7. INVASIVE SPECIES: Study warns of biodiversity, ecosystem threats associated with some biofuel crops (Land Letter, 05/29/2008)

Patrick Reis, Land Letter reporter

The stage is set for biofuels to provide a boost to the United States' domestic fuel production, but a report released last week by the Global Invasive Species Programme warns that many crops proposed as biofuels -- including those to be planted in the United States -- could become invasive species and spell trouble for the health of the nation's ecosystem and biodiversity.

Researchers in North America, Africa and South America found significant overlap between the list of currently invasive species and the proposed "next generation" of biofuels. The report advocates the use of native plants for biofuels and calls for risk assessments before any non-native species is introduced.

Such evaluation is currently lacking, said Stas Burgiel, co-author of the paper and senior policy adviser at the Nature Conservancy. "Countries worry about the potential to become invasive with agricultural crops, but when they plant for energy uses they circumvent the regulations for agricultural crops," he said. "Some countries, for reasons of capacity, don't perform any assessment at all."

This could be problematic for biodiversity in the United States, and more attention to this potentially important issue is needed, according to Julie Sibbing, an ecologist with the National Wildlife Federation.

"There's this rush to production," Sibbing said. "We don't know what the effects of these crops in the wild will be, but we do know we need to be spending a heck of a lot more on research."

The recently passed farm bill did not provide relief for this quandary (see related story). Instead, biofuel spending in the farm bill was skewed toward refinery development and assistance and away from research, Sibbing said.

Invasive grasses used for biofuels production could be especially harmful to North American native prairies, which occupy 1 percent of their original range, Sibbing added. Invasive grasses could crowd out endangered plants and destroy the last bits of habitat for threatened fauna, she said.

An overblown risk?

But Michael Wach of the Biotechnology Industry Organization said the risks of ecological damage from biofuels are overblown and that proper oversight is already in place.

Any crop introduced for biofuel use is rigorously tested in controlled fields to prevent "significant genetic transfer" and requires certification from the United States Department of Agriculture, Wach said. Crops are also examined to ensure that they will not harm endangered species, he added.

"Thus far, no harmful environmental effects have been identified as a result of over 10,000 field trials of genetically engineered plants," Wach said.

Wach is confident that the methods and technologies -- such as creating buffer zones or genetically engineering plants to be sterile -- are sufficient to prevent biofuels from spreading from production fields to the wilderness.

But Sibbing thinks his faith is misplaced. "A lot of people have false confidence that you can introduce a species and then control it, but history will show that's not the case," she said. "Some of the invasive species that are currently the most difficult and costly to control are the ones we were originally told were easily contained."

Furthermore, Sibbing said native species produce the most biomass for the smallest amount of resources, provided the plots contain multiple species.

The GISP study specifically condemned plans to plant the giant reed, a fleshy perennial grass native to Asia, in the United States, on the grounds that the plant is already damaging North American wilderness. The highly flammable tree increases the risk of wildfires, the report says.

Greg Aplet, a senior forest scientist with the Wilderness Society, said that while invasives have the potential to increase fire risks, they must significantly alter the landscape to really pose a wildfire threat. "Replacing one grass with another doesn't increase fire risk, but if a grass invades the deserts where none previously existed, then you risk more wildfires," he said.

Still, Aplet said the risk of increased fire transmission was dwarfed by the other potential hazards of out-of-control biofuel crops. He pointed out the irony of the situation: "The key qualities of a good biofuel crop species are some of the same characteristics of our worst invasive species -- rapid growth, high biomass, and the ability to take care of itself with low management."

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