If you don’t know how to define an invasive species or are just looking to further learn or learn how to explain the concept to other people or the general public, I recommend watching this; it gives a good format for priority if you plan on doing more for invasive management as well. Check out this webinar on Invasives.
Personal note on the state of invasive plants in Ohio:
Ohio does well in some towns with active communities and groups that are looking to fix ecological problems and urban food issues. Many tree companies in large Ohio cities spend a majority of their time removing bradford pears( an invasive with common structural failures) and replacing them with available natives from their inv. Ohio has many groups(https://www.oipc.info/plants-to-replace.html for example) , institutional, and government lead removal days. There is no dept. of ag coop extension used freely to communicate invasive problems. However, many Universities do offer services.
The city I live in is rapidly becoming degraded, mainly by Amur honey suckle.
Currently in the State of Ohio, it is illegal to order new invasive plants, it is also eventually going to be illegal. For now, we have an issue, stock (both root and nursery) are still being sold to the public in order to allow the nurseries to clear inv. without financial burden. The issue to me is that the government should be able to invest in these nurseries by bailing out remaining stock since these plants are primarily governing bodies and dept. ag’s fault. The sale of plants should be increasingly regulated to promote the spread of natives and the removal or containment of invasive plants and the pests that can be transferred from one locality to the next doing extreme damage. The other issue I have with this policy is that, even if we say there isn’t a problem with the nursery owners selling these plants, the potential patrons of these nurseries should have to know about the dangers prior to purchase. Nurseries should have to explain the issues occurring with the plant or at very least label it as “invasive”.
https://www.invasive.org/species/list.cfm?id=54 <horseweed and our native grapes are considered noxious yet there is literally no mention of burning bush. ( I understand that this is potentially for ag but it’s a terrible list. )
https://www.oipc.info/invasive-plants-of-ohio.html <- is also not complete.
