By ANTHONY DEPALMA, The New York Times
SHANDAKEN, N.Y. — The Esopus Creek, a legendary Catskill Mountain fly fishing stream that is an integral part of New York City’s vast upstate drinking water system, is one of the latest bodies of water to be infected with Didymosphenia geminata, a fast-spreading single-cell algae that is better known to fishermen and biologists around the world as rock snot.
Although officials had been on the lookout for spreading Didymo, as it is also called, since it was first confirmed in New York two years ago, they had not found it in the Esopus when they canvassed the area last fall. A fly fisherman told state biologists a few weeks ago that he thought he had seen the telltale gray tendrils of Didymo clinging to rocks on the bed of the Esopus here, about 120 miles northwest of Manhattan.
Investigators later confirmed that Didymo had spread along 12 miles of the Esopus from Shandaken to the Ashokan Reservoir. Biologists believe it is being transported by sport fishermen. [...]
Read the full story at link.
Photo by Kelly Shimoda for The New York Times.
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Canada and U.S. agree to renegotiate Great Lakes pact
Paul Morse, THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR
NIAGARA FALLS, Ont. -- Canada and the U.S. have agreed to renegotiate their pact on protecting the Great Lakes.
In her first trip to Canada since becoming the U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton met with Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon on Saturday to announce the reopening of the Great Lakes agreement, which was created in 1972 and last amended 22 years ago. The move is being cheered by environmentalists and politicians who say the Great Lakes agreement is in desperate need of an overhaul to deal with growing and new threats such as invasive species and climate change.
Read the full story at link.
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Invasive plants on the way out at Fort Hill
EASTHAM, MASS. - Members of the National Park Service Northeast Exotic Plant Management Team arrived at Fort Hill in Eastham Wednesday for a week of working on control of exotic plant growth there. While the work is under way, said George Price, superintendent of Cape Cod National Seashore, some minor trail detours may be in effect.
“The Fort Hill areas is a significant ecological and cultural resource within the park,” Price said. “Over the past few years neighbors and visitors have seen the results of our efforts to restore this important landscape to what it once was – a native grass and shrub land with a sweeping view of Nauset Marsh. Our efforts to control non-native plans in this landscape continue.”
This special team, based at the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Areas, travels around the Northeast assisting parks with exotic vegetation problems. This is the third year the team has come to Fort Hill to eradicate exotic shrubs and vines that are choking out native species and altering the normal structure and functioning of the ecosystem. The team will conduct spot applications of the herbicide Garlon 3A and Garlon 4, which affects broadleaf species and not grasses. The active ingredient in Garlon has been classified by the Environmental Protection Agency as “practically nontoxic” to mammals, fish, insects and invertebrates. The team members are licensed professionals “who take extreme care in applying herbicides so that only the target foliage is coated.”
Read the article at link.
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Root Of The Problem: Curly Pondweed Should Be Gone By Fourth Of July
By Nick Dean, Post-Journal.com
The aquatic vegetation lining much of Chautauqua Lake's (NY) shoreline should be gone by July 4, according to officials.
Weeds to most, the water plant life presently prevalent in the lake is not Eurasian Milfoil, a weed which has been a problem in past years.
According to Rick Constantino, Chautauqua County Watershed Coordinator, the non-native weed is Curly Pondweed - an annual species which does not reach nuisance levels during the summer.
Read the story at link.
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"Invasive Plants in the Northeast of Asia and America: Trading Problems, Trading Solutions."
Dates: 10-12 August 2009, at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT
Symposium sponsored by the New England Invasive Plant Center
For more information, the symposium agenda & schedule, and to register
see: http://www.regonline.com/builder/site/default.aspx?EventID=726341
This symposium will have open sessions with invited speakers and panel discussions, plus contributed presentations and posters. One objective of the symposium is to develop potential international research collaborations of mutual interest on the broad problem of biological invasions.
The invited participants will include scientists with interests in both pure and applied research related to invasive species biology from the U.S., Japan, South Korea, China and far eastern Russia. We have also invited selected scientists and policy makers from the U.S. and Asian government agencies. If you are interested in attending the symposium, or contributing talk or poster presentation go to:
http://www.regonline.com/builder/site/default.aspx?EventID=726341
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