Updated 2/24
TNC's Global Invasive Species Team closing shop due to budget cuts
From: Barry Rice, TNC
[Reprinted from the GIST listserv]
As a result of budget cutbacks announced last week, The Nature Conservancy's Global Invasive Species Team (GIST) is being disbanded and will close down much of its work over the next few weeks and months.
Ramifications of this closure are the following:
A)The GIST ilistserve will be closing in early March.
B)The GIST web site (http://tncinvasives.org/) will no longer be supported as of March 6: after that date it will merely coast without updates. It may disappear entirely after August.
C)We hope that portions of the site can be relocated to other web sites--see messages 3-5 below if you can support the content.
D)Our new wiki (http://invasipedia.org/) will no longer be monitored or supported, and so will be removed unless another organization offers to house and manage it (see message 5, below).
If you are interested in supporting some of the GIST web site resources on your own web site, please contact me immediately.
Meanwhile, TNC's Forest Health work focused on preventing and containing forest pests and pathogens has several years of secure funding and will continue; see its web site at http://dontmovefirewood.org/.
Bill's comment: I'm stunned! No group of people anywhere on Earth has done more to advance the fight against invasive species. I'm sure that nearly every person in the country who manages invasives has used GIST resources at one time or another, and often many times. Hopefully a foundation or donor will step forward, or new TNC CEO Mark Tercek will wake up and see that this is a HUGE mistake!
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APIPP 2008 Invasive Speciesr Annual Reports Available
The Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program's (APIPP) 2008 Annual Report is now available online at http://adkinvasives.com/documents/APIPP2008AnnualReport.pdf , (795KB). Check it out for a snapshot of accomplishments from 2008, including aquatic and terrestrial monitoring and management stats, planning initiatives, species distribution alerts, and more!
In addition, the Adirondack Aquatic Nuisance Species Committee produced its 2008 summary report, which is also available online at http://adkinvasives.com/Aquatic/Resources/documents/2008ANSAnnualReport.pdf . Note that in the future, APIPP will prepare a comprehensive PRISM annual report that integrates the progress of the ANS Committee.
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Avalon, NJ, Prepares Strategy to Tackle Japanese Black Pine on Dunes
AVALON — The viability of borough dunes could be at risk, Environmental Commission Chairman Dr. Brian Reynolds told council at its meeting Feb. 11.
To that end, the borough is preparing strategies to tackle Japanese Black Pine, a non-indigenous species categorized by the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service as “mildly invasive.”
Avalon Environmental Commission is working with Joseph Lomax of Lomax Consulting Group in Court House to reduce the pines’ impact on the dunes’ natural maritime forest.
Lomax Consulting Group will prepare and file an application for an Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions (ANJEC) 2009 Smart Growth Planning Grant for $18,000, of which the borough will match $9,000.
Lomax was also awarded a professional service contract to develop Forestry Management Plan at a total cost of $4,500. The group will communicate between the borough’s environmental commission and representatives to submit the plans to the NJ Forest Service Community Forestry Program.
The borough will apply its 2009 Green Communities Grant for $3,000 from the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) towards the consulting services, leaving a balance of $1,500; Administrator Andrew Bednarek said the services value $17,500.
At a cost of $14,750, the Lomax Group will also prepare a Dune Vegetation Management Plan and design management standards with the Environmental Commission and create a pilot program in a half-beach block area at 74th Street to test which approach works best. Link
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Efforts underway in Arlington County to remove invasive species
Arlington County invasive-plant-removal events have started for 2009. The program is coordinated by Virginia Cooperative Extension.
Volunteers meet monthly at a number of locations to rescue parks from alien plant invaders.
Participants should come dressed for work, wearing long pants and long sleeves and perhaps a hat. Participants also will want to bring along water and, if possible, garden tools. Other tools will be provided.
