National Invasive Species Awareness Week
February 26 - March 3, 2012
Washington, DC
A week of activities, briefings, workshops and events focused on strategizing solutions to address invasive species prevention, detection, monitoring, control, and management issues at local, state, tribal, regional, national and international scales.
Here are 10 ways to observe NISA Week.
Learn more at link.
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Florida considers controversial cure for polluted Lake Apopka: Let hydrilla spread
By Kevin Spear, Orlando Sentinel
9:17 p.m. EST, January 22, 2012
The sickly Lake Apopka has been healing at a snail's pace despite undergoing some of the more costly environmental rehabilitations in Florida history.
So a state agency is thinking about speeding up the process by encouraging an aggressive, aquatic weed — hydrilla — to take root in the lake.
It's a hotly contested idea that appears to be leaving little room for compromise. Those who want the lake restored to a natural condition say the foreign plant would devastate native varieties if allowed to spread and would destroy any real chances of reviving the polluted lake. Fans of hunting and fishing counter that the fast-growing plant, imported from Asia but now considered a costly nuisance throughout much of the U.S., would work wonders in the lake as habitat for ducks and largemouth bass.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will decide whether hydrilla is a new friend or old foe of Lake Apopka, which covers nearly 50 square miles of Orange and Lake counties. Agency officials will take public comments Tuesday from 6-9 p.m. in Winter Garden's Tanner Hall. ...
Learn more at link.
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Town of Brookhaven, New York, next to tackle invasive bamboo
By Brittany Wait
Times Beacon Record
Responding to complaints from residents, one Brookhaven Town official hopes to restrict the planting and maintenance of bamboo within the town.
A proposed resolution, sponsored by Councilwoman Kathy Walsh (R-Centereach), restricts the distance that bamboo can be from a property line.
"It does tend to travel," Walsh said in a phone interview. "We won't be able to go into someone's yard and tell them to remove it, but if it encroaches into the neighbor's yard we'll have law on books to tell them they have to remove it to the property line limitation that was adopted." ...
Walsh is hoping to set a public hearing on the bill at the Feb. 7 Town Board meeting.
The councilwoman is currently working with John Turner, who deals with environmental cases in the town's Planning Department, and Beth Riley from the Law Department, on the language of the law. Turner retired from his position at the Planning Department and was brought back as a part-time consultant. ...
Read the full story at link.
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Using a Wasp to Catch a Beetle: The Quest to Save Ash Trees
By Stone Ng
AudubonMagazine.org
For nearly a decade, a tiny alien menace, a beetle known as the emerald ash borer, has been destroying some of the nation’s most iconic native trees. Now researchers are honing a new method that uses wasps to ferret out these invasive beetles. The technique could help prevent the spreading of the emerald ash borer, as well as benefit other imperiled plants in the future, both in the U.S. and abroad. ...
Learn more at link.
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14th Annual SE-EPPC Conference and 10th Annual ALIPC Conference
Join in bringing you the Past, Present and Future of Invasive Plants in the Southeast
May 8-10, 2012
Auburn University Hotel and Conference Center
241 South College Street, Auburn, AL 36830
More information is available at http://www.se-eppc.org/2012/ .
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NEW Blight Ravages Boxwood
A new, aggressive, exotic disease called Boxwood Blight is now affecting all species of boxwood on Long Island and other areas of the US. If you live on Long Island and see bare twigs on your boxwood this winter, send a sample to the LI Horticultural Research & Extension Center at 3059 Sound Ave. Riverhead / 631-727-3595 to ID the pathogen and slow the spread of this serious disease. Non-commercial samples can be brought to CCE-Suffolk Diagnostic Lab at 423 Griffing Ave. Riverhead / 631-727-7850. For more info. click Boxwood Blight Cornell Fact Sheet 2012.
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Showing posts with label Brookhaven. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brookhaven. Show all posts
Monday, January 23, 2012
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Week of January 20, 2008
Brookhaven Town (New York) Invests $$ In Aquatic Habitats
By: Barbara LaMonica, Suffolk Life
The Brookhaven Town Board (Suffolk County, New York) recently authorized a resolution appropriating approximately $1.24 million for aquatic habitat restoration in the town. John Turner, director of Brookhaven Town's Department of Environmental Protection, said funding for the project will come from the New York State Environmental Protection Fund. "This will address a number of things relative to maintaining and restoring the Carmans and Swan rivers, where, for each, there will be aquatic species inventory and control work that will be done," Turner explained.
