Why is the NPS concerned?
Invasive non-native plants can cause enormous changes in park ecosystems by out-competing native plants, polluting the gene pool of native plants through hybridization, and dramatically altering fire, water, and nutrient cycles. Additionally, non-native plants are known to transmit non-native diseases to native plants; non-native diseases can be much more devastating than native diseases because native resistance to these diseases is often very low. Recent estimates indicate that non-native plants are infesting 4,600 new acres of federal land each day. Out of the nearly 1,500 plant species in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, 183 are non-native, and new arrivals are discovered each year. While many of these plants are highly invasive, many of them also appear to be fairly innocuous. Even these innocuous species are a source of concern, however, as it is possible for a non-native plant species to reproduce slowly for decades and suddenly become highly invasive. Giant reed is a pr
