A Letter to Santa from the State of Oregon

Dear Santa,

I’m sure you’re surprised to receive this letter from me. I know you are awfully busy this time of year. There are a lot of people that are hurting and who could use your help more than ever. I have been blessed with many gifts already, so it is with considerable reluctance that I write to you.

I wouldn’t bother you at all except that I’m worried. I’m worried that tiny insects, mussels, and seeds will travel here unnoticed as hitchhikers in all the hustle and bustle. Trade and travel is so common, so fast, and so global in this modern age that non-native species arrive at an astonishing pace.

Just this week live minute pirate bugs were found in Portland associated with a shipment of computer parts from Asia. No doubt they were hitchhiking on the wooden packing material. Pallets and crates are often made out of low-quality, insect-infested wood. Minute pirate bugs are predators of other tiny insects. They are unlikely to become pests, however, their arrival and subsequent release into the environment is an example how easy it is for hitchhiking plants and animals to move around the world. I’m worried that people aren’t aware or don’t care enough to change their behavior to leave the hitchhikers behind.

Could you please reward people that clean the mud off their boots and vehicles? Something special for fishers that take the time to clean their boats between launches and never release non-native baitfish would be nice. A new pair of waders without felt soles would be appropriate. Extra goodies are in order for people who buy and burn local firewood and for nurserymen and women who don’t import nursery stock.

People that release pets and aquarium fish into the environment deserve a lump of coal. Ditto for travelers that smuggle fruits, vegetables, plants, animals, and other contraband. Maybe a reminder from you that these actions guarantee their place on your naughty list would reinforce how harmful this can be.

Please reward the teachers and students who are learning about our environment and how to keep it clean and healthy. Anyone that reports a sighting of a potential new invader deserves a big thank you. Don’t forget the inspectors and state and federal employees that work hard to protect my environment from gypsy moths, quagga mussels, Patterson’s curse and other weeds and pests. They don’t get a lot of credit and their budgets are being cut at the same time the invasive species threats are on the rise.

Santa, on second thought, you’ve got your hands full making children happy this Christmas. That’s enough. The good news for me is that people are creating these problems with invasive species and people can fix them. My people are the best and they’ll do the right thing if they know what it is. Thanks for helping me get the word out, thanks for all the gifts and goodies, and . . . Oh, one more thing, clean your boots and reindeer hooves before you land. Merry Christmas!

Sincerely,

State of Oregon
Submitted by Dan Hilburn

Fine Dining with Invasive Species

Bullfrog legs with blackberry sauce.

            Imagine cooking up a Thanksgiving meal using only invasive species. Some of them are edible, but it would be a culinary challenge with the invaders now established in Oregon. Anyone for stuffed starling with dandelion and garlic mustard greens? Would you like a side of Himalayan blackberry glazed bullfrog legs with that? I think I’ll pass.

Oregonians have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. Not only do we live in a beautiful state, we share it with relatively few undesirable invasives.We have non-native weeds and pests, but not nearly as many as most other places. We should all be grateful for that.

Oregonians should be thankful our environment is relatively healthy. The trees in our forests are the same ones that have been here for centuries. The Douglas fir, ponderosa pine, and western white oak around us today are the same species (and some of the same trees!) that were here when Native Americans were the only humans in Oregon. This could change; already tanoak and Port Orford cedar are threatened by sudden oak death and Port Orford cedar root rot.

Oregonians that travel for the holidays will visit places where invasive pests and diseases have changed the composition of plants and animals in the environment. Eastern forests provide numerous examples. Chestnut blight, gypsy moth, hemlock wooly adelgid, beech bark disease, and white pine blister rust have forever changed the species composition and degraded the health of eastern forests. Much of the reason for this difference is historical. Intercontinental trade and travel, a key pathway for invasive species, has a longer history on the East Coast. We should be thankful the pilgrims landed in Massachusetts.

We should also be thankful our waterways are in pretty good shape. We don’t have zebra or quagga mussels. We don’t have Asian carp. We don’t have Chinese mitten crabs. Most of our waterways are still dominated by native species. Again that is not the case in many other parts of the world. The Great Lakes are a good example where ecological health and fishing have suffered due to multiple invasions of harmful species.

There are a lot of other problem species that we don’t have thanks to government-run early detection and eradication programs. Some of the harmful species that have been found in Oregon, but eradicated before they became permanently established, include: gypsy moth, Japanese beetle, granualate ambrosia beetle, and kudzu. Battles to eradicate feral swine, African rue, giant hogweed, purple starthistle, distaff thistle, yellowtuft, and Patterson’s curse are ongoing. We should all be thankful for the dedicated people that are fighting back on our behalf.

