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Sustainable
eNews |
July 2003 |
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IWMC
World Conservation Trust |
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Save the Swamps -
Neutralize the Nutria
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What do Louisiana's murky swamps and bayous have in
common with New Zealand's high and dry forests? The answer is that both
were invaded by a pest animal that was originally purposefully imported and
then became a nuisance and a menace to the natural environment. Will people
ever learn? We think so, because in each case, the people have taken action
to rid their land of the creature that should never have been brought
there. New Zealanders have taken firm steps to eradicate the brushy tailed
opossum, brought to them from  Australia. They are trapping the
creature for its fur, making high fashion clothing from the stuff, and
saving their native vegetation and wildlife habitat from the possum, which
has been eating its way through every bit of brush in the country.
In Louisiana, the culprit species is the nutria, an unlovely rodent
between the size of a large muskrat and an average to large beaver. Nutria
were originally imported from South America by those who felt they could be
profitably raised for their fur. When they escaped their pens and began
eating their way through the swamps, environmental damage came quickly.
Nutria ate the water vegetation down to the roots, and the habitat changed
from productive swamp for fish, wildlife and waterfowl, to muddy, empty
lakes. The swamps had been a barrier for drier land in times of hurricanes,
but when they were removed, floods resulted. Those gulf fish species that
came into the swamps to spawn, were lost when the swamps were eaten up by
the nutria. An entire ecosystem needed fixing.
Louisiana state officials and the US Congress agreed on a plan to solve
this nutria nemesis. Bounties for nutria are now being paid to trappers,
from state and federal funding. The goal is to encourage trappers to remove
as many of the animals as possible in order to conserve the swamp
environments of coastal Louisiana. Because the fur market is depressed,
trappers did not feel that trapping these animals was worth their time. The
Louisiana state nutria control program pays approved trappers $4 each for
nutria tails. If the trapper can in addition, sell the pelts and then also
sell the meat to alligator farmers, he stands to make a profit from
trapping nutria. The effort is a vital conservation tool. Renewed
swamplands help to protect the rest of the coastal environment. This
benefits fish and waterfowl, people's homes, roads and farms, and native
beaver, fish and muskrats. The nutria trapping program benefits the local
economy and gives hope to Louisiana's citizens that there is a viable
future for them, their communities and their children.
IWMC applauds the courage and foresight of those in Louisiana and the US
Congress who have shrugged off the political fall-out from activist
organizations and their vigorous anti-trapping campaigns. We appreciate the
irony of the situation: Those who once profited immensely from opposition
to trapping in the name of humane behavior and environmental harmony, are
now widely seen as obstructing the process of environmental healing.
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