Economic Impact of Invasive Species
The Untold Cost of Invasive Species
Jessicarose Thurber
Environmental Economics
EVSP201
Professor Ray Bartholomew
March 30, 2013
Imagine going on a day hike through your favorite forest. You take great pains to pack your gear, ensure you have adequate food and water for the day. You bring your camera and other gear to ensure you get photographs of the local forest. You visit this same place every few weeks, it is close to where you live and the scenery is amazing. There are ample opportunities to stop to enjoy just being outside. As you hike you enjoy the sound of nature, the rustling of the leaves as the wind blows, the sound of small lizards as they scurry across your path, agitating dry leaves in their wake. You listen for the sound of your favorite birds, and you are met in return with silence. This is exactly what a walk through the jungle is like for the residence and visitors of Guam. A U.S. territory, Guam is situated in the Pacific, along the ring of fire, and is a lush 212 square mile island filled with mountainous jungle, coconut trees and streams. Jungles are known for their abundance of species, insects, lizards, birds and others. This jungle, however, is nearly devoid of such species and eerily silent as a result. This remote territory was invaded by an alien species carried to her shores sometime during or after WWII (Shwiff). The invader, called the Brown Tree Snake, brought to Guam from other parts of Asia aboard vessels, devastated the islands bird and small mammal population, leaving Guam open for further invasions from non-indigenous species. Guam has become an ecological disaster; over run with the snake, an invasive species, officials have scrambled to save the native birds, to little avail. When it was recognized there was a problem, it was nearly too late, almost all of the birds had disappeared from this once tropical paradise (U.S. Fish). Now seventy years after the initial invasion, there are avenues of redress available,
Jessicarose Thurber
Environmental Economics
EVSP201
Professor Ray Bartholomew
March 30, 2013
Imagine going on a day hike through your favorite forest. You take great pains to pack your gear, ensure you have adequate food and water for the day. You bring your camera and other gear to ensure you get photographs of the local forest. You visit this same place every few weeks, it is close to where you live and the scenery is amazing. There are ample opportunities to stop to enjoy just being outside. As you hike you enjoy the sound of nature, the rustling of the leaves as the wind blows, the sound of small lizards as they scurry across your path, agitating dry leaves in their wake. You listen for the sound of your favorite birds, and you are met in return with silence. This is exactly what a walk through the jungle is like for the residence and visitors of Guam. A U.S. territory, Guam is situated in the Pacific, along the ring of fire, and is a lush 212 square mile island filled with mountainous jungle, coconut trees and streams. Jungles are known for their abundance of species, insects, lizards, birds and others. This jungle, however, is nearly devoid of such species and eerily silent as a result. This remote territory was invaded by an alien species carried to her shores sometime during or after WWII (Shwiff). The invader, called the Brown Tree Snake, brought to Guam from other parts of Asia aboard vessels, devastated the islands bird and small mammal population, leaving Guam open for further invasions from non-indigenous species. Guam has become an ecological disaster; over run with the snake, an invasive species, officials have scrambled to save the native birds, to little avail. When it was recognized there was a problem, it was nearly too late, almost all of the birds had disappeared from this once tropical paradise (U.S. Fish). Now seventy years after the initial invasion, there are avenues of redress available,
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