Removal efforts take place on the second Saturday of each month from 10 a.m. to noon at Lacey Woods Park; on the third Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon at Tuckahoe Park; on the second Saturday from noon to 2:30 p.m. at Gulf Branch Nature Center; and on the third Sunday from 2 to 5 p.m. at Long Branch Nature Center. Link
For information, call (703) 228-7636 or e-mail jtruong@vt.ed.
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Funding freeze might negate phragmites removal from Marion Lake, Long Island
By Erin Schultz, Suffolk Times
Just months after the Marion Lake Restoration Committee moved forward with phase one of its pricey phragmites removal project, Lori Luscher got stonewalled by the state.
Ms. Luscher, the founder of MLRC, worked for years to obtain proper permits and a $100,000 matching grant from the Department of Environmental Conservation to remove the phragmites, invasive plants that have been suffocating the five-acre lake for over a decade. The part-time East Marion resident of 30 years also organized fundraisers and has been able to collect over $80,000 to match the DEC.
But last month, DEC representatives told Ms. Luscher that, due to a statewide funding freeze, the restoration committee won't receive a promised partial reimbursement check for $60,000 -- at least not in time for the second phase of the project.
This, Ms. Luscher said, could mean certain death for her beloved inland lake.
"We're doing this in stages," she said. "The timing has to be exactly right, or else the whole project is a waste."
Ms. Luscher said the MLRC was "desperately" relying on the reimbursement to start the second "wicking" phase of the project this spring, in which an environmentally-friendly chemical is hand-applied to each stalk, killing the weed without disturbing any other vegetation. Delaying the second phase, she said, would completely negate the work involved in phase one, and the chances of getting anyone else to donate would be "very unlikely."
"This would set our project back to its initial starting point," she said. "The people who have made donations would feel cheated."
Never one to back down, Ms. Luscher, The Suffolk Times Civic Person of the Year for 2008, has already embarked on an aggressive letter-writing campaign, telling public officials "how bad it would be to be out of money."
Suffolk County Legislator Ed Romaine has already written to DEC Commissioner Peter Grannis, urging the DEC to unfreeze the $60,000 partial reimbursement that was promised. Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell said he also intends to weigh in.
Lori Severino, a spokeswoman for the DEC, said the organization has every intention of getting the committee its money -- just not right now.
"The state does intend to meet these obligations," she said. "However, it will take a little bit longer than usual due to the current budget situation. But they're not targeting one particular project."
Ms. Luscher said she understands state's current financial crisis, but this particular project simply cannot be postponed. She said she'd like to explain all this to Commissioner Grannis and Governor David Paterson -- in person.
"I'll take the trip up to Albany if they'll listen," she said. "It would be a huge injustice to the community if we were to lose it all now." Link
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Georgia Aquarium to display invasive lionfish
By Leon Stafford, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Because lionfish, which are native to the South Pacific, have no natural predators in Georgia waters, their population is exploding, researchers said. And their presence is having a negative impact on native species, including small grouper, crustaceans and anything else lionfish can swallow whole.
The aquarium will put more than 40 lionfish in the tank in an attempt to educate visitors about invasive species and discourage the practice of dumping unwanted fish in oceans and streams. The fish will be about 5 inches to 9 inches long. Link
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2009 Aquatic Weed Control Short Course
Aquatic, Upland and Invasive Weed Control; Aquatic Plant Identification May 4-7, 2009
Coral Springs Marriott Hotel, Golf Club and Convention Center Coral Springs, Florida
http://www.conference.ifas.ufl.edu/aw
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BrooklynParrots.com: A Web Site About the Wild Parrots of Brooklyn
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Arctic char need help to keep swimming
By Bob Mallard, Kennebec Journal
Maine is home to one of the rarest fish in the country. Maine's arctic char, a member of the salmonid family, which includes salmon, trout, char, freshwater whitefish and grayling, is now facing its darkest hour.
Formerly referred to as blueback and Sunapee trout, the arctic char has been called "a grievously imperiled race" and "desperately in need of Endangered Species Act protection" by nationally known angler and writer Ted Williams.
