California wants to kill every one of these swamp rats by 2025. Congress is ready to help
A California Democrat trying to eradicate invasive swamp rats from his state highly recommends using an animal carcass to get action in a typically deadlocked Congress.
Rep. Josh Harder, D-Turlock, again hauled the large, stuffed rodent — which Harder’s spokesman has affectionately named “Nellie” — onto the House floor Wednesday before the House unanimously approved his bill granting millions of dollars to California officials trying to eliminate nutria from California.
“Especially on agriculture issues, the biggest problem we have in Congress is getting awareness and understanding, so Nellie has been a great spokesperson,” Harder said. “Having something people can see and look at and know the scale of the problem is hugely helpful.”
Nutria, large rodents native to South America, were found in Merced County two years ago, alarming California wildlife officials because of their potential to harm infrastructure that moves waters to Central Valley farms and Southern California cities.
Nutria can grow as large as a beagle, devour up to 25 percent of their body weight daily and have up to 200 offspring per year. Without help, officials have estimated there could be a quarter million nutria in California destroying wetlands and waterways by 2025.
Nearly a thousand nutria have been eradicated in California so far, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. The vast majority of those have been in Merced County, with smaller numbers occuring in San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Mariposa and Fresno Counties.
The bill grants $12 million to states that have seen nutria, which are California, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, Mississippi, Washington, Texas and Oregon. The bulk of that money will likely go to California and Louisiana, where officials say the problem is more serious, but is up to the discretion of the Secretary of the Interior.
This bill does not actually grant the money, but authorizes the use of it for this purpose when Congress passes a budget through their appropriations process. Harder said he’s hopeful the money would actually be available either later this year or in 2021.
That money is in addition to $10 million allocated by California officials last year to address the problem. That money has allowed local officials to designate a team of 40 employees to solve the problem, rather than redirecting a limited number of employees from California Fish and Wildlife who acted as an emergency response team.
“That arrangement didn’t allow us to actually drive the population down,” said Valerie Cook, the Nutria Eradication Program manager. “But with our team in place the affected area hasn’t expanded far.”
Local officials “told us that isn’t enough to cover the eradication over the next five years,” Harder said. But with this additional federal money, those officials believe nutria should be extinct from California within the five-year plan, according to Harder.
Cook said the goal is to have all nutria removed from the state in the next five to seven years, but that actual eradication means monitoring the situation for no less than 15 years to ensure no female nutria have avoid detection. Otherwise the nutria population could come right back.
“These next five to seven years will be the most demanding,” Cook said. “We need to apply maximum pressure in the early years and get a handle on this.”
Some of their tactics have to be creative — and involve a significant investment. The eradication team already plans to release in April what they call a “Judas nutria,” or a sterilized nutria with a tracking device, that shows officials where more nutria are located. That program has been paid for out of state money.
They’re also testing dog teams in March, to see if it’s worth the significant investment of bringing in dogs who can sniff out the nutria. More federal money would help as they consider whether to use that costly program, Cook said.
Harder gives partial credit to the bill getting through the House to Nellie — a native of Annapolis and a loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture — that Harder first brought into Congress before the House Commitee on Natural Resources when they were considering the bill.
“The first reaction I get is people laughing at me, because I’m carrying around a giant rat, but the second is wow, I can’t believe we’re not already doing that,” Harder said, referring to funding nutria eradication.
“I’m hoping we’ll get some more California nutria to be Nellie’s best buddies soon,” Harder added.
This story was originally published February 26, 2020 at 11:42 AM with the headline "California wants to kill every one of these swamp rats by 2025. Congress is ready to help."
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