California Horticultural Invasives Prevention Details
The goal of the California Horticultural Invasives Prevention (Cal-HIP) is to find and implement solutions to prevent the introduction of invasive plant species through horticulture. In 2004, we convened a forum of stakeholders committed to engaging in a joint effort to prevent the sale of invasive plants. The stakeholders agreed to look for solutions that are effective and economically viable for the nursery industry.
Cal-HIP's Approach
More than $137 billion is spent nationally on eradication and control of invasive species every year. Cal-HIP's work will serve as a model for how the nursery industry, communities, local governments, and resource agencies can collaborate to find solutions to the problem of invasive plants. This project will help protect our natural, diverse, and resilient ecosystems by allowing native vegetation to flourish.
With Sustainable Conservation facilitating the process, the Partnership will accomplish its work through a steering committee composed of community and industry stakeholders—with the following questions guiding the committee's work:
- What plants of horticultural value are invasive in California?
- What are the positive attributes for which gardeners use these plants?
- What noninvasive alternative plants could be easily substituted for these invasive ones?
The project partners will create a list of invasive plants and alternative, non-invasive species. Using the list of invasives, the project partners will work with the nursery industry to phase these plants out of retail and wholesale outlets. Finally, the project partners will produce a toolkit of materials and strategies to educate the horticultural industry and the gardening public about invasive plants, as well as to generate support for non-invasive alternatives.
