Top experts, including a UC Davis marine scientist, are calling for national action to arrest the natural and economic damage being done in the United States by invasive plants and animals.

Susan Williams, director of the UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory, is one of 12 prominent authors of a set of new recommendations for stopping hundreds of non-native organisms ranging from wildfire-fueling cheat grass to mosquito-borne West Nile virus.

"Americans pay more than $1,100 per household per year for the costs of invasive species, which affect our food supply, property, recreation and health," Williams said. "In 2001, the National Invasive Species Management Plan was released with a long, complex list of recommendations for preventing and reducing those effects. Recent scientific advances helped us distill that list into six prioritized recommendations."

Williams' research focuses on marine invasions and biodiversity. She has served on the U.S. Aquatic Nuisance Species Task Force on the invasive seaweed Caulerpa.

She and her co-authors released their recommendations on March 3 in an Ecological Society of America position paper, "Biological Invasions: Scientific Recommendations for U.S. Policy and Management." After a briefing for Congressional and federal agency staff members at the National Press Club, they met with staffers for U.S. Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. and George Voinovich, R-Ohio, and Terry Van Doren, special assistant to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs.

The scientists' position paper calls for tougher approval processes for new species imports; better information-sharing among agencies and scientists; increased funding for tackling both existing and emerging invasions; and the establishment of a National Center for Invasive Species Management (under the existing National Invasive Species Council) to coordinate and lead policy improvements.