Hawaii Invasive Species Council

Governor David Ige was recently named Chair of the Western Governors’ Association (WGA), a coordinating body for the leaders of 19 western states and 3 Pacific territories. The WGA provides a forum for policy development and information exchange among members.

As the new chair, Governor Ige is launching the Biosecurity and Invasive Species Initiative. The Initiative will focus on the impacts that nuisance species, pests, and pathogens have on ecosystems, forests, rangelands, watersheds, and infrastructure in the west, and examine the role that biosecurity plays in addressing these risks.  The goal is to examine emerging issues in biosecurity and invasive species management in the West, and develop a set of policy recommendations, best practices, and technical tools to address those issues.

The Initiative was launched on July 12, 2018, with a webinar focused on improving standardization of data collection and sharing across the west. Governor Ige provided opening remarks, saying “The spread of invasive species continues to be one of the biggest environmental problems facing the Western Governors as well as the entire country. Each state has their own unique set of challenges when it comes to invasive species, but I believe that through collaboration and sharing best practices, we can all find common ground to overcome these obstacles together.”

The webinar included a panel of experts on invasive species data management and aggregation, and panelists discussed some of the opportunities and challenges associated with standardizing and compiling data across large networks of partners. To learn more about the initiative and to view a recording of the webinar, visit the WGA website: https://westgov.org/news/wga-chair-hawaii-gov.-david-ige-announces-biosecurity-and-invasive-species-initiative-july-12-webinar