Chapter NR 40

Register May 2011 No. 665

Chapter NR 40

INVASIVE SPECIES IDENTIFICATION, CLASSIFICATION AND CONTROL

NR 40.01   Purpose.

NR 40.02   Definitions.

NR 40.03   Classifications.

NR 40.04   Prohibited category.

NR 40.045   Emergency additions to prohibited category.

NR 40.05   Restricted category.

NR 40.06   Invasive species permits.

NR 40.07   Preventive measures.

NR 40.08   Enforcement.

NR 40.09   Interagency coordination.

NR 40.01 NR 40.01 Purpose. The purpose of this chapter is to identify, classify and control invasive species in Wisconsin as part of the department’s statewide program required by s. 23.22 (2) (a), Stats.

NR 40.01 History History: CR 08-074: cr. Register August 2009 No. 644, eff. 9-1-09.

NR 40.02 NR 40.02 Definitions. For purposes of this chapter:

NR 40.02(1) (1) “Algae” means a predominately photosynthetic eukaryotic organism ranging from unicellular to macroscopic forms, lacking true roots, stems, leaves, and embryos.

NR 40.02(2) (2) “Animal” means all vertebrate and invertebrate species, including but not limited to mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, mollusks, arthropods, insects, and their eggs, larvae or young, but excluding humans.

NR 40.02(3) (3) “Aquatic animal” means any vertebrate or invertebrate species that lives or grows only in water during any life stage, and includes the eggs, larvae or young of those species.

NR 40.02(3m) (3m) “Aquatic invasive species” means any invasive species that dwells in water or wetlands.

NR 40.02(4) (4) “Aquatic plant” means a submergent, emergent, free-floating or floating-leaf plant and includes any part of the plant.

NR 40.02(5) (5) “Attached” means in, on, or physically connected to in any way.

NR 40.02(6) (6) “Boat” means any device capable of being used as a means of transportation on water.

NR 40.02(7) (7) “Category” means a grouping of species designated by administrative rule for which there are specific legal requirements or restrictions.

NR 40.02(7g) (7g) “Cave” means any naturally occurring void, cavity, recess or system of interconnected passageways beneath the surface of the earth or in a bluff, cliff or ledge, including pits and sinkholes, but does not include a rock shelter.

NR 40.02(7r) (7r) “Commercial cave or mine” means a cave or mine that has more than 1,000 visitors per year and charges a fee.

NR 40.02(8) (8) “Contain” or “containment” means to prevent spread beyond a designated boundary.

NR 40.02(9) (9) “Control” has the meaning given it in s. 23.22 (1) (a), Stats. In addition, “control” includes activities to eliminate or reduce the adverse effects of invasive species including decreasing or eradicating their population or limiting their introduction or spread, and includes destroying the aboveground, and when necessary, the belowground portions of a plant in a manner and at the proper time to prevent the development and distribution of viable seeds or other propagules. For plants that reproduce vegetatively, “control” includes the use of methods that contain or reduce the vegetative spread of the plant.

NR 40.02 Note Note: Section 23.22 (1) (a), Stats., states that “control” means to cut, remove, destroy, suppress, or prevent the introduction or spread of.

NR 40.02(9m) (9m) “Crayfish” means any decapod crustacean from the following families: Astacidae, Cambaridae and Parastacidae.

NR 40.02(10) (10) “Cultivate” means, for plants, intentionally maintaining an individual or population of a plant.

NR 40.02(11) (11) “Cyanobacteria” means a predominately photosynthetic prokaryotic organism occurring singly or in colonies.

NR 40.02(12) (12) “DATCP” means the Wisconsin department of agriculture, trade and consumer protection.

NR 40.02(13) (13) “Department” means the Wisconsin department of natural resources.

NR 40.02(14) (14) “Disposal” means the lawful discharge, deposit, dumping or placing of any invasive species into or on any land or water in a manner that prevents the establishment, introduction or spread of the disposed species, or the consumption of the species as food.

NR 40.02(15) (15) “Eradicate” means to remove an entire population of an invasive species and all its propagules from an area of infestation.

NR 40.02(16) (16) “Established” means, for algae and cyanobacteria, plants, terrestrial invertebrates and plant disease-causing microorganisms, aquatic invertebrates except crayfish, and terrestrial and aquatic vertebrates except fish, present in an area as a self-sustaining population that is dispersed to the extent that eradication is either infeasible or will take a significant effort over a period of several years.

NR 40.02(17) (17) “Established nonnative fish species and established nonnative crayfish species” means alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus), common carp (Cyprinus carpio), eastern mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki), rainbow smelt (Osmerus mordax), round goby (Neogobius melanostomus), ruffe (Gymnocephalus cernuus), sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus), three-spine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus), tubenose goby (Proterorhinus marmoratus), white perch (Morone americana), and rusty crayfish (Orconectes rusticus), and western mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis).

NR 40.02(18) (18) “Feral” means existing in an untamed or wild, unconfined state, having returned to such a state from domestication.

NR 40.02(19) (19) “Genetically modified” refers to an organism whose genome, chromosomal or extrachromosomal, is modified permanently and heritably, using recombinant nucleic acid techniques, and includes the progeny of any genetically modified organism.