Why? This rare fish faces threats from introduced baitfish, state-sponsored stocking and politics.
Maine's populations of char are the last in the 48 contiguous states. Once abundant in the Rangeley Lakes where they served as the food source for a population of giant brook trout, char were extirpated by the introduction of landlocked salmon, who outcompeted the char for food and preyed on them.
The few populations left in New Hampshire and Vermont succumbed to hybridization with introduced lake trout.
Next to habitat degradation, invasive species introduction -- when live bait is used and released into the water -- is the biggest threat to the fish. The restrictions imposed by the proposed legislation should have been acceptable to even the staunchest supporter of live bait and fish stocking. Link
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Home gardeners can uproot invading plants
StandardSpeaker.com
A fractured leg bone (I slipped on ice and fell) has given me more time to read.
The just-finished roster includes “Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens,” by Dr. Doug Tallamy, chairman of the entomology and wildlife ecology department at the University of Delaware. It’s a pretty quick but concise read and makes suburbanites think twice about the sterile lawns surrounding their homes. Tallamy’s research has shown the important link between native plants and healthy ecosystems.
My wife and I started our native plant gardening soon after we moved to Conyngham. The first things to go were non-native Japanese yew bushes and two very weedy honey locust trees.
Then came the lawn-reduction program (spread tarps or plastic sheets over the turf to remove it without using toxic chemicals!) and the planting of dozens of butterfly, bee and songbird favorites like black-eyed Susan, three milkweed species, elderberry and spicebush shrubs, a couple of pawpaw trees (the host plant for the beautiful zebra swallowtail) and a hackberry tree (another important host plant for butterflies).
Much of what landscapers offer new homeowners today consists of plants that have little to no value to wildlife. And replacing the native forest that stood where a house and lawn now sit has severe detrimental effects on wildlife populations, not the least of which is the replacement of native trees, wildflowers and shrubs with alien and oftentimes invasive species.
Walking around Conyngham has convinced me that the most common tree in town nowadays is the Norway maple. Guess where this species is a native? Norway maples produce thousands of seeds which can quickly mature into dense shady stands, displacing native trees, shrubs and herbs and the wildlife they sustained.
There are many, many other examples highlighting the impact of non-native and invasive species on native plants and animals. Drive slowly over the Susquehanna River bridge between Berwick and Nescopeck around mid-summer and view the riparian areas below now clothed with purple loosestrife. Edge of the Woods Native Plant Nursery in Lehigh County (the only area nursery we know of that deals only in native plants) says this about purple loosestrife on its Web site: Replaces “native grasses and wetland plants, reducing food supply and habitat for native waterfowl and plants, including some federally listed endangered orchids.”
Another aquatic-habitat invasive we’re familiar with (having lived near some of the waters it now infests, including Lake Champlain), is the Eurasian milfoil.
“Native to Europe, Asia, and northern Africa, this plant was introduced to the United States around 1940, and has spread throughout much of North America from Florida to Quebec in the east, and California to British Columbia in the west,” notes the University of Pennsylvania’s Morris Arboretum. “Eurasian milfoil is common in lakes, ponds, and rivers throughout Pennsylvania.”
Like hundreds of other alien plants and critters (the gypsy moth, Asian longhorned beetle, zebra mussel, European starling, English house sparrow, the list goes on and on), the Eurasian milfoil can easily and quickly take over, harming fish populations as well as plants that are supposed to be in a given water body.
Throughout our corner of Pennsylvania the list of exotic, invasive species is endless. Some are sold by nurseries to naive landowners while others arrive in imports or are moved from one pond, lake or stream to another on fishing gear or boats. Near home, the long list includes Bradford pear (another aggressive seeder), autumn olive (there used to be a huge stand of this species near Lake Frances at Nescopeck State Park that formed such dense stands that nothing else could get a toehold), English ivy, Japanese barberry, Japanese honeysuckle, Russian olive, Norway spruce, Japanese knotweed. Link
Read Alan Gregory’s conservation news at wolverines.wordpress.com. He is a former reporter and Outdoors editor for the Standard-Speaker.