"We will be doing aquatic species inventory work, but there has been no decision on just how we will eradicate the aquatic invasive [plants]," Turner said. Full Article
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Coalition Fights To Save Yaphank Lakes (Suffolk County, New York)
By:Barbara LaMonica, Suffolk Life
The Carolina fanwort, otherwise known as the cabomba weed, and variable leaf watermilfoil, also known as Myriophyllum heterophyllum, are the culprits. Solutions to putting a lid on these aquatic invasive species include the use of Sonar herbicide, or removing the four centuries-old dams that were placed in the Carmans River which, over time, have formed the upper and lower lakes in Yaphank. The dams are located along the upper sections of the river at Upper Mill Pond, Lower Mill Pond, Southaven Park and Sunrise Highway. Removing the dams would allow the Carmans River to flow faster. Representatives of the Coalition to Save the Yaphank Lakes are concerned, however, that removing the dams would make the lakes they have come to know and enjoy all but disappear. Freshwater and tidal portions of the Carmans River support more than 40 species of fish, including brook trout, brown trout, rainbow trout, yellow perch, white perch, American eel and carp. Robert Kessler, co-founder of the coalition, along with his wife, Audrey, says the mission of the group is to "restore, protect, preserve, and clean up the lakes" by working with intergovernmental representatives and other entities in order to accomplish this goal without removing the dams. John Turner, Brookhaven Town's director of environmental protection, confirmed that removing the dams would result in the upper and lower lakes receding, which would, over time, reveal the appearance of marshlands. Turner, who has not yet rendered his recommendations on the most effective way to eradicate the invasive species, said that there are options that will be taken into account before a decision is made."There are clear benefits to removing the dams, because you would eliminate the invasive species problem, and you re-establish free-flowing cold water, and you would restore the river's natural course from centuries ago," Turner explained. "On the negative side, this is not just a scientific issue, but a cultural issue as well, because it affects property values, and residents have a scenically beautiful view of the river, and if the impoundments that have been there for many, many decades are removed, the lakes would recede." Full Article
By: Barbara LaMonica, Suffolk Life
The Brookhaven Town Board (Suffolk County, New York) recently authorized a resolution appropriating approximately $1.24 million for aquatic habitat restoration in the town. John Turner, director of Brookhaven Town's Department of Environmental Protection, said funding for the project will come from the New York State Environmental Protection Fund. "This will address a number of things relative to maintaining and restoring the Carmans and Swan rivers, where, for each, there will be aquatic species inventory and control work that will be done," Turner explained.
"We will be doing aquatic species inventory work, but there has been no decision on just how we will eradicate the aquatic invasive [plants]," Turner said. Full Article
---------------------------------------------------------
Coalition Fights To Save Yaphank Lakes (Suffolk County, New York)
By:Barbara LaMonica, Suffolk Life
The Carolina fanwort, otherwise known as the cabomba weed, and variable leaf watermilfoil, also known as Myriophyllum heterophyllum, are the culprits. Solutions to putting a lid on these aquatic invasive species include the use of Sonar herbicide, or removing the four centuries-old dams that were placed in the Carmans River which, over time, have formed the upper and lower lakes in Yaphank. The dams are located along the upper sections of the river at Upper Mill Pond, Lower Mill Pond, Southaven Park and Sunrise Highway. Removing the dams would allow the Carmans River to flow faster. Representatives of the Coalition to Save the Yaphank Lakes are concerned, however, that removing the dams would make the lakes they have come to know and enjoy all but disappear. Freshwater and tidal portions of the Carmans River support more than 40 species of fish, including brook trout, brown trout, rainbow trout, yellow perch, white perch, American eel and carp. Robert Kessler, co-founder of the coalition, along with his wife, Audrey, says the mission of the group is to "restore, protect, preserve, and clean up the lakes" by working with intergovernmental representatives and other entities in order to accomplish this goal without removing the dams. John Turner, Brookhaven Town's director of environmental protection, confirmed that removing the dams would result in the upper and lower lakes receding, which would, over time, reveal the appearance of marshlands. Turner, who has not yet rendered his recommendations on the most effective way to eradicate the invasive species, said that there are options that will be taken into account before a decision is made."There are clear benefits to removing the dams, because you would eliminate the invasive species problem, and you re-establish free-flowing cold water, and you would restore the river's natural course from centuries ago," Turner explained. "On the negative side, this is not just a scientific issue, but a cultural issue as well, because it affects property values, and residents have a scenically beautiful view of the river, and if the impoundments that have been there for many, many decades are removed, the lakes would recede." Full Article
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