Beware the monk parrot.

It may be a very attractive tropical-looking bird — perfect, in fact, for a pirate's shoulder — but once it moves in, it's a noisy, messy pest.

The parrot is one of dozens of animals and plants the Department of Natural Resources is hoping to regulate more strictly under new invasive species rules that will go before the Natural Resources Board for approval this spring and then to the State Legislature later this year.

Though it has not yet arrived in Wisconsin, populations of the monk parrots have colonized neighborhoods in downtown Chicago where they are driving residents nuts. They build huge messy nests out of sticks in trees and on power lines and, apparently, they never shut up. According to one description, they keep up a steady stream of "screeches, squawks and nearly continuous chatter.''

"If they happen to live outside your window, it's a nightmare,'' said Kelly Kearns, an endangered species specialist with the state Department of Natural Resources.

The rules being written by the DNR would create legal classifications of such invasive species, establish rules for sale and transportation of the non-native plants and animals, and prescribe fines and penalties for violating the law. The monk parrot, for example, would be regulated as a prohibited species, meaning it couldn't be sold or transported into or within the state without the threat of penalty. Less strict rules would govern the sale and transport of species listed as restricted.

Two non-regulated categories — watch and non-restricted — would be set up for species that either are not currently in the state and for which there is little information or species that, though invasive, actually have beneficial impacts on the environment.

The proposed law, more than two years in the making, would represent the first comprehensive effort at regulating invasive species in Wisconsin.

"It's a big deal,'' said Kearns, "because it gives us tools we haven't had before.''

Right now, the DNR doesn't have much power to stop people from bringing in invasive species. Invasive species have been handled on a case by case basis with the state ocassionally passing new rules and requirements such as the limits on the transportation of firewood designed to stop the spread of the emerald ash borer.

The cost of invasives is huge, both to the economy and to the landscape. Nationwide, according to the DNR, it costs $137 billion a year to control invasive species and repair damage they cause to the environment. In Wisconsin in 2001, Wisconsin Electric Power Company reported spending $1.2 million per year to control the zebra mussels that are clogging the intake and distribution pipes of its Lake Michigan power plants.

Forestry in the state, a $20-billion per year industry, is threatened by buckthorn and honeysuckle, rapidly spreading invasive plants that can choke native forest vegetation and prevent the regeneration of young trees. In some popular Northern Wisconsin fishing lakes, a foreign invader called the spiny water flea is turning the natural balance of lakes on its head by eating zooplankton, the same food relied upon by young fish and other native aquatic species.

And some invasives make the issue personal. If you've ever had an encounter with a towering invasive plant called giant hogweed, you'd understand, according to Kearns. It's an enormous plant, native to Asia, that can grow 15 feet tall and has dinner-plate sized blooms and spiked leaves that can leave welts on your arms. So far, Kearns said, invasive specialists know its presence in Wisconsin is limited to a few populations in and around Hurley. It will be placed on the prohibited list.

"We know it got spread by gardeners giving it to each other because it is huge and looks really cool,'' Kearns said.

That is exactly the type of behavior Kearns said the proposal is intended to halt.

Even those in the nursery business agree it's a good idea, according to Brian Swingle, executive director of the Wisconsin Nurseries Association.

"Our folks are not just concerned with the urban landscape,'' Swingle said. "We're also very concerned with our native landscape and our native forest lands. This is in the best interests of our state's natural environment and we're playing an active part.''

Swingle said there was concern at the outset of the rule-writing process that some of the regulations and restrictions might prove financially damaging to the industry. After all, he said, some very popular ornamental plants are non-native species. The Norway maple is a popular tree for lawns but is not native, Swingle said. The burning bush is a popular landscaping plant, though it is not native and has been shown to be invasive. So is the Japanese barberry. The concern, he said, was that such species would simply be banned with little thought to the impact on a nursery that has acres and acres of the plant and would stand to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars were its sale to be suddenly outlawed.

But Swingle said he's been pleased with the process. Plants are being analyzed scientifically, he said, before they are placed on one of the regulatory lists. Plants that research has shown to be benign, doing little or no damage to the natural environment, are regulated less rigorously.

"They're not going to go into people's lawns and remove Norway maples,'' Swingle said.

Instead, Swingle continued, the industry is urging the DNR to include a phased regulatory program for popular non-native landscaping plants that would stretch elimination of the species from nursery stocks over a number of years — seven years for shade trees, for example, or 2-3 years for perennial plants.

Kearns said the emphasis of the proposed new law will be on education. Instead of spending time searching out and fining people who have invasive plants on their lawns, Kearns said, the agency intends to educate everybody from nursery owners to homeowners about the perils of growing a plant such as the giant hogweed, interesting though it may be.

"That's going to be the message,'' Kearns said, "rather than the DNR is going to come in and bust you.''

For more information on invasive species in Wisconsin and the proposed regulations, go to the state Department of Natural Resources Web site at http://dnr.wi.gov/invasives/