The 172-page document, “Wildlife and People at Risk: A Plan to Keep Rats Out of Alaska,” contains recommendations for strategic actions to address the invasive rodent problem from spreading.

The state plan recommends the creation of a new interagency group, the Alaska Rodent Action Team (AKRAT), to coordinate rat prevention and control efforts. It also recommends improving the ability of agencies and communities to respond to “rat spills” (ship groundings) the way they respond to oil spills, for example.

“There are heavy infestations of rats in the Aleutian Islands, and populations of many seabirds on Alaska islands have been decimated,” said the report's author, Ellen Fritts, a biologist at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. “This new plan aims to bring together federal, state and local governments, along with non-governmental organizations, to educate citizens about the severity of this problem, to get rid of the rats that are here, and prevent more from arriving.”

Fritts said that rat populations spread easily around the state, primarily via maritime vessels and shipping, so coastal communities are at the front lines of this battle.

“There are breeding populations of rats in at least eleven harbor towns in Alaska, including Ketchikan, Juneau, Kodiak and Nome, but aircraft and barges can spread them far inland as well,” she said.

In addition to damaging wildlife and habitats, rats pose a threat to other human interests such as public safety, health and the economy, she said.

Preliminary efforts at rat eradication are already underway.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge has been doing trial work and plans a major effort next year to eliminate rats on Rat Island in the western Aleutians, the site of the first landing in Alaska of non-native Norway rats.