Welcome to the thirteenth annual Invasive Species Awareness Week in New York. There are four basic categories of invasives: insects, plants, animals and pathogens. According to the Department of Environmental Conservation, New York now has almost 600 of them and the list keeps growing. Wow.

The New York Natural Heritage Program (NYNHP) has a website that lists them all and assigns different tiers to them based on the severity of the problem that they pose to the environment. There are four basic tiers (#4 being the worst). Some species are assigned to tier M, meaning that they require additional monitoring before a number is assigned.

According to NYNHP the DEC currently prohibits or regulates 126 of the most destructive invasives. Of those, 75 are plants, 30 are invertebrates, 15 are fish, 5 are vertebrates and 7 are fungi, algae or bacteria. For the arithmetically inclined, like myself, I’m not sure why those numbers don’t add up. It’s probably because the list increases so often.

Examples of invasive plants include purple loosestrife, my personal arch nemesis - Japanese knotweed, and that newcomer to Sullivan County, the deadly giant hogweed. Examples of invasive fish are common carp and my other mortal enemy, the snakehead.

It’s interesting to note that our friends on the other side of the mighty Delaware River only have about 300 invasive species. Why? I would guess that Pennsylvania has less international commerce coming in and less international travel simply due to having a smaller population (about 13.1 million versus about 20 million for New York).

How do invasive species get here? There are lots of ways. Some are the usual ones that you would expect (for example, the emerald ash borer is believed to have come in on pallet wood on goods received from China). Others are ones that make us scratch our heads (Japanese knotweed was deliberately brought here and planted in the late 1800’s because people thought it was pretty and would provide good erosion control along streams).

Some of the more recent introductions demonstrate that we haven’t learned from our past mistakes. Hemlock Woolly Adelgid came to New York on infested nursery stock from down South that was planted here.

So what can we do to help combat invasive species? Get involved. Learn about them. Check our properties. Look for them while out hiking. Report them.

As I mentioned, this is Invasive Species Awareness Week. The DEC is hosting free public webinars, guided hikes, hands-on workshops and similar events throughout the State all week long. Hop on the NY Invasive Species Awareness Week 2026 webpage for a list of activities. 

In this year’s State budget that was recently passed, there is $18.5 million earmarked to combat invasives. They are a huge problem not just for the environment but for agricultural production as well.

Help join the fight this week and every week. Together we can make a difference. As the expression goes, if you see something, say something.

Let’s all enjoy the outdoors!

John S. Van Etten is the current president of the Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs of Sullivan County, Inc.