Invasive Species Not a Fly-Fishing-Only Problem

While the fly-fishing community may be more concerned with the spread of whirling disease or didymo, those species are not the only ones that “reek havoc while our backs our turned,” according to Norma Engelberg of Community Media of Colorado.  After 9/11, numerous Department of Agriculture inspectors were absorbed by the Department of Homeland Security, reports AP writer Tracie Cone.  As a result, invasive species that have made it past the understaffed inspection assemblage have caused significant damage to crops in California and Florida.  Among these invasive species is the emerald ash beetle which has killed millions of ash trees to date.  Ironically, as Engelberg points out, the brown trout is an introduced species; just one that has adapted better than the emerald ash beetle.