Critical Analysis....my last blog post

                I think that many of the actors involved in the management of invasive species are strong. The actors that I talked about are the South Eastern Wisconsin Invasive Species Consortium (SEWISC) and Invasive Plants Association of Wisconsin (IPAW.) They have a lot of support with and from the government to perform the things they need to get done. And both groups work with many regular citizens and volunteers to achieve their goals. I think that citizen involvement is one of the most important things when it comes to tackling a bigger problem such as that of invasive species. I think that citizen education and involvement can get a lot of things done. As there are plenty of regular citizens who really do care about the world in which they live in. I think that these two actors I chose being NGOs helps them as well. Because while they do work with the government on projects, they are not effected by things like state budget cuts. And most NGO groups are less about the money and more about the changes they are making. I always think that any cause citizens get behind and take interest in have a great chance of actually being worked on. The power of the people is so important.

                I talked about the Invasive Species Identification, Classification, and Control Rule- Wisconsin Administrative Code Chapter NR40. I think that this is a really important one because it sets up a guideline for not just state run actors, but the NGO groups like the one’s I talked about as well. People and groups use rules such as this as a guideline for themselves. They work off of it and strive to abide by what it says and help the cause through the work that they do. With that being said though I feel as though a lot more can be done when it comes to how the government is involved. There could be more funding done. And certainly more education. One of J.P Evans hypotheses was that “governments matter” and it really does. They have so much power to get things done it’s just a matter of finding the ways to do so.

                Evans also says that “governance is about learning.” As it should be. There is so much that needs to be done when it comes to the environmental problems we face today. Be that finding more strict laws for invasive species. Or finding better ways to not allow foreign species into the area so easily. Yes there are laws, but if the laws aren’t often cracked down upon or highlighted how much change can there be? I can say I have never heard of someone getting in trouble for holding an invasive species in their possession, even though it is illegal. I feel as though these sorts of things need to be made more public and shown more. Education is so important. And I think education is a big key in solving a lot of the problems our environment is facing, especially when it comes to invasive species.

Nicholas DuBois 2013 Invasive Species Awareness Month Poster winner (http://dnr.wi.gov/news/features/feature.asp?id=10&article=1)

By Nick Durham

Blog Post 4

This post will serve as a final critical assessment of the various actors, regulations and initiatives pertaining to terrestrial invasive species.

The actors I've discussed include the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WIDNR), the Urban Ecology Center, and the Beaver Island Association. The WIDNR is a powerful traditional government actor in Wisconsin that enforces many environmental policies, such as the Chapter NR 40 Invasive Species Rule. Government agencies can fund environmental scientific research directly without trying to incentivize the market, but as J.P Evans points out, governance requires political vision. The WIDNR is especially beholden to the whims of the current political structure in Wisconsin, with gag orders in place to prevent discussion or research into climate change on state time. This fact also prevents the WIDNR from being able to govern effectively because it limits the
agency's ability to learn and adapt to meet its goals.

WI State Treasurer Matt Adamczyk (left) voted to impose a climate change gag order on the secretary of the Board of Commissioners of Public Land Tia Nelson and Land Board staff (Image source: http://www.wausaudailyherald.com/story/opinion/columnists/2015/04/20/gag-order-climate-science-shames-wisconsin/26098311/)

The Urban Ecology Center is a very different entity from the WIDNR. It's status as a micro scale actor that is not sanctioned by the state mean that it has no regulatory authority, but it is an important member of a network of governance. Network governance (and markets) are described by Evans as "the best things that we have" for tackling climate change due to the problem of state sovereignty and the flawed structure of international relations. The ability of a small scale non governmental organization like the Urban Ecology Center to freely take action against invasive species without being chained to large scale political agendas is advantageous, yet the governance network it belongs to is fairly loose and coordination/collective action can be challenging.