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Asian longhorned beetle reemerges on Staten Island
by Staten Island Advance
A tree-killing bug has been detected in 13 maple trees on Staten Island, prompting a federal agency to remove the infested trees this month.
The Asian long-horned beetle was discovered when the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service -- in cooperation with city and state agencies -- surveyed an undeveloped tract of land on Dec. 31 and found the insect in 12 trees, according to Rep. Michael McMahon (D-Staten Island/Brooklyn). The area, which is owned by the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the city Parks Department, is located in Mariners Harbor.
One maple, on an adjoining property, was also found to be infested.
The pesky critter first winged its way to Staten Island in the spring of 2007 when 41 infested trees were found on Prall's Island and three were found on the former GATX industrial site in Bloomfield.
As a result, federal and state pruners cut down and chipped 7,900 trees and chemically treated another 6,400 on the West Shore.
Because of the latest discovery, a quarantine area implemented in 2007 was expanded from a 7.8-square-mile zone on the North and West shores to 10 square miles. Inspectors will survey trees in private and public areas. That will add about 8,200 trees to the 17,900 trees were treated last year. Numerous residential properties lying east of South Avenue and west of Willow Road East will become part of the expanded quarantine area.
"Some of the trees on the [Department of Conservation] property had the perfectly round, 3/8 inch in diameter exit holes that indicate beetles have emerged from the trees in past summers, and all the trees had egg sites indicating beetles have laid eggs," said Christine Markham, director of the national ALB program. "A growth ring analysis determined the infestation is four years old."
The infested trees will be removed this month, before any adult beetles can emerge. In addition, 25 high-risk, exposed host trees located in close proximity to the infested trees.
"The Asian longhorned beetle poses a serious threat to Staten Island," McMahon said. "It kills its host trees within a matter of years and has been found throughout the city. If not controlled, this will quickly become an issue of national importance. I remain confident that the early detection programs instituted by the federal, state and city agencies involved will lead to the swift eradication of this invasive species."
Host trees, or tree species where the beetles thrive, include gray birch, red maple, hackberry, ash, poplar, elm and willow trees. Link
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Biologist opposes Howland fish bypass
Move could bring pike to Piscataquis River
By Diana Bowley, BangorDailyNews.com
DOVER-FOXCROFT, Maine — A retired and well-respected Moosehead Lake region fishery biologist warned Tuesday the Penobscot River Restoration Trust’s proposal to install a bypass channel around the Howland Dam could have some unintended and “very undesirable” consequences.
Paul Johnson, who is retired from the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, told the Piscataquis County commissioners that the proposal could allow northern pike — an invasive, non-native species that preys on soft-grade fish such as salmon, trout and suckers — to invade
about 40 percent of the Piscataquis River drainage. Where pike have been introduced, they have decimated cold-water fishing, he said.
“I feel as a biologist there are significant problems” with this proposal, Johnson said Tuesday. “The threat is real. My concern is this threat has not been widely publicized.” He said there is a public process under way and the public should be aware there is a threat associated with the benefits of the project.
The bypass channel is part of a series of changes planned over time by the Penobscot River Restoration Trust to restore anadromous species to the Penobscot River without sacrificing energy production, according to Johnson. The membership of the trust, a nonprofit organization, includes the Penobscot Indian Nation and several conservation groups, including Maine Audubon and Trout Unlimited. The trust is working in collaboration with state and federal agencies and hydropower company Pennsylvania Power and Light Corp.
Other elements of the trust’s plan to restore Atlantic salmon, river herring and sturgeon, among other sea species, to the Penobscot watershed include removal of the Veazie Dam and the Great Works Dam — the first two dams on the Penobscot River — and improvement of the fish passage at the Milford Dam in Old Town, ac-cording to Johnson.
Johnson said he is troubled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, whose duty it is to stop the spread of invasive species, is a signatory of the trust and as such is promoting the opportunity for pike to enter the Piscataquis River.
