Non-native plants and animals can severely damage the environment, endanger native species, and place a significant financial burden on affected communities. The emerald ash borer is a beetle, originally from Asia, which has killed more than 20 million ash trees in several U.S. states. If it spreads, it could eliminate all native ash species across the country. While this situation is dire, it is not too late to protect the vast majority of ash trees in the United States.

UCS activists generated more than 2,500 phone calls asking the Senate and House Appropriations Subcommittees on Agriculture to commit $90 million for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to address this extraordinary threat—far more money than is currently committed. The Appropriations Committees have only funded the USDA at current levels, about $10 million annually, through February 2007. We will urge action again next year, when Congress must fund the USDA from February through October 2007.