The Governor’s Invasive Species Council is in the process of developing an aquatic invasive species management plan and is asking for input into shaping the potential contents of the plan, according to Sarah N. Whitney, Chair of the Council’s AIS Management Plan Committee.

The goal of the plan is to minimize the harmful ecological, economic and human health impacts of AIS through the prevention and management of their introduction, expansion and dispersal into, within and from Pennsylvania.

One component of the AISMP will be a section of management actions to address the most immediate and pressing problems. The Council is seeking input to help identify the specific strategies and tasks that will make up this section.

The management actions section will be broken into the following categories: Leadership, Coordination and Policy; Prevention; Early Detection; Rapid Response; Monitoring and Inventory; Control and Management; Research and Risk Assessment; and Education and Outreach

Each category will have an overall objective, as well as more specific strategies and tasks to meet that objective. You can see examples of these strategies in the Hawaii AIS Management Plan, starting on page 4-2 and the Maine AIS Management Plan, starting on page 19.

A draft of potential action items for dealing with AIS in Pennsylvania is available online. This draft document was created by reviewing AIS plans for other states and pulling out the concepts that might be applicable to Pennsylvania.

This is just the beginning of the plan development process. Once the Council has a complete list of potential management actions, they will ask for more help to prioritize the actions so the Council can determine what activities should be tackled first.

Please submit your ideas for additional action items or questions to Sarah Whitney, who is with the Pennsylvania Sea Grant Program, by email to: swhitney@psu.edu or call 610-304-8753 by August 7.

7/28/2006