“The unintended consequences of allowing northern pike to increase their distribution in Maine in the Piscataquis drainage, sanctioned by the state and federal government, and private nongovernmental organizations, is ecologically irresponsible, contrary to public policies and, most importantly, unacceptable,” Johnson said.
Officials of the Penobscot River Restoration Trust declined Tuesday to rebut Johnson’s arguments.
But in an OpEd column in the Bangor Daily News last week, Ray B. Owen Jr. of Orono, a former commissioner of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, said that “one of the best ways to reduce any negative impacts of these invasive fish is to restore the abundance of native fish in the river through the full implementation of the Penobscot project.”
He said he does not believe that the project “should be jeopardized by the threat of invasive species. Where appropriate, safeguards can be put in place as the risk is further assessed.”
Johnson said the trust did consider alternatives at the Howland Dam but has remained with the fishery bypass.
“There is an alternative. I just think the alternative needs to be heard,” Johnson said. He said he hopes the trust will reassess the project and replace the bypass with a fish lift. The bypass is estimated to cost $5 million compared with $3.5 million for a fish lift.
“You build a dam, you can take it down; you build a fishway, and something changes in the future, you have an alternative course. But if you allow pike into the Piscataquis and they get here, it’s forever,” Johnson said. Link
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Invasive beetles stir worries in Maine
By Julia Bayly, BangorDailyNews.com
MADAWASKA, Maine — Two species of invading beetles are causing some serious concern among federal officials and creating some headaches for St. John Valley residents looking to purchase firewood from Canada.
At a public forum to be held Friday night on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s ban on importing firewood, two local legislators hope to shine some light on the issue and why the emerald ash borer and Asian longhorn beetle have forced the ban.
“Around election time in November, I was at Fraser [Paper] and found out how many people in Madawaska get their firewood out of Canada,” said state Sen. Troy Jackson, D-Allagash. “It really astonished me how many people this ban could affect.”
As it stands, all firewood imported from Canada must be heated to 71 degrees Celsius (159 degrees Fahrenheit) before it can enter the United States.
“Many of the smaller firewood operators don’t have the means to do this,” Jackson said. “It would make the cost of buying the wood prohibitive for a lot of people.”
Jackson said many homeowners in Madawaska turned to wood heat over the past year in the wake of rising oil prices.
“This could open up some demand for firewood on the U.S. side,” Jackson said. “But I’m just not sure the supply is there in the Madawaska area.”
At Friday’s forum, slated for 7 p.m. at the Madawaska High School Library, Theriault and Jackson will be joined by representatives of U.S. Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins and
U.S. 2nd District Rep. Michael Michaud, and officials with the USDA.
“We wanted to get information to those people who have concerns,” Jackson said. “We want to get everyone in the same room, hear what they have to say and go from there.” Link
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Dunkirk Harbor (NY) Commission discusses weed problem
By Joel Cuthbert, ObserverToday.com
With warm weather and the prospect of boats on Lake Erie on the horizon, weed control in the Dunkirk harbor topped discussions of the waterfront.
During a brief Greater Dunkirk Area Harbor Commission meeting Wednesday, members discussed a number of issues relating to problematic weed growth in the harbor as well as plans, and now resources, to address the problem this coming summer.
"Those weeds can be detrimental to boat motors and result in some costly repairs for boaters," Chairman Kurt Warmbrodt said after the meeting.
Earlier this month, $10,000 in occupancy tax money was allocated to the city of Dunkirk for aquatic weed control in the harbor, money which harbor commission members are eager to use to maximize benefits to the Dunkirk harbor. Although members decided to approach the Cassadaga Lake Association in order to use their weed harvester to remedy the problem, they were left to decide when they would need it and what areas they would focus their efforts on since, they all agreed, $10,000 won't go far.
