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NEWS-PRESS (Fort Myers, Florida) 01 May 06 Cape's monitor lizards may have enemy: Congress (Charles Runnells)
The cavalry isn't here yet, but the money to pay for it could be coming soon.
When that happens, monitor lizards' days in Cape Coral may be numbered.
The U.S. House of Representatives is looking at a $2 million budget initiative to kill off Cape Coral's monitor lizards and other invasive species in Florida. The U.S. Senate also is expected to consider the initiative sometime next month.
If approved, half of the money will go toward two problem animals: the Gambian giant pouch rat in the Florida Keys and the Nile monitor lizard in Cape Coral and Sanibel Island. The other $1 million would pay for research into invasive species and administrative costs.
The money would pay for scientists and trappers to eradicate those unwelcome critters, which eat native species, such as the burrowing owl in Cape Coral, and could potentially spread throughout Florida and the United States.
That's good news for Cape residents concerned about the monitor lizard problem.
Retired school teacher Carl Veaux, 67, worries that the lizards are eating burrowing owl eggs in the city, and he wants them stopped before it affects the overall owl population. Veaux also is a member of the Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife, an owl advocacy group.
Veaux said he hopes the money comes through, and it sounds like it might.
"That's great," he said. "Those things are running all over the Cape."
The Cape has the biggest population of the 4- to 7-foot lizards in the United States with more than a thousand. They also were seen last year on Sanibel Island.
Bernice Constantin, the Florida director of wildlife services for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said there's been a lot of interest from senators and representatives about the budget initiative, and that's a promising sign.
The matter is being discussed and considered in a House subcommittee, but it could get put onto the actual House agenda by late this week. That would make it subject to discussion and a possible approval on the House floor.
It also is expected to come up in a Senate subcommittee next month.
Both the House and the Senate have to agree for the money to be approved, Constantin said. That could be months away.
Meanwhile, city biologist Kraig Hankins — one of two city employees who regularly traps and euthanizes the lizards — asked Lee County residents Thursday to help out. He urged concerned residents to write, phone or e-mail their U.S. representatives and senators and ask them to approve the money.
Hankins has likened federal help to the cavalry riding in and saving the day. The city simply can't deal with the problem on its own, he said. Officials don't have the money or the scientific expertise that the feds can provide.
"Something has to change if we're really going to make a dent in the population," he said.
Constantin hopes to hire three or four specialists to deal with the Gambian rat, and another five for Cape Coral and its monitor lizards.
U.S. Rep. Connie Mack IV, R-Fort Myers, and U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Melbourne, couldn't be reached for comment late last week.
Monitor lizards may have enemy: Congress

I wonder what they will do about all the other invasives, they ignored on the list. Such as those burms, cane toads, all them darn bugs, plants, etc..

"Over the past 200 years or so, more than 50,000 foreign plant and animal species have become established in the United States. About one in seven has become invasive. An "invasive species" is defined as a species that is non-native (or alien) to the ecosystem under consideration and whose introduction causes or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health."

IPM
2003 statewide plan
196 Bird species
31 Mammal species
4 Amphibian species
48 Reptile species
Sofia

I'm sure its too late for some invasive species, such as many insects and the cane toad. It would be really difficult to totally get rid of these species without hurting native species.

I think that's a great idea and after all the Niles are gone they can address the real problem in the Cape. UFO`S .I'm sure retired school teacher Carl Veaux has been seeing them all over as well. Ernie Eison

The pic. Thousands flee Cape Coral Florida to escape the monsters

2 million dollars are going to be wasted on killing a thousand lizards in Florida? With all the real problems we have in this country, our brilliant politicians are going to spend all this money attempting to eradicate an invasive lizard species that in actuality is probably not causing any harm to Florida's already ruined ecosystem. When are people going to start speaking out against this nonsense? Something needs to be done about our governments wastefull spending. Makes me wonder what other useless projects they are throwing money away on.