NR 40.02(20) (20) “Identified carrier of an invasive species” means any material identified in a department infestation control designation under s. 26.30 (7), Stats., a DATCP quarantine under s. 94.01, Stats., or a United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service quarantine declaration under 7 USC section 7714 or 7715 as potentially carrying an invasive species.

NR 40.02(21) (21) “Import” means to bring into Wisconsin or to arrange for another person to bring into Wisconsin.

NR 40.02(22) (22) “Incidental” means something is done inadvertently when performing an otherwise legal activity.

NR 40.02(23) (23) “Introduce” means to stock, plant, release or otherwise put an invasive species into the outdoor environment or use an invasive species in this state anywhere except within an indoor facility which is designed to physically contain the organism, including but not limited to a laboratory, greenhouse, growth chamber or fermenter.

NR 40.02(24) (24) “Invasive species” has the meaning given it in s. 23.22 (1) (c), Stats. In addition, “invasive species” means nonnative species including hybrids, cultivars, subspecific taxa, and genetically modified variants whose introduction causes or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health, and includes individual specimens, eggs, larvae, seeds, propagules, and any other viable life-stages of such species. For fish, “invasive species” includes all nonnative species.

NR 40.02 Note Note: Section 23.22 (1) (c), Stats., states that “invasive species” means nonindigenous species whose introduction causes or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health. The department does not consider dead specimens or organisms that are dead, not revivable, and no longer capable of living, growing, developing, reproducing, and functioning as “invasive species”.

NR 40.02(25) (25) “Management action” means limiting the spread of established populations or abating harmful ecological, economic, social and public health impacts associated with invasive species introductions.

NR 40.02(25m) (25m) “Mine” means any artificial excavation, shaft, underground passageway, slope, tunnel or working from which ore or mineral is or was extracted, but does not include an open pit mine. However, caves or mines may be located adjacent to open pit mines.

NR 40.02(26) (26) “Native duckweed” means any of the following: Lemna aequinoctialis (lesser duckweed, three-nerved duckweed), Lemna minor (common duckweed), Lemna obscura (little duckweed, purple duckweed), Lemna perpusilla (least duckweed, minute duckweed), Lemna trisulca (forked duckweed, star duckweed), Lemna turionifera (perennial duckweed, turion duckweed), Spirodela polyrrhiza (giant duckweed), Wolffia borealis (northern watermeal), Wolffia brasiliensis (Brazilian watermeal), and Wolffia columbiana (Columbian watermeal).

NR 40.02(27) (27) “Native species” means a species indigenous to Wisconsin, and includes an individual specimen. For fish, “native species” means those fish species identified as native fish species in Wisconsin Fishes 2000: Status and Distribution, by Lyons, J., P. A. Cochran, and D. Fago, published by University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute, and includes an individual specimen, regardless of the specimen’s origin.

NR 40.02(28) (28) “Natural areas” means undeveloped or wild lands and those lands preserved or restored and managed for their natural features, including but not limited to parks, forests, refuges, grasslands, wetlands and shorelines on public and private lands.

NR 40.02(29) (29) “Nonnative” or “nonnative species” means a species not indigenous to Wisconsin, and includes an individual specimen.

NR 40.02(30) (30) “Nonnative fish species in the aquaculture industry” means arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus), Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), brown trout (Salmo trutta), chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch), rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha), redear sunfish (Lepomis microlophus), tiger trout (a hybrid of Salvelinus fontinalis and Salmo trutta) and tilapia (Tilapia spp).

NR 40.02(31) (31) “Nonnative viable fish species in the aquarium trade” means goldfish (Carassius auratus), koi carp (Cyprinus carpio), sterlet (Acipenser ruthenus), Chinese hi-fin banded shark (Myxocyprinus asiaticus), bitterling (Rhodeus spp.), ide (Leuciscus idus) and weather loach (Misgurnus anguillicaudatus).

NR 40.02(32) (32) “Non-reproductive” means, for plants, not capable of reproduction sexually or asexually.

NR 40.02(33) (33) “Nonviable” means, with respect to aquatic vertebrates including fish species, species for which eggs, fry, or adults are not capable of surviving water temperature below 38 degrees Fahrenheit or not capable of surviving in fresh water. “Nonviable” means, with respect to terrestrial vertebrates, species that are not capable of living, growing, developing, and functioning successfully in Wisconsin’s outdoor environment.

NR 40.02(34) (34) “Open pond” means an outdoor pond that is not entirely covered to prevent the escape of fish.

NR 40.02(35) (35) “Order” means an element of the Linnean taxonomic classification system, unless the context indicates otherwise.

NR 40.02(36) (36) “Person” means an individual, partnership, corporation, society, association, firm, unit of government, public agency or public institution, and includes an agent of one of these entities.

NR 40.02(37) (37) “Pet” means an animal raised or kept for companionship and generally kept indoors, in an enclosure or otherwise confined or restrained, and not allowed to roam freely out-of-doors. “Pet” does not include fish and crayfish, or other aquatic invertebrates.

NR 40.02(38) (38) “Plant” means, as a verb, to place entire live plants, plant parts or seeds into the water, the ground or a planter out of doors for the purpose of growing them. “Plant”, as a noun, means any member of the Kingdom Plantae, lichens, algae and cyanobacteria, and any varieties, cultivars, hybrids or genetically modified variants thereof, and includes any plant parts capable of vegetative or sexual reproduction.