The US Fish and Wildlife Service has released a list of invasive species currently affecting our native ecologies and ideas for how the public can help mitigate the damage. This article reports on one member of that list, the nutria, and how the Fish and Wildlife Service encourages hunting it. The nutria is a large rodent that was introduced from South America into US marshes during the height of the fur industry. It has long established itself in marshes and displaces a lot of soil by digging and uprooting plants. This hurts the native plants and animals that depend on them as well as causing major erosion in an environment where deep rooted plants are integral to the structure of the soil. This ties back to our lessons on invasive species and how they have a unique ability to disrupt the environment. While other species have adapted to the marshes over a long period of time, the nutria is from an environment where digging might not be as consequential to the long term health of the soil, and so it targets these essential plants in ways that native organisms wouldn't. At this point, the nutria is well into the negative impact phase of its establishment, making it hard to stop them. For this reason, I think trying to recruit public assistance with controlling their population is a great idea, if it catches on, it could save us a lot of resources. Just last year, the Fish and Wildlife Service allocated 3 million dollars to combating invasive species in the US. Besides being a good idea to save money, this approach adds hunters and trappers to the effort, a stakeholder group that might not otherwise have been involved in conservation. I think that giving people a way to help out by doing something they enjoy and benefit from is one of the best things we can do for our future and the environment.