## USDA Avoiding Harm from Invasive Species Report in FY 2006 for APHIS

## 

**A USDA Report to the Invasive Species Advisory Committee and the
National Invasive Species Council**

August 20, 2007

There are eight U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) agencies that work
on invasive species issues: the Agricultural Research Service (ARS);
Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS); Cooperative State
Research, Education and Extension Service (CSREES); Economic Research
Service (ERS); Farm Service Agency (FSA); Foreign Agricultural Service
(FAS); USDA Forest Service (FS) and Natural Resources Conservation
Service (NRCS).

Previous USDA Do No Harm Reports cover: (1) fiscal year (FY) 2004
activities; (2) FY 2005 activities for ARS, APHIS, CSREES, ERA and NRCS
(first report dated October 2004); (3) FY 2005 activities for the Forest
Service (report dated February 2005); and (4) FY 2006 activities for
ARS/NAL, CSREES, ERS, NRCS and USFS (report dated March 2007).

This is the fifth "USDA Avoiding Harm Report" to the Invasive Species
Advisory Committee and the National Invasive Species Council. It covers
the FY 2006 activities of APHIS.

The report is divided by agency activities. Each agency will report on:

> a\) Invasive species program activities the agency is carrying out to
> do no harm;
>
> b\) The way in which, when the agency carries out other programs
> activities, they are also designed and implemented to do no harm;
>
> c\) Activities that are doing harm and future actions the agency will
> take to change the activities so that they do no harm.

Within the above categories, the agency will include its own agency
activities, as well as activities where the agency is coordinating
and/or collaborating with another federal agency, per the mandate of the
Invasive Species Executive Order (EO 13112).

## II. USDA Regulatory and Resource Management Agencies

**A. [Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS)]{.underline}**

# 1. Activities to do no harm

"Protecting American agriculture" is the basic charge of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection
Service (APHIS). APHIS provides leadership in ensuring the health and
care of animals and plants. The agency improves agricultural
productivity and competitiveness and contributes to the national economy
and the public health. APHIS has major regulatory authority to implement
action programs to achieve these responsibilities. For more detailed
information and up to date high lights of program activity, please visit
the APHIS Web Site (http://www/aphis.usda.gov/).

> a\. [Invasive Species Prevention Programs:]{.underline} Specifically
> the APHIS mission, stated in its current strategic plan, is to protect
> the health and value of American agriculture and natural resources. To
> carry out this mission, APHIS works to achieve two interdependent
> goals:

-   Safeguard the health of animals, plants, and ecosystems in the
    United States (U.S.)

-   Facilitate safe agricultural trade

> It does so through a system of interdependent objectives addressing
> exclusion (i.e., prevention), detection, emergency response,
> management, trade issue resolution, and capacity building. These areas
> correspond closely to elements of the 2001 National Invasive Species
> Management Plan.
>
> APHIS tries to ensure that other entities in the private and public
> sectors, including other Federal agencies, \"do no harm\" by
> introducing or spreading invasive species. APHIS prevention programs
> -- a comprehensive set of risk-based regulations and enforcement
> efforts \-- are directed at animals, plants, and their products that
> may bring invasive species or be pathways for the introduction of
> invasive species. As such, the Agency addresses both unintentional and
> intentional introductions of invasives. A description of some of the
> applicable regulations follows.
>
> 1\. [Regulation of certain animals and animal products:]{.underline}
>
> APHIS regulates, as set forth in 9 CFR parts 91 through 99, the
> importation of animals and animal products to guard against the
> introduction of animal diseases into the U.S. in accordance with the
> Animal Health Protection Act.
>
> 2\. [Regulation of certain plants and plant products:]{.underline}
> Regulations contained in 7 CFR part 319 prohibit or restrict the
> importation of plants, plant parts, and plant products into the U.S.
> in accordance with the Plant Protection Act. APHIS enforces the part
> 319 regulations and considers requests to amend the part 319
> regulations to allow the importation of plants, plant parts, or plant
> products that are not currently allowed importation under the
> regulations. The requirements apply to many commodities, including
> nursery stock.
>
> 3\. [Listing of noxious weeds:]{.underline}
>
> Under the authority of the Plant Protection Act, APHIS regulates, in 7
> CFR parts 360 and 361, the importation and interstate movement of
> plants and plant products that may be noxious weeds, i.e., plants that
> can directly or indirectly injure or cause damage to crops, livestock,
> poultry, or other interests of agriculture, irrigation, navigation,
> the natural resources, public health, or the environment.
>
> b\. [New Pest Advisory Committee]{.underline}: The New Pest Advisory
> Group (NPAG) is located in the APHIS Center for Plant Health Science
> and Technology (CPHST), Plant Epidemiology and Risk Analysis
> Laboratory (PERAL). The overall goal of NPAG is to safeguard American
> agriculture and natural resources. The NPAG assesses new and imminent
> exotic plant pest introductions into the U.S. to recommend appropriate
> Plant Protection and Quarantine's (PPQ) policy and actions to respond
> to the potential threat posed such pests. In this case a pest is
> defined as: *Any species, strain or biotype of plant, animal or
> pathogenic agent injurious to plants or plant products* \[FAO, 1990;
> revised FAO. 1995; IPPC, 1997\].
>
> NPAG may address pests in a many taxa including arthropods, plant
> pathogens, mollusks and weeds. It determines whether the pest is a
> present or imminent threat, and if the pest meets the definition of a
> quarantine pest. If the pest meets the definition, NPAG may convene an
> ad hoc panel of Subject Matter Experts from PPQ, other Federal, state,
> and university sources with regulatory and scientific expertise for
> that particular exotic pest. Through literature searches, data sheet
> preparation and discussion with the panel, NPAG provides findings and
> recommendations via the NPAG Report to the APHIS Deputy Administrator
> and the APHIS Executive Team (represented by PPQ's management) in
> response to the pest introduction.

# 2. Other Agency Activities, also designed to do no harm

> [Program protocols:]{.underline} APHIS also follows protocols to
> ensure that its own activities and those of its State cooperators,
> carried out to exclude, detect, diagnose, control, and eradicate
> invasive species, do not contribute to the problem. These ongoing
> efforts include, in a general sense, agency personnel adherence to
> established biosafety procedures in programs to detect, diagnose, and
> conduct control operations for plant and animal diseases and pests,
> both in laboratories and in the field; and assessment, in advance, of
> the probable impact of the use of biocontrol agents in programs to
> control invasive species.

3\. Activities that are doing harm, and future agency actions to change
them so that they do not continue to do harm

> [None.]{.underline} APHIS actions are consistent with the "DO NO HARM"
> objective of the Presidential Executive Order.

Respectfully submitted,

Hilda Diaz-Soltero

USDA Senior Invasive Species Coordinator