"An alien invader is threatening Georgia's waterways!" trumpeted a Georgia publication on Dec. 20, 1999.

Godzilla?

Nope, it's a weed called giant salvinia, but it can cause almost as much havoc as the firebreathing movie monster.

The Georgia warning was issued because the wayward weed was taking over lakes and streams. It was so aggressive that the Georgia Department of Natural Resources put giant salvinia on its "most wanted list," urging gardeners, aquarists, boaters and others to be on the lookout for the prolific invader and turn it in to the authorities.

In this situation, the "authority" is not the FBI or the CIA but the U.S. Department of Agriculture. And, Erich Rudyj, AG '88M, a biologist with the plant protection and quarantine section of the National Biological Control Institute (NBCI), is one of a team of agents on the case.

"In my work with NBCI (a branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service or APHIS), I've traveled throughout the country and abroad, talking to communities and individuals about how best to control these pests," Rudyj says.

Rudyj received his master's degree from UD's Longwood Graduate Program in Public Horticulture. Rudyj says, in addition to horticulture, the program stresses planning, teamwork, human resource management, finance and economics.

When he first went to work for the USDA as a partnerships analyst in the office of cooperative agreements and grants, Rudyj served as liaison between communities, educational institutions and nonprofits and the scientists at APHIS assigned to help them try to fight pests and diseases.

In 1995, Rudyj became head of that office. Two years later, he moved to the NBCI unit specializing in the biological control of invasive plants, as well as insects, pests, nematodes and diseases. His specialty is dealing with marauding weeds.

The weeds are usually plants that come into this country from overseas and reproduce at an alarming rate, destroying native vegetation. "The foreign weed has a competitive advantage: Its natural enemies are not around to control it," Rudyj says. "Biological control is using natural organisms to fight invading pests, and part of my job was to do public relations for biological control."

To support the biological control of harmful weeds and other pests, the USDA instituted the only specialized biological control grant program in the nation. Once the grants are approved, Rudyj works with the community to set up a plan of action.

He interacts with officials and members of communities and a technical advisory group (TAG) that reviews petitions to release weed biological control agents into the environment. Rudyj, along with scientists from a dozen other federal agencies, is a voting member of the TAG and works with researchers who conduct exhaustive tests to see how predators might affect the environment.

"Biological control doesn't eradicate the problem, it instills balance," Rudyj says. For example, giant salvinia (salvinia molesta Mitchell), native to Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay, has no natural controls in North America. Without a natural predator to inhibit its growth, the free-floating fern can double its size in days, forming dense mats in ponds, lakes and reservoirs. The mats, some two feet thick or more, use up oxygen that fish, insects and other aquatic dwellers require. They also clog irrigation and electrical-generating systems and impede swimming, boating and water skiing.

The problem with trying to control the weed with chemicals or other nonbiological means is that it grows in sensitive water areas where it's difficult to avoid side-effects, Rudyj says.

Eventually, USDA scientists did discover a dark-colored, tiny (one-tenth of an inch) weevil (cyrtobagous salvinae) that considers the salvinia suitable for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

"We go through a process of testing biological control agents to ensure that they don't have an unintended impact on friendly plants," Rudyj says. "If they have no detrimental effects, we start to spread the word to affected communities."

Last year, Rudyj also was named leader of the agency's plant health program's policy, planning and critical issues staff.

"I now focus as well on such critical agricultural issues as horticultural plants coming into the U.S., endangered species, regulatory policy and agriculture-related homeland security matters," he says.

One of Rudyj's new responsibilities is to establish better relationships between USDA and other agencies dealing with the environment. "We want to make sure that a commodity or plant brought into a new environment doesn't harbor pests, negatively affect trade or impact an endangered species," he says.

In the wake of 9/11, Rudyj was asked to write a memorandum detailing the relationship between USDA and the newly forming Department of Homeland Security so that the two units can efficiently coordinate roles in thwarting terrorism.

Rudyj, his wife of 20 years, Pimpa, and their daughter, Katrina, live in Bel Air, Md. He met Pimpa when he was in the Peace Corps in Thailand in the late '70s conducting plant genetics research, establishing pine and eucalyptus tree plantations and working on pest-resistant plants.

--Barbara Garrison