At the end of this year’s session, the legislature approved and Governor Rell signed a bill authorizing $1,000,000 ($500,000 a year for each of the next two years) to implement the recommendations of the State Invasive Plant Council and establish a State program to combat the spread of invasive plants, both terrestrial plants and aquatic. Approval of this funding after three years’ effort is a great victory for the Connecticut Federation of Lakes and all lakes and ponds in the State of Connecticut.

These funds will permit the State to hire an invasive plant coordinator who will coordinate the invasive plant functions of the various State agencies. The Coordinator will also develop educational training and rapid response programs designed to control the spread of invasive plants.

At long last, it also provides the funding needed to enforce the law passed four years ago banning the sale and transport of invasive plants. This enforcement work will fall primarily to the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station and the State Department of Agriculture.

Although no specific amount of this fund is earmarked for grants, these funds can also be used to support a grant program to towns with aquatic invasive plant removal and control projects. The approved bill that is effective July 1 reads as follows:

Sec. 8. (New) (Effective July 1, 2007) There is established an account known as the invasive species detection and control account, which shall be a separate, nonlapsing account within the Conservation Fund. Said account shall contain any moneys required by law to be deposited therein. Moneys in the account shall be expended by the Commissioner of Environmental Protection for the purposes of controlling invasive species, including, but not limited to, employing an invasive species coordinator, developing an early detection and rapid response policy, educating the public regarding invasive species, funding Department of Agriculture and Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station inspectors and making grants to municipalities for the control of invasive species on publicly accessible land and waters.