| What
Harm Can Invasive Weeds Cause? |
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Invasive weeds cost the Unites States $123 billion annually! In the U.S. Department of the Interior report, President Clinton's budget for fiscal year 2000, proposes and increase of $12.8 million in funding for the Department of the Interior to combat invasive species. Invasive weeds reduce
wildlife habitat by forcing native grasses and other plants that protect.
These different and varied plants are often intruded or encroached upon
by a single species, like leafy spurge. Leafy spurge is a very aggressive
invasive weed and costs North Dakota about $75 million a year in damages
due to lost livestock and agricultural production. Leafy spurge as a
single species can overtake a rangeland or cropland. Cornell University estimates
costs to the United States to run over $138 billion each year for invasive
species. In Cornell's report they are including not just plants, but
animals and aquatic organisms as well. Cornell estimates that over the
past 200 years, that several thousand different plant and animal types
have become established in the United States and of those about one
in seven have become an invasive species. This leads to the problem
or economic or environmental harm or harm to human health. |
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