After the meeting, Warmbrodt said they'll mainly be looking at clearing weeds from areas where the boats come up to the docks and Zen Olow said maintaining clear access to the main channel was the biggest priority. Link
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Invasive plants on Long Island talk
Clark Gardens in Albertson will be starting their fabulous Chats on Sunday, March 1st at 1 p.m. This will be on "Invasive Plants on Long Island" by Jane Jackson. Following the presentation and a question and answer period, refreshments will be served. The fee is $8 for members and $10 for non-members. The Garden is located at 193 I.U. Willets Road in Albertson.
Courtesy of the Garden City News online at http://www.gcnews.com/
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UConn efforts help curb spread of invasive plants in state
by Elizabeth Omara-Otunnu, UConn Advance
You see them in the parking lots of retail chain stores and fast food outlets – neat shrubs with glowing scarlet leaves in fall and bright crimson berries in winter.
Burning bush is beautiful but, as many people now know, it’s one of a growing number of invasive plant species that are threatening indigenous ecological systems
In Connecticut, that public awareness owes much to the efforts of UConn’s Les Mehrhoff and Donna Ellis.
“Euonymus – burning bush – is planted everywhere,” says Mehrhoff, director of the Invasive Plant Atlas of New England (IPANE) in the ecology and evolutionary biology department.
“There’s not a McDonald’s or Burger King without them. The plant’s a money maker – it’s easily grown, resists pests, and it’s beautiful.”
The problem is that birds love the fruits, which are high in energy and fats. They fly off and spread the seeds, and now the plant is growing in numerous unmanaged habitats.
Mehrhoff says he became aware of invasives in the 1990s, while working on endangered species.
“I started seeing a lot of habitats being encroached by invasive species,” he says.
In 1997, he and Ellis, a senior extension educator in the plant science department, established an advocacy group to focus on the issue. The Connecticut Invasive Plant Working Group (CIPWG) began with about 30 members, including faculty from UConn and other colleges, and representatives of The Nature Conservancy, the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, municipalities, state and federal agencies, and garden clubs. It now has a listserv of more than 500.
UConn is also represented on a state-mandated council, the Invasive Plants Council, a nine-member group that is currently chaired by Professor Mary Musgrave, head of the plant science department.
“There are a lot of people in the state who care,” says Mehrhoff.
During the past 10 years, Mehrhoff and Ellis have played a leading role working with these two groups to identify invasive plants, and take action to address the problem.
An official list has been compiled of 96 non-native plants considered invasive or potentially invasive in Connecticut, 81 of which are now banned by law from being sold, purchased, transplanted, or cultivated in the state. These include Japanese barberry, Asiatic bittersweet, purple loosestrife, and other, less showy plants, such as garlic mustard and mile-a-minute vine, newly recognized as invasive.
The work is sometimes controversial. Not everyone agrees on all the species that are invasive, Mehrhoff says. In addition to ecological considerations, there are economic issues at stake.
“Some are big money plants for the nursery industry or the aquatic trade,” he says. “Some aquatic species are sold in every pet store.”
One of the primary reasons efforts in Connecticut have succeeded, according to Mehrhoff, has been the involvement of UConn faculty and staff.
“The imprimatur of professionalism and academics that comes from this work being conducted at the University has been key to its success,” he says. Link
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Showing posts with label Georgia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Georgia. Show all posts
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
Week of January 19, 2009
Updated 1/23
Help on way for New England cottontail
By DAVID BROOKS Staff Writer, Nashua Telegraph
The cutest endangered species in New Hampshire is getting some federal help – which is good, because the New England cottontail needs all the help it can get."
This is one of our top priorities," John Kanter, the state's endangered-wildlife program coordinator, said of the elusive bunny.
As recently as the 1960s, the New England cottontail was found from the Hudson River through southern Maine and also thrived in New Hampshire. Today, officials know of only 10 places where the species is found at all, mostly in a few flooded areas along the Merrimack River south of Concord and in the Seacoast.
The New England cottontail, like many species, has suffered from changes in habitat.
