Sacramento, California - CDFA Secretary Karen Ross welcomed stakeholders to the Eureka Room at the State Capitol for Thursday’s opening session of the Invasive Species Summit, a two-day event aimed at refining the state’ s approach and responsiveness to invasive species ranging from fruit flies and other insect pests to weeds, plant and animal diseases and other threats to our agriculture and the environment.

“We are a big, beautiful, special place, blessed with great weather and diverse geography, and that means a lot to our many visitors – including pests. Think of what that means to our ecosystem, our tourism, our recreation, in addition to agriculture,” Secretary Ross told attendees. “Having a strategic framework for the 21st century is especially important now because we are living climate change… we have to figure this out and understand this as a piece of the invasive species puzzle.”