There are many new non native weed pests in the South, many are in our lakes and ponds, hydrilla, and giant salvinia are two of our current largest problems, but there are many more already here, and many more on the way. This page has some details about the Giant Salvinia problem in the only natural lake in Texas.
Salvinia Molesta, or, Giant Salvinia From South America, is now attempting to take over Southern America. You want to know how bad a non native pest can become? Take a look at Caddo lake in the Eastern most part of the state of Texas. This Invasive weed is gobbling up the lake on a daily basis, and efforts to stop it and control it are yielding less than satisfactory results. Even the New York Times has gotten wind of the story.
It doesn't hurt that Don Henley, of the Eagles has gotten involved in this in a public way. A lot of people are beginning to understand just what can happen when a non native vegetative pests, (I call them alien pests for short) jumps into a new environment. A lot more need to know. This and many others are being transferred from place to place by unwitting agents.
Salvinia is just the tip of an ecological iceberg if we don't start dealing with it now! Hydrilla verticillata, Eurasian watermillfoil, and a host of other alien pest invaders are already taking over ponds and lakes throughout the South, and terrestrial invaders like kudzu (the vine that ate the South) are eating up thousands of acres of woodland and pasture lands.
The aquatic invaders are particularly important in the state of Texas where the only natural lake, the lake mentioned above, is falling victim to a vegetative terrorist, and many of the man made public waters, are beginning to suffer the same fate from Salvinia and other invaders.
Does all this sound scary? I hope so! It should!