It likes brushy land in transition between field and forest, with lots of brambles and low bushes where it can hide and find food. That sort of thicket was common when New Hampshire was filled with farms. Today, however, the state mostly consists of mature forests, which don't have much undergrowth, or developed land, which has even less.
Adding to its problems are invasive plants, such as multiflora rose, honeysuckle bush and autumn olive, that drive out the rabbits' preferred cover and food, plus the increase in whitetail deer, which compete with the cottontail for food.
Finally, there's the Eastern cottontail, which is a distinct species of rabbit despite the fact that it looks so similar that most people can't tell them apart; only by sampling DNA from fecal pellets can scientists be sure.
The Eastern cottontail was introduced into the Northeast in the first half of the 20th century, largely by hunting clubs, and is doing fine, largely because it seems better at spotting predators, according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Link
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Invasion of the Blobs
By Lily Whiteman, National Science Foundation
Although the moon jellyfish is currently widely distributed throughout the world, scientists believe that this jellyfish was probably transported and introduced to many of its current habitats by ships.
How do ships introduce non-native species of jellyfish to new habitats? For one thing, young jellyfish, known as polyps, travel with ships after clinging to their hulls. In addition, ships take on ballast water needed for stability in originating harbors, and then dump this water along with accompanying organisms, including jellyfish, into destination harbors.
Ships currently transport millions of gallons of ballast water around the world annually. Largely because of this phenomenon, 15 to 25 percent of all marine species that are currently found in global sea ports are non native.
Once non-native jellyfish are released from ships into new habitats where conditions suit them, they may colonize these habitats. And if these invasive jellyfish face few or no predators to control their numbers, their populations may explode into large swarms. Large jellyfish swarms may consume large numbers of commercial fish and thereby damage the fishing industry.
Invasions of non-native species of jellyfish have wreaked havoc on many ecosystems, including the Gulf of Mexico, the Sea of Japan, the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea and the Mediterranean. The costs of resulting ecological problems to the tourism and fishing industries have been staggering.
How do scientists distinguish native from invasive species of jellyfish? By using DNA analyses. Native species that have had a long history in a particular ecosystem have had time to diversify, while specimens taken from recently introduced species show more similarity with each other.
In addition, scientists are currently poring over records of worldwide marine life that were fastidiously maintained by some early explorers. Such analyses will help scientists map the natural distributions of jellyfish species before large-scale shipping introduced non-native species to new habitats. Link
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Drawdowns at Candlewood Lake could use study
Annual drawdowns at Candlewood Lake, Connecticut, to kill invasive watermilfoil plants could use more study
By Robert Miller, Staff Writer, NewsTimes.com
By now, there's a wide ring of ice and snow encircling Candlewood Lake. Unless there's a serious thaw, that wintry crust may stay in place until February.
"It's actually very nice,'' said Michael Calandrino, a member of the Danbury Common Council who lives on the lake and has walked and cross-country skied around its perimeter when the lake water is low. "We've had some good times out there.''
In February the season of the lake's deep drawdown will end, and Candlewood will gradually start rising. By spring it should be back to about 427 feet above sea level -- 8 to 10 feet higher than this winter's low.
FirstLight Power Resources, which owns the lake, manipulates its level. For the past 20 years, FirstLight and its predecessors -- Connecticut Light & Power Co., then Northeast Generation Services -- dropped the lake down deep every couple of years, the better to kill off Eurasian watermilfoil, the invasive plant that befouls the lake in summer.
In 2008 the watermilfoil was especially thick and noxious. Therefore, the news of a deep drawdown was welcome. Freezing winter weather can kill the exposed plants, leaving the lake a little less tangled for a year or two.
But that doesn't always happen. Sometimes, even after the lake has been low, the watermilfoil comes back strong.
That has led Larry Marsicano, the executive director of the Candlewood Lake Authority, to ask: When the drawdown doesn't work, what are we doing wrong?
"We've had years when we've had limited success, even when we've had back-to-back-to-back drawdowns,'' he said.
