Dear forest pest mavens,
we know tree-killing
insects and pathogens continue to be introduced ... but at what rate? Is
the rate higher than for other types of plant pests? What can we learn
from introductions of other types of plant pests?
Unfortunately, the data
APHIS has made available, and the several studies over the past decade or so,
do not allow us to detect trends arising from current policies or
compare what policies work and don't work. (The most important studies,
dealing with wood packaging and imported live plants, are using data from up to
6 years ago -- and policies have changed in the interim.)
I call on APHIS to make
its various kinds of data - port interception data, species data, "newly
established" data from CAPS or other surveys - available for analysis by
independent experts.
The blog is posted at www.cisp.us
Faith