Don’t plant a pest: Give them an inch, they’ll take an acre

By CITY OF SANIBEL

Initiated in 2010, National Invasive Species Awareness Week is a weeklong series of activities, briefings and events to highlight efforts across the nation and around the world to slow the spread of invasive species In the United States alone, invasive species cost over $120 billion annually in damage and control, and the cost they inflict on our natural heritage is immeasurable

The city of Sanibel has been waging war against invasive exotic plants and some animals, too that threaten the island's natural areas since the early 1980s An invasive exotic plant is an exotic or non-native plant that not only has naturalized but is aggressively expanding on its own, displacing native plants and wildlife and disrupting natural ecological processes In 1996, the city enacted legislation regu- lating eight invasive exotic plant species Brazilian pepper, air potato, earleaf acacia, exotic inkberry (beach naupaka), java plum, lead tree, mother- in-law's tongue and Melaleuca that were determined to be the “worst of the worst” invaders These eight species

See PEST, page 22