COS 130-4 - Cats in a bag: Spending for invasive species management by U.S. States is haphazard and uncoordinated

Abstract: Significant financial resources are spent to manage invasive species, but few comprehensive syntheses of the economic expenditures associated with this management effort exist. To begin to understand the scale of expenditures on invasive species management, we sought to quantify state-level spending on invasive species management across the U.S. We contacted natural resource management officials from all 50 states following a standardized protocol. Out of 50 states, 47 recorded spending money on invasive species management with a mean expenditure of $8,491,760/state and a median expenditure of $1,003,860/state. The total spent by all states was $399,112,718, with a per capita expense of $3.82/resident and a mean area expense of $52.03/km2. Notably, there was a broad lack of careful and consistent expense tracking and coordination within and between states. Our results provide a conservative estimate of expenditures but represent only a fraction of the funding needed to address the large economic costs imposed by invasive species.