Invasive species continue to damage local ecosystems

Remember the purple loosestrife ordeal of the 90’s? A lot of articles told of doom and how the destruction of major marsh landscapes appeared inevitable.

Purple loosestrife provides little if any wildlife value and seemed to out compete all native plants in sunny wetland landscapes. The seeds from the plant drifted long distances in the air on windy days. If cut, the plant created several more shoots from its root system. If pulled out of the ground and any part of the root system remained, it regenerated from that. Pulling the complex root system out made pulling just a few a major workout.

Large patches of the plant with its pretty tall purple blooms grew in the wet areas in the median of Wisconsin highways. But we don’t see much of the plant anymore. Turns out herbicides kill the plant. Brought to the US for ornamental landscaping, it spread from gardens to the wild – an invasive species.

While we read the articles and worried about loosestrife a state owned tract of land saw the native hazelnut and dogwoods disappear, choked out by buckthorn. Another invasive with little wildlife value that chokes out native shrub species. If you know anyone who owns land that buckthorn found its way in, you know how hard they work and the money they spend to fight it. Invasive species often out compete native species. Managing them is difficult. And they change the area they establish in. Eurasian milfoil attack several Wisconsin lakes. So do zebra mussels. Lampreys created havoc in the Great Lakes. Currently we see the destruction of ash stands from the emerald ash borer. That insect recently showed up in Taylor County. Invasive species pepper our landscape. Norway rats may be the most successful, right behind starlings. Wild hogs in southern states cause a ton of agricultural damage. Asian carp in our river systems are an issue. The list is endless. A few years ago a couple of Wisconsin duck hunters came across a five foot alligator while shooting ducks.

In Florida they battle iguanas and a host of other animals. Burmese pythons cause a lot of ecological damage to native wildlife populations in Florida. They entered the landscape after a large reptile facility sustained a major escape from flooding following a hurricane. And people released their pet pythons when they grew too large to manage or they just got sick of the snakes.

I watched a show or two with snake hunters catching one that took four to five men to lift and control. Then they took it to a reptile sanctuary. I question why they just didn’t use a 12 gauge loaded with buckshot at about 15 yards. Seems more effective to me.

Most invasive species get introduced due to some form of human involvement. Think about the Asian beetles that splatter on our windshields and get in our houses each year.

But the best story of a species let loose in the United States dates back to 1953 in Springfield, Missouri. On August 15th that year in the city of Springfield someone killed an odd looking snake. After a lot of work identifying the snake, it turned out that it came from India, a monocled cobra.

Over the course of six weeks, 11 more cobras turned up in the same area. Mothers didn’t allow their children to go outside to play as the summer came to a close. Police were called by people mistaking garden hoses for cobras. An exotic pet dealer took the blame that caused so much hysteria.

Zoologists told local authorities that the snakes didn’t possess the ability to survive winter. Still, the hysteria among the locals continued to grow that August and into September. A dose of antivenom serum was shipped to the community’s hospital. How the snakes got there remained a mystery until 1988.

One of the 12 snakes got caught alive and then they dispatched it. The rest died by police revolver or a shotgun blast to the head. No one seemed interested in taking them to a snake sanctuary.

You can hear about the whole ordeal on the Bear Grease podcast. The host detailed the event with interviews of those that lived through it and how it affects the city to this day.

No cobras in Missouri since 1953. And now you know whether I come across a cobra or Burmese python that I prefer the methods used to deal with such from 1953. So did those two Wisconsin duck hunters – and it worked.

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