We should also be grateful that the general public and our elected leaders are waking up to the threat of invasive species. Ten years ago, few people were aware that biological pollution was a growing problem.  Thanks to Oregon Public Broadcasting, the Oregon Invasive Species Council, the Statesman Journal, Oregon Sea Grant, and many other organizations and media outlets, the word is getting out. Not everybody understands how an individual’s actions can make a difference (see last week’s blog), but we’ve definitely turned a corner on public awareness. Our children are getting the message too; Oregon teachers are spreading the word to their students. Oregon State University and Portland State University have been outstanding champions helping to understand and combat sudden oak death, Spartina, purple loosestrife, gypsy moth, and small broomrape.

We should also be thankful for signs that industries in Oregon are paying attention and beginning to step up. The Oregon nursery industry, for instance, taxes itself so that an emergency fund is available to address future invasions. They also helped produce a free publication, GardenSmart Oregon, a Guide to Non-invasive Plants*.  

I hate to say this, but we’re also lucky that so many of our weeds are not bad looking. You have to admit that Scotch broom, gorse, English ivy, and butterfly bush are way better looking than lots of other weeds. Even Himalayan blackberry has an up side when the berries are ripe. However, I’m less thrilled with them now knowing that invasive spotted winged drosophila larvae might be infesting my invasive blackberry fruit!

Let's go back to the idea of feasting on invasive species. If we open the floodgates, we could expand the menu! Wild boar with Chinese mitten crab stuffing anyone? Snakehead with African honey bee-honey glaze? Still not interested? Me neither. Let’s keep ‘em out!

Dan Hilburn

*Available from the Oregon Department of Agriculture, 635 Capitol St. NE, Salem 97301 or <jdavis@oda.state.or.us>

Genetically Modified Bentgrass, Crop, Agricultural Weed, or Noxious Weed?

             Golf course managers would love to have Roundup-resistant bentgrass for their greens. It would make keeping greens weed-free simple and inexpensive. Just spray them with Roundup, and everything but the bentgrass dies. Roundup binds to organic matter and doesn’t persist very long, so it is less harmful to the environment than many other herbicides. Scotts and Monsanto successfully added a gene conferring Roundup resistance to bentgrass a decade ago. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued permits for trial plantings, including fields in Oregon and Idaho. So far, so good.

            Bentgrass is a perennial plant that is wind pollinated. It will cross-pollinate with some wild grass relatives. Due to concern that trials in the Willamette Valley could result in pollination and marketing problems, the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) worked with Scotts to set up a control area for the genetically modified bentgrass near Madras 90 over the mountains. Some trial fields were also planted near Parma, Idaho. All of these trials were done under USDA permit. From a production point of view, the trials were a success, so Scotts and Monsanto petitioned USDA to deregulate the product so that they could start selling Roundup resistant bentgrass to golf courses. USDA’s review of the deregulation petition has been drawn-out and difficult, and it just got more complicated.

            Two irrigation districts in Malheur County, upwind and across the river from the Parma fields, were recently treating their canal banks with Roundup. All the weeds were dying except one type of grass.  Oregon State University (OSU) tested samples, and it had the Monsanto gene. Somehow the genetically modified (GM) bentgrass moved from Idaho to Oregon, and now exists up and down miles of irrigation canals between Nyssa and Ontario.

            Oregon’s regulations don’t apply, but this is a violation of USDA’s permit. Since it’s discovery, Scotts has been working to eradicate the GM plants along over 20 miles of canal bank.  I hope they succeed.  ODA has helped them identify legal and effective herbicides; there aren’t many – Roundup would normally be the material of choice.

            Longer-term, ODA will be faced with a dilemma. Is this grass just a crop that produces volunteers?  Is it an agricultural weed?  Or is it a potential noxious weed that will cross-pollinate with wild plants and compete with native plants? We don’t know. It is not clear whether we should simply keep our eye on it, or pull out all the stops and go for complete eradication.

            In the meantime, Scotts has set up a hotline (877-375-5139) to report sightings. Give them a call if you come across a low spreading grass that just smiles when you spray it with Roundup. Bentgrass needs plenty of water, so wet/irrigated areas in Central Oregon and downriver from Ontario would be the places to look. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. We could be playing golf on this grass or cussing at it.  Stay tuned.

Dan Hilburn