SC - OOP - "White List" question

[Jenne Heise]

> Has anyone heard anything about the National Invasive
> Species Council's "White List"?  From what I can
> gather, it is a proposal (at this stage) to form a
> list of approved, non-invasive species of plants,
> which would prohibit the cultivation, propogation and
> importation of any other plant NOT on the list.  The
> papers I have read on it have been pretty one-sided
> (maybe justifiable), and I have not yet been able to
> access the actual, official government documents. 

In cases like this, when all you can find is one-sided, anti- papers, 
you can generally suspect that the reason you can't find the documents is
because the documents saying what your sources are claiming don't really exist.

For instance, the American Seed Trade Association's page says: "ASTA understands that, in
the course of developing its Management Plan, the Invasive Species Council MAY prepare a
list of invasive species. " (Emphasis mine.)
http://www.amseed.com/documents/invasive102899_1.html

The management plan they are referring to is available in final form here:
http://www.invasivespecies.gov/council/nmp.shtml

I've skimmed it and found that in final form it certainly doesn't seem to say what the
geocities pages say it says. One of the interesting things is that the most onerous
restrictions are on introducing NEW non-native invasive species, (Pity we can't get
pokeweed banned. *sigh*). 

Note that if you run into a local Master Gardener or an Extension Agent at some festival,
they are likely to have among their handouts a list of recommended non-invasive species
and native species for planting. Such 'white lists' are not regulatory but educational
items. 

- -- 
Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise	      jenne at mail.browser.net
disclaimer: i speak for no-one and no-one speaks for me.
"The worst thing I can say of a person is, 'they couldn't be bothered'."