Conclusions and Recommendations

Creating policies and programs that will effectively prevent invasions takes the cooperation of industry, government, ecologists, and the public. The strategies to prevent horticultural invasions must employ importers, which include nurseries and botanic gardens; growers; retailers, which vary from small and local to national chains; landscapers; and the general gardening public. Strategies must strike a balance between preserving biodiversity and maintaining the benefits of new introductions, especially considering the small proportion of nonindigenous plants that become invasive (Lowe 1998, OTA 1993). My recommendations and conclusions fall under the following categories:

Decision Making

From many nurseries' points of view, the decision making process for determining a plant's invasive does not have enough transparency. Nurseries complain that they are not represented on invasive plant committees and councils, that the criteria for deciding invasiveness is unclear, and that plants appearing on the list that they've encountered lack scientific proof. All of these objections can be cleared up through increased publicity around the decision making process as well as increased involvement by the industry. These objections are all valid, but the blame for the industry's unfamiliarity with the process does not all lie with the committees and scientists; nurseries do not seem to take an active role in informing themselves, as evidenced by the lack of knowledge of some of my respondents. Nurseries are often welcome to be involved in decision making - industry members often are involved and the committees often publish their minutes as well as their criteria of invasiveness (this is the case with the newly formed Rhode Island Invasive Species Council as well as some of the Exotic Pest Plant Councils). In order to reach those nurseries who do not actively educate themselves about invasive species, more media attention needs to be put on the issue and on the decision making process.

Industry Education

The nursery industry, like many industries, fears change and uncertainty. Effective industry education will result in increased public awareness as well as more general support for restrictions and control. The industry needs to understand the uncertainties inherent in all science and quite often ecology so it is difficult to know whether any plant will absolutely become invasive or not. In Washington state the committee uses experts to gain confidence of the plant community, fairly successfully (Reichard, personal communication 2000).

Other areas of education for the industry are in distinguishing invasive plants and nonindigenous plants. It must be made clear that plant restrictions do not focus on native plants, but that they focus on noninvasive plants, which constitute almost all of the plants sold. Research needs to be done quantifying the impact the industry will experience if it a) eliminates all invasive plants and b) capitalizes on alternative plants. Will plant restrictions have a large impact on sales? Will alternative plants increase sales for nurseries that sell them? What will be the net effect?

A few nursery-respondents felt that plant restriction would provide them with an opportunity for increasing sales of alternative plants, but most did not bring this up. Educating the industry about alternative plants will help them understand that plant restriction may not have a negative effect. Once nurseries realize that giving up a "good plant" that is considered invasive can mean discovering another "good plant" noninvasive for the job, they will be more persuaded to comply with restrictions or voluntarily participate in them. Additionally, increasing the awareness of alternatives to invasive plants among nurseries means increasing public awareness, because many nurseries are willing to suggest alternative plants to their customers.

One key factor to increasing awareness among the electronically-inclined nurseries would be to write an email newsletter and maintain a web-page for the nursery industry that could foster dialog on this and other issues in the industry. Email lists already exist for researchers on the issue, but clearinghouses for information on horticultural invasives aimed at nurseries do not exist.

Public Education

When the public is properly educated about invasive plants it can 1) pressure the industry through market forces to discontinue using invasive plants, 2) be wise about planting invasive plants and even remove some of them, and 3) pressure governmental bodies to legislate the issue. Most nurseries are willing to take an active role in educating their customers by talking to them, handing out pamphlets, or conducting workshops about invasive plants. Nonprofit groups can also get involved in education - botanic gardens, natural history groups, gardening groups, and conservation groups can pair up with nurseries in educating the public about invasive plants. Some already have, such as the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, which produced a book on invasive plants in 1996, and the New England Wildflower Society, which devoted an entire issue to invasive plants in New England in 1998. Other media coverage of the issue is already quite wide, Fine Gardening magazine, the New York Times Magazine, Discover magazine, and the Christian Science Monitor have all had features on invasive plants in 1999 (Meier 1999, Klinkenbourg 1999, Gutin 1999, Parker 1999), in addition to the many other magazines that have covered the issue. It may just be a matter of time until the public's awareness is quite wide, by which time the market for known invasives will be nil. On the public education front, it is necessary to continue doing what we've been doing: writing articles and books, creating web pages, and talking to them about their purchases at the time of sale. Hopefully the increased awareness will lead to change.

Labeling

Of the programs that I presented in my survey, using botanical names on plant labels was the second most popular, trailing suggesting alternatives to customers(Q20) n. Using botanical names on labels is an integral part of consumer education. Common names of plants are easy to confuse and can lead to misidentification of plants. In order to ensure that customers can make informed choices and therefore influence the market to stop selling invasives, the plants that they buy must be properly labeled. Botanical names will also be key in identifying and purchasing alternative plants. A straightforward program could be set up by ANLA, APHIS, or state or local agencies that requires the use of botanical labels on plants and in print materials and uses random checking and fines for enforcement.

Regulatory Improvements

S910/HR1504, the Noxious Weed Coordination and Plant Protection Act, which is currently in Congress, will be a considerable improvement over current legislation, and should therefore be passed. While the compromise to delete Title IV, which would have codified the executive order, may not be ideal. This act ensures that the Federal government maintains its coordinating role in present invasions. However the structure of that PPA does lay forth is far stronger than the current FNWA and will allow the Federal government to take a more active, coordinated role in preventing invasions. While imperfect, this legislation is the product of over a decade of compromises and adjustments and reintroductions; any changes made to it now will result in a shift of political support and make the act difficult to pass unanimously. The bill gives the authority of deciding invasiveness to the Secretary of Agriculture - meaning it will go to APHIS - because the USDA is given jurisdiction to prohibit importation and movement across state lines and the definition includes the criteria of "environmental harm" which means that the decision-makers have enough flexibility to include non-agricultural invaders. The Act could also allow for APHIS to implement screening procedures based on Reichard's decision tree or perform another preventative risk-analysis for new invasives imported into the US.

On a local level, government agencies and local plant groups can work together to create effective plant removal and exchange programs. The industry is interested in alternatives to invasives. If nurseries that develop them are given incentive money or if there is a guaranteed market for them through state, local, or Federal government agencies, alternative plants will be increasingly developed and researched. Rather than using "command-and-control" approaches to plant restrictions (nurseries shall not sell plant X) alone, the transition to noninvaders could be made smooth by providing nurseries with the stock to begin selling alternatives. In Manitoba, there was an exchange program for gardeners with purple loosestrife that required them to bring in the loosestrife from their yard in exchange for free bulbs of a native flower.

On an industry level, exchanges could be run wherein nurseries that have purportedly removed stock of invasives are inspected, and if approved, given (free, or at a discount) stock of the alternative plants. Non-governmental groups, such as ANLA, could run a program of this sort, providing they could afford the new plants. Hopefully such a program would demystify "switching over" to noninvasives and make restriction less contested.