Executive Order on Invasive Species
                                                               
                                            Release No. 0044.99

Remarks
          As Prepared for Delivery
                              by 
                     Secretary Dan Glickman
              Executive Order on Invasive Species
        National Geographic Society -- February 3, 1999
                                
     Thank you Gil and thank you for hosting today's event.  Secretary
Babbitt, I want to thank you for your leadership on this issue.  I want
everyone here to know that I have a laundry list of accolades that describe my
estimable colleague and leader of the Interior Department ... and if I had
more time I'd tell them to you. 

     With me today from USDA are my Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Rich
Rominger who as a farmer himself is deeply engaged on this issue.  Also with
me are Isi Siddiqui, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory
Programs and Keith Pitts, Deb Hays and Rebbeca Bech [BESH].  They and their
staffs have done a terrific job on this issue and I thank them for all their
hard work.  

     I also want to welcome John Tarburton, Secretary of Agriculture for the
state of Delaware.  John and his team have taken a very aggressive role in
battling everything from fire ants to phragmites to the mile-a-minute weed. 
John, I thank you for being here and for all the work you and your folks do
everyday to battle this problem.  

     I too want to thank E.O Wilson for that eye-opening presentation.  The
work that you and many of the folks here today do, illustrate the fact that
this problem is not, as has often been said, creeping up on us.  It is in the
here and now and affecting all of us whether we know it or not. 

     You know I find it ironic that I am standing up here talking to you
about invasive species when you are the experts.  It reminds me of a joke
about two dairy cows... kinda makes you feel inadequate.  I have great respect
for the visionary spirit and drive of the people here today who are working so
hard to get ahead of this problem. 

     Unfortunately, when the average person hears the term 'invasive
species,' often times they conjure up images of Star Trek-like aliens, or
monsters from 1950s B-movies, or in some more unkind images, a visit from the
in-laws.  But the truth is, like most problems, invasive species, isn't really
perceived as a problem until it hits home. 

     Invasive plants can't compete for headlines with media attention-getters
like forest fires, floods and tornadoes. But they actually surpass nature's
spectacles as the most widespread and devastating threat to the health and
productivity of both public and private lands.  For every acre lost to forest
fires, two were lost to weeds in 1995.  

     When you think about bugs and plants and diseases invading our homes,
businesses, water supply, fruits and vegetables, pipelines, electrical
utilities and more ... I think the message is clear: There is an invasion
under way.   Today's presentations demonstrate the scope of the problem. 
Going beyond the very telling $123 billion in economic damage is how this
menace ruins lives.   

     With us today is a man who's met the enemy head-on.  As part of growing
up in Montana, Tom Hoff learned all about leafy-spurge.  It spread wildly
through ranchlands, stunting grass growth until there was nothing left for the
cows.  Tom watched friends and neighbors lose their ranches, their
livelihoods.  Eighteen years ago, Tom left his leafy-spurge infested ranch and
moved to Nebraska.  At the time, there was some leafy-spurge in Nebraska but
he found that most folks in the area didn't know what a menace it could be. 
By 1987 Tom and some other folks formed a state task force to deal with the
problem and raise awareness among ranchers.  Today, Tom is now fighting leafy-
spurge on his own ranch but is keeping it closely monitored and treated and
hopes that it's under control.  Tom would you stand up?

     Tom is going home tomorrow, and -- with a boost from President Clinton's
Executive Order   he will attend a meeting of over 350 people to deal with
this problem.  I don't have to tell you getting this many people together in
Nebraska in early February suggests that people are beginning to realize the
gravity of the problem.  Thanks for being here today Tom and thanks for all
your pioneering efforts.  

     Another gentleman in the audience will tell you plainly that as weeds
increase, incomes and land values decrease and with that the economic health
of many rural communities.  Charles Weiser ought to know.  He's a banker who
lends to farmers and ranchers and he can tell you how tough it is financially
on farmers to have to battle these invaders.  Charles thank you for coming and
thank you for bringing to the forefront how invasive species attack the bottom
line.  

     So the problem is very real affecting lives, livelihoods and whole
communities. The Executive Order establishes an advisory committee that will
be instrumental to the Invasive Species Council in developing a strong
management plan acceptable to all interested parties.  The committee will be
made up of people outside the federal government -- academia, local and tribal
governments, scientists, trade groups, the private sector, environmental
groups and of course farmers and ranchers.  This is a problem that has clear
implications for the nation's food supply and America's farm communities so it
is extremely important that agriculture have a prominent seat at the table.

     Today's announcement will allow us to build on, and share with other
agencies the many programs underway at USDA.  On Monday I announced our budget
requests for 2000 which includes over a $16 million increase in USDA programs
to combat invasive species  

     Just yesterday, working with local officials, we began cutting down
trees in Chicago.  I'm not one to champion the removing of any more green from
urban areas but these trees were infected by the Asian long-horn beetle.  And
this bug has no known predators and there are no treatment methods we know of
that are effective.  Unfortunately, that means destroying infested trees is
the only way we've got to get rid of these pests. And, that's a real tragedy.
I know some folks who would just as soon take a wrecking ball to their living
room, as uproot a favorite old tree. But if you understand how these beetles
live, and feed on a tree at every stage of their life, you know that once the
beetles settle in, that tree's days are numbered.  So the focus then, has to
shift to protecting other healthy trees. 

     But the first line of defense is at our borders.  At every entry port  
harbors, airports, border crossings   we inspect airline passengers and crew,
check luggage, intercept plants, poultry and meat products, and that's just
the dogs   more famously known as the Beagle Brigade.  But I don't want to
take anything away from our hard-working inspectors who in 1996 inspected over
66 million passengers, turned back over 48,000 pests and over 1.5 million
plants and checked out thousands of ships and aircrafts.  

     One of our strongest weapons against these invaders is science and
technology.  Our researchers continue to look for natural enemies for weeds
and other species.  Recently we began distributing a weevil -- unlike the
Asian long-horned beetle it's one of the good bugs.  Imported from Australia
it is the natural predator of the tree that's eating the everglades, the
Melaleuca .  We've also found, and are using, a looper -- I've never seen one
personally but my staff informs me it's like a caterpillar -- anyway it eats
Kudzu, also known as the 'vine that ate the south.'  Recently we established
the Exotic and Invasive Weed Research Unit that is aggressively focusing our
research dollars where it will do the most good.

     As part of our containment efforts, we're also looking at regulations
that would restrict the transportation of invasive species across state lines. 
And in addition to managing 191 million acres of federal lands our folks in
the Forest Service provide technical assistance to private land owners.

     These and other activities   not least among them our work with farmers
and ranchers will form the basis of our involvement with other agencies in
beating back the invasion. 

     Last summer I was in Hawaii talking about this very issue and witnessed
first hand how, because of the joint efforts of the people there, the area I
was visiting was free of the fast growing Miconia -- also known as the 'green
cancer'.  While there, I learned a Hawaiian phrase : "A 'ohe hana nui ke alu
'ia  "No task is too big when done together by all."  I think that embodies
the spirit and intent of the President's Executive Order on Invasive Species. 
Not only are we recognizing the problem, but we are coming together to do
something about it.  Again, I want to thank everyone here today for all you
are doing to combat invasive species.  Thank you.

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