Invasive species of Minnesota
Minnesota Final Project
Mr. Knapp
Shannon Quanrud
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.Insects
A 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.
Click below to watch a video of the Silver carp!!!
YouTube - Wild Jumping Carp On Illinois River
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……
Chisago County………
Isanti 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
1. Green Lake
2. Long Lake
3.Spectacle Lake
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.
An Interesting medicinal use of Queen Anne’s Lace
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.
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……………….
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
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.
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.
• 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.
• 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.
Who pays for these alien species?
Funding Sources……….
Funding for activities conducted by the Invasive Species Program comes from
a variety
of state, federal, and local sources.
State Funds……………
The primary funding source is a $5 surcharge on the registration of watercraft
in
Minnesota. The surcharge on Minnesota watercraft generates sufficient funds
to allow
an 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
Environmental
Protection 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!!!!
Overall approach to invasive species in the
Minnesota State Management Plan………
The Plans elements include…….
1. Prevention
2. Early Detection, Rapid
Response, and Containment
3. Management of Invasive
Species
4. Leadership and Coordination
The state Invasive Species Plan’s desired outcomes …………………………
1.Seek to prevent the introduction of new invasive species in Minnesota.
2.Continue to contain infestations where eradication is not possible.
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.