NY Invasive Species Home

Click here to Skip To Content

Events

Invasive Species Steward
Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program seeks Summer 2010 Invasive Species Steward. More...

Design and Management of Sustainable Landscapes for the Finger Lakes and Upstate NY
March 5-6, 2010
Ithaca's 2nd Annual Designing with Native Plants Symposium
Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY. More…

Symposium on Ash in North America
March 9 - 11, 2010 West Lafayette, Indiana
Sponsored by USDA Forest Service, Purdue University Department of Forestry and Natural and Purdue University Department of Entomology. More…

News

NYSDEC Comments on US Coast Guard Ballast Water Discharge Rule-making. Dec. 3, 2009.
More…

NYSDEC Comments on US Environmental Protection Agency Proposed Ballast Water Discharge Rule-making. Aug. 6, 2009.
More…

NYS institutes emerald ash borer quarantine of Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties.
More...

Welcome to NYIS.INFO, the website of the NY Invasive Species Clearinghouse. NYIS.INFO is your gateway to science-based information, breaking news, and new and innovative tools to prevent, detect, control and manage biological invaders in New York. NYIS.INFO links scientific research, State and Federal management programs and policy information, outreach education and grassroots invasive species action to help you become part of the battle against invasive species in and around New York.

EMERALD ASH BORER confirmed in New York State

Find out more on our

Emerald Ash Borer page.

The National Aquatic Nuisance Species Clearinghouse Aquatic Invasive Species Database is now part of NYIS.INFO. Click here to search the database.

Round goby (Neogobius melanostomus)

What is an invasive species? The Executive Summary of the National Invasive Species Management Plan defines an invasive species as “a species that is non-native to the ecosystem under consideration and whose introduction causes or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health.” This definition was adopted in the 2005 Final Report of the NYS Invasive Species Task Force. The Task Force refined the definition stating that to be considered “invasive”, a non-native species‛ harm must significantly outweigh any benefits.

Why should New Yorkers care about invasive species? Invasive species affect the lives of all New Yorkers and we pay a significant price to deal with them. Invasive species damage our crops and infrastructure, cause power failures and food and water shortages, harm the environment, and cause human and livestock diseases. For example, controlling Asian longhorned beetles in New York City and Long Island has cost between $13 million and $40 million per year since 1996. Zebra mussels have caused hundreds of millions of dollars worth of damage in the Great Lakes since their introduction in 1988.

Emerald Ash Borer (Agrilus planipennis)

What other invasive species are in New York? Some of the species already having a major impact on NY include: round gobies, Asian shore crabs, Phragmites (the common reed), Eurasian watermilfoil, Japanese knotweed, garlic mustard, mile a minute vine, purple loosestrife, water chestnut, viral hemorrhagic fever (a fish disease) and West Nile virus. Scores more are just on our doorstep. [See the species list in the left hand navigation bar of this website.]

Japanese Knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum)

Mute Swan (Cygnus Color)

Photo credits:

David Jude, University of Michigan

Emerald ash borer - David Cappaert, Michigan State University, Bugwood.org

Japanese knotweed - Tom Heutte, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org

Mute swan - Meghan O'Neill