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The Invasive Alien Species in Europe app allows you to learn and share information about Invasive Alien Species (IAS) in Europe. It provides details of about 66 IAS that are considered to be of interest to the European Union. You can become a scientist yourself and record pictures of potentially Invasive Alien Species and add information to them. Find out more on the EASIN - European Alien Species Information Network. Download the app for iOs or Google Play, or check out the EU Science Hub.

This section can help you determine what items can be brought into the U.S. Bringing food and other items back from your travels could impact the health and safety of American agriculture and natural resources. For example, travelers cannot bring in most fresh fruits and vegetables because they can carry plant pests or diseases. Just one pest could devastate multiple agricultural industries.

Emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis) is an exotic, invasive, wood-boring insect that infests and kills native North American ash trees, both in forests and landscape plantings. With EAB now in several areas of the Show-Me State - and its ability to hitchhike on firewood - the probability of it spreading to noninfected areas in the state is high.

Although not yet detected here, thousand cankers disease (TCD) is a potentially fatal disease of black walnut, caused by the walnut twig beetle (Pityophthorus juglandis) and an associated fungus (Geosmithia morbida). TCD could easily spread to Missouri from the several eastern and western states where TCD is already present. You can help minimize the chances of spreading TCD by following these steps:

• Don't move firewood
• Don't transport walnut for woodworking (including buying walnut wood over the Internet)
• Promptly report dead or dying walnut trees

Insects and diseases that are damaging and killing trees across the contiguous United States are reducing the ability of the nation's forests to capture and store climate-changing carbon dioxide, according to a new study. The study – published in the journal Frontiers in Forests and Global Change – found that forests damaged by insects sequestered 69% less carbon than undamaged forests. Those affected by disease sequestered 28% less carbon. In total, the study found that the damage currently being caused by insects and diseases across the contiguous US is reducing the sequestration potential of America’s forests by roughly 50 million tons of carbon dioxide each year – the equivalent of emissions from more than 10 million cars.

Tribal, state and local governments will join forces at Lake Roosevelt this week to combat the spread of northern pike, recently recorded just two dams away from critical Columbia River salmon habitat. “We are at a critical moment in time where northern pike have not spread into salmon habitat,” said Kelly Susewind, director of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. “If northern pike move downstream, the State of Washington will consider this an environmental emergency. We need to work together to stop northern pike.”

Kew's UK Overseas Territories (UKOTs) team recently returned from a successful launch of the Tropical Important Plant Areas project in the British Virgin Islands. Tropical Important Plant Areas (TIPAs) are target sites for plant and habitat conservation, identified by the presence of threatened species, threatened habitats and/or high botanical richness. Although TIPAs are not legal designations, they can inform the protection and management of sites for biodiversity conservation.

See also: Biocontrol Factsheets for more information on biocontrol agents

See also: Noxious Weeds - Publications and Surveys for more resources

The Administration announced a new interagency conservation agreement to protect western water supplies, power generation, outdoor recreation and aquatic ecosystems by strengthening efforts to combat invasive mussels.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) among the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, and six Department of the Interior bureaus focuses on boosting federal coordination, communication and collaboration to enhance the capacity of federal, state and tribal agencies to rapidly respond to discoveries of invasive mussels in western states.