Working with the New Fairfield-based Candlewood Watershed Initiative, Marsicano has looked at the rise and fall of the lake over the past 20 years.
He's found that in recent years the owners have not dropped the lake as low as they had in the past. For example, in 1985 the lake fell below 419 feet for more than half of the two-month drawdown. In 1995 it fell below 418 feet for 21 days.
In comparison, in the last deep drawdown, January through March 2007, the lake was only below 419 feet for two days.
But Marsicano said what he and other researchers need to do is to match that data with weather records for the same year. A blanket of snow around the lake may act as a blanket, insulating rather than killing the watermilfoil.
"You need the cold,'' he said. "But you also need a dissicating dryness to kill them.''
Greg Bugbee, an assistant scientist at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven, is now studying watermilfoil on Candlewood Lake. He admits, somewhat ruefully, there's been little research on the weather's effect on the plant -- what conditions kill it, what conditions help it survive.
Given that watermilfoil is a problem in lakes throughout the continental U.S. and parts of Canada, he said, this lack of research is "kind of shocking.''
Bugbee said it makes sense that a layer of thick, fluffy snow would protect the watermilfoil. It's not clear that a shelf of ice would do the same.
Marsicano said if the region is undergoing climate change, that might also affect how the drawdown works. "There are so many variables to consider."
He said it may be that the drawdowns should start earlier -- in early December -- to expose the watermilfoil to winter cold without snow protection. Dropping the lake a foot or two lower may also help. Link
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New York farm fights starling flock
By JOE MINISSALE, Indenews.com
HILLSDALE--Bill Carney, 56, bends down in his backyard Friday and picks up a dead black bird with his bare hands and throws it away in the garbage. There are three European starlings on the ground around his home on Anthony Street.
"I noticed the one dead and didn't think anything of it," he said. "I came back later and there were two more. I'm upset about this whole scenario."
Residents in the area are discovering dead birds on their property, and while officials say there is no threat of disease from the birds, Mr. Carney wants some answers.
Last week officials with the United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services program visited a farm in Copake at the request of the farmer and applied a chemical called DRC-1339, a federally restricted pesticide. They were using it for what they call a "controlled baiting" of the non-native invasive species, which is not protected by federal law. The chemical kills the birds.
"We are focusing on the starlings for the feed consumption disease threats... with dairy farms," said Kenneth Preusser, a Craryville native who works for the USDA office on Route 9 in Castleton.
One example he cited was the possibility that the birds would spread salmonella.
The state Department of Conservation says that because DRC-1339, which has as its active ingredient 3-Chloro-4-methyl-benzenamine hydrochloride, is classified as a "Restricted Use Pesticide" it is "for use only by USDA personnel trained in bird control or persons under their direct supervision."
"The main issue is when they are actually feeding on the farm, they are going for high protein. They also impact milk production, and take high protein rations from the cattle, an economic loss to the farmer as well," said Mr. Preusser.
Mr. Preusser would not divulge the name of the farmer, but said the department supplied the farm with 500 pounds of "pre-bait," and then applied the pesticide via bait. He said officials observed as roughly a thousand starlings ate the bait. He also said the officials made sure no cardinals, blue jays or other species were in the area. If any other birds flew on the farm during the controlled baiting the officials scared them away.
Mr. Preusser said that the pesticide is metabolized and excreted by the birds, which he said eliminates the threat of secondary poisoning to pets or other wildlife. The birds succumb to the pesticide within 24 hours after the application of DRC-1339.
"There are no secondary hazards," he said. "It is mainly targeted to the starlings."
Farmers who would like the pesticide administered may apply during January and February, when the starlings tend to congregate on dairy farms and cause damage by consuming and contaminating feed and potentially transmitting diseases to livestock. The fee is $700-$800, which covers the pre-bait, bait, salary and vehicle use.
Anyone with questions may dial the USDA at (518) 477-4837 and (518) 495-4735 on the weekends. Link
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Move to make firewood transport