The bill I choose is HR 669, entitled “Nonnative Wildlife Invasion Prevention Act.” The goal of the bill is to limit, or strictly prohibit, foreign wildlife being introduced into domestic habitats. The warrant is that transferring foreign-born animals to the United States increases environmental harm, aids in the destruction of native species, injures the economy, and perhaps imposes risks to human health. Currently the United States does not have a system to check if newly-introduced species have caused in harm in other countries, are potentially invasive to domestic habitats, and if they carry any wildlife disease that could wipe out other species.
Under the Lacey Act, the federal government takes about four years to ban a species: note, this is after the species has already been introduced into the habitat, has done considerable damage. Bill 669 commissions the Secretary of the Interior to work with scientists, experts and the public to assess any potential risks of the species.
The preposition of this bill is highly logical. For example, Burmese pythons were introduced into the Everglades: with no known predators in that region, the species has grown in population to over 30,000 unchecked. As the number of pythons in the Everglades has grown, they have severely damaged the size of many other species native to the Everglades—including crocodiles. Further, in 2003 the Gambian rat was legally imported into the United States. Unfortunately, it carried a highly contagious disease, monkeypox, which was contracted and spread by humans.
The Introduction
12 years ago
This is such an important issue and I'm already intrigued and excited to hear more about this bill! I can't believe there is currently nothing in place to prevent this from happening until four years after the introduction of a new species. I'm not aware of which department is in charge of deciding what species are introduced and where, but I would expect them to have a vested interest in this topic? I am wondering if they have any internal policies that are supposed to prevent this from happening? Do you know anymore right now about who is currently in charge of this process? I look forward to hearing more! Thanks, Nikki
ReplyDeleteI was considering doing this topic. I saw an article on non-native turtles causing problems by forcing out the native ones. I thought this bill also covered non-native species from state to state as well. It would be interesting to see how enforcement works both from state to state and from foreign countries to the US.
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