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CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK
<br /> The best I could find for monetary damage was a 2012 survey according to Indiana Economic
<br /> Digest. It says that Indiana spends about $5.7 billion every year managing these invasive species.
<br /> It is estimated that eighty percent(80%)of these invasive species are garden escapees. These were
<br /> things purposefully planted in our neighborhoods that escaped cultivation and are now causing all
<br /> kinds of ecological damage.
<br /> He went on, So,what is Indiana doing about this? Several things. If we go to the next page, starting
<br /> with IC Fifteen-Sixteen-Ten (15-16-10) at the top, this was actually specific Indiana State
<br /> Legislation which created which created the Indiana Invasive Species Council. I included the entire
<br /> legislation here, I think it's three pages long. It defines what the Indiana Invasive Species Council
<br /> is, how it works, who is on it, etcetera. It's interesting and important to note, the Indiana Invasive
<br /> Species Council contains a fairly diverse range of people. That is actually detailed on the second
<br /> (2nd) page where it is one (1) person who represents research on invasive species, two (2) people
<br /> from the hardwood tree industry, two (2) people from the horticulture industry, two (2) people
<br /> from the agriculture industry, two (2) people from the aquaculture industry, two (2) people from
<br /> land trusts,biodiversity conservation, aquatic conservation and local parks and recreation. So,it is
<br /> a wide and diverse group of people looking into this. There is also an Advisory Committee to the
<br /> Council. The Advisory Committee to the Council, if you go to the page that says Indiana Invasive
<br /> Plant List, they are the ones who make the suggestions to the Council about which species are the
<br /> ones that should be identified as being officially invasive in Indiana. This is the complete list of
<br /> them. The first (1st) section are the aquatic plants. It then goes on from there.
<br /> He continued, A body was created by official State Legislation. If you notice at the top, the date
<br /> on this says October 11th,2013. So,there was concern about how often this ordinance was updated
<br /> and,from reviewing the Code,there actually is no provision saying it has to be updated or reviewed
<br /> annually, or anything like that. Digging a bit deeper and talking to some of the people on the
<br /> Advisory Committee, there is a lot of work that goes into this. The Advisory Committee has to do
<br /> a ton of research before bringing anything to the Council. The best I can determine, this list was
<br /> last updated in 2015.They are getting ready to possibly do another update to it as well.The Indiana
<br /> Invasive Plant List really contains no teeth, as they say politically, because there is really nothing
<br /> in this that particularly bans anything other than experts saying that these are all really bad things
<br /> that do harm to the ecology in our State. Although, I should point out, some of these things on here
<br /> are actually Federally listed, particularly the aquatic plants, as being invasive. We also have some
<br /> things listed as noxious beasts in Indiana. That is actually a small list.
<br /> He went on, So, moving forward to the next page, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources
<br /> in the past year, have proposed to establish this. It's been ratified by the Natural Resource
<br /> Commission in Indiana a couple of months ago. What they have done here is they have made the
<br /> listed species, starting in section twenty-five (25), there are forty-four (44) species on there of
<br /> vegetation, which, are now officially prohibited in Indiana and they define what prohibited means
<br /> on that second (2nd) page. These are all things in Indiana that are, beyond our control, prohibited,
<br /> or will be prohibited, as of, I believe, 2020 when this rule goes into effect after being ratified by
<br /> the Natural Resource Commission, which it has been. So, if you go back to the Indiana Invasive
<br /> Plant list, you'll find there is over one hundred (100) species of plants that are on that list, versus
<br /> only forty-four(44)on that DNR list. First(1St)of all, the DNR list is a terrestrial list, so it doesn't
<br /> take into account any of the plants that are in that aquatic list in that first(1St)category. The second
<br /> (2nd) thing that it does is that the people who wrote the rule were apparently under some pressure
<br /> or fear that there would be some kick-back from the nursery industry or from landscapers, so, a
<br /> EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT
<br /> 455 County-City Building 1227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f 574.235.9173 11-D574 235.5567 www.southbendin.gov
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