Tuesday, March 28, 2006

It's About Time...sort of

Indiana has finally gotten around to releasing a list of invasive species, but it is a bit of a letdown. As reported by Purdue University, the list, which includes about 100 species, was put together by the Indiana Cooperative Agricultural Pest Survey Program, which is run by a group made up of Purdue pest experts and workers from state and federal agencies.

So there's a list...but where are the criteria that explain how a species gets listed? Nowhere to be found. It would be wise for Indiana to have public accountability, as there is for states like Massachusetts and California. Accountability builds public trust, and whether you are asking for funding to help combat one of those invasive insects, or asking people to stop spreading an invasive plant, it always helps to have evidence publicly available to support your claims.

Also, small pet peeve here, but while the individual pages for the "unwanted pests" are useful, the full species list is stuck in an annoying Flash applet - you cannot even view more than 20 species at a time, which I find frustrating.

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