The Beaver Island Association is a great example of a fairly strong governance network. The BIA acts as a sort of nucleus to help coordinate local government, tribes, schools and NGO's toward a set of common goals which include the eradication/management of invasive species from the Beaver Islands. This approach finds a good balance between the duality of structure mentioned by Evans, as well as being able to allow for meaningful public participation and the ability to learn/adapt to changing environmental and political contexts. The Beaver Island Association may seem like a poster child for successful network governance, but given that the Beaver Islands are a small geographic region with a unique cultural and political environment, it is unlikely that their mix of approaches would transfer well to other places or would be able to scale up to tackle "wicked" problems like global climate change.

The only regulation I've presented is the Chapter NR 40 Invasive Species Rule. This effective initiative is adaptable to shifting environmental changes because species can be added to the prohibited or restricted invasive species lists as needed. Of course it is a state regulation enforced by the WIDNR, which as mentioned previously is very vulnerable to political meddling. NR 40 may not be magnified as a contrived partisan issue at the moment, but that could very well change in the future.

Eight Hypothesis for Invasive Species

                The two actors I chose to focus my study on this semester was the Mequon Nature Preserve and Eattheinvaders.org.

                I found there are many strengths to the Mequon Nature Preserve. They succeed at getting people in the local Milwaukee area to learn about nature as well as restoring a prairie/woodland back to what it was like naturally. They are doing things like making exhibits of the ash trees there to show people what was there before the invasive ash borer. They have also seen some increased biodiversity in the nature preserve since restoring the wetlands and removing invasive species. They are very strong at increasing awareness and involvement.

                Some limitations of this actor could be that they are limited to only 438 acres of land. One problem I encountered during my field work there was that invasive species from neighboring lands can still easily find their ways over to the nature preserve because of seeds being easily spread. They are not allowed to go to others properties to remove these invasive species unless allowed which could lead to problems of invasive species coming back to the nature preserve. Others wanting to copy something like the MNP could be difficult if countries are still trying to develop in other areas such as their economy.

                There are a good amount of strengths about the network eattheinvaders.org. Something that they are doing is giving a solution to really anyone with access to a computer or a library to help stop the problem of invasive species by foraging and eating them. To my knowledge, while this is a good idea one weakness may be that it seems like a relatively new idea and may not be inspiring too large of a population. People are also really picky and may not be as adventurous in the food they eat. I do think there is a chance to make a market out of it to possibly deter the spread but I do not think this may be the ultimate solution. Thinking about this more though invasive species are a wicked problem so there really would have to be many solutions possibly including this.

                Reading over J.P. Evans 8 Hypothesis there come across a couple that really seem to fit for terrestrial invasive species:

                ”Governance is about learning” is a perfect way to do this. This also plays into the part of getting the mix of approaches right. By changing laws based on past problems we are making the approaches right. As we learn knowledge is able to be exchanged by people. When we look at the Mequon Nature Preserve we are teaching a generation of children as well as adults. Another way to interpret this would be learning from past regulations or ways of dealing with environmental species.

                Many invasive species were brought in in the past without knowing the havoc they could cause for reasons such as eating, medicine or for decoration. The example of garlic mustard which is a common invasive in both prairies and woodlands in the United States is a great example. In the 1800s it was introduced, obviously now we have to deal with the problem now that we have learned and are studying it. We have now found methods for removal, and we know why it is bad for ecosystems. We now have methods such as burning and herbicides to remove them. Continuing to learn about them and finding technological solutions may be one of our strongest methods to counter them.

 

                “Getting the mix of approaches right” is also another one. For something that is such a global problem such as the spread of terrestrial invasive species we need multiple types of governance such as regulations. We need global actors as well as the local actors like the Mequon Nature Preserve. Even actors that may not reach out to a largest audience like eattheinvaders.org. Also we need a combination of different networks. An example would be that many invasive species get in from shipping goods from one country to another these regulations have allowed much of this to stop in certain places. Interest in multiple approaches can allow governance to steer solutions in the right direction.