture or wildlife. The Federal Seed Act prohibits the sale or movement of seed containing federal noxious weeds.
The best way to illustrate the inadequacy of these laws is to tell you about a weed infestation that occurred along the Oregon-Idaho border.
The story begins with the Tepee Butte fire in the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area in northeast Oregon. Dry conditions in August 1988 sparked a fire that burned 66,000 acres of grassland, about 30 miles from the Idaho border. Following the fire, the Forest Service solicited bids for grass seed to reseed the burned grassland. The contract required all seed to meet Federal Seed Act standards. Forest Service officials purchased $80,000 of seed and conducted aerial reseeding operations.
The following spring, the Forest Service discovered that 6,000 acres of reseeded land was infested with yellow star thistle. Prior to the fire, this area of Oregon was free of yellow star thistle.
How could this happen? Despite decades of compelling evidence prior to the fire, USDA failed to list yellow star thistle as a noxious weed. And, nearly 11 years after this incident, this invasive plant still is not listed as a federal noxious weed. Like so many other alien invasive weeds that threaten farm and ranch land, USDA officials consider it to be too widespread, and therefore beyond hope of eradication or control. Without a federal noxious weed designation, yellow star thistle does not violate the Federal Seed Act. Today you can buy seed contaminated with yellow star thistle - which is exactly what happened to the Forest Service.
By any measure, yellow star thistle is a textbook example of a noxious weed. It is fatal to horses that graze on it. Native to Southern Europe, the weed is a menace throughout the West, infesting 10 million acres in California and 200,000 acres in Idaho, the native state of the Chairman of the Forestry Subcommittee. The flowers and stems of this weed are covered by sharp, inch-long thorns. The plant is known for its deep taproot, allowing it to proliferate during dry periods and survive long after native plants die. Canada and five western states have declared yellow star thistle a noxious weed, but not the federal government.
To their credit, the Forest Service took immediate action when they discovered contamination in freshly seeded areas of Hells Canyon. Over a period of three years, work crews conducted weed eradication on 6,000 acres of contaminated land at a cost of $250,000.
However, a portion of the contaminated area is private land that was seeded through an agreement with the Soil Conservation Service. The landowner sued the federal government for more than $1 million in damages. A decade later, we are still living with the USDA's mistake: the Forest Service has not been able to conduct eradication efforts on contaminated private land, so the recreation area and nearby federal, state, and private lands face a continuing risk of reinfestation.
At the same time that we consolidate USDA's statutory authority, Congress must correct this glaring omission. We should require USDA to list noxious weeds regardless of whether a species is widespread or beyond effective control. Furthermore, we should also send a bill to the President's desk that corrects other inadequacies in federal invasive species laws that were identified during the development of the February 3rd executive order on invasive species.
A major difference between S. 83 and S. 910 is in the area of federal preemption. Given the weak record of federal action on issues such as listing noxious weeds, USDA should not be rewarded with a broad federal preemption that voids more aggressive state actions.
Hawaii's invasive species problems are much different from those in Idaho, Florida, or Virginia, and there is no reason why we should accept a "one size fits all" standard by imposing federal preemption. States should have the flexibility to adopt more aggressive approaches to protect their economy and environment from the harm that invasive alien species inflict.
I also want to identify an omission in S. 910. While Chairman Craig's bill takes the significant step of codifying President Clinton's February 3, 1999, executive order on invasive species, the heart of the executive order, section 2, has been omitted. Last week, I introduced an amendment to S. 910 to correct this error.
The February 3rd executive order reflects a remarkable consensus of opinion among the 10 federal departments and agencies that have primary responsibility over invasive species. We should preserve that consensus, and codify Executive Order 13112 in its entirety.
In closing, Mr. Chairman, thank you again for embracing this important subject. I look forward to working with you and your colleagues on comprehensive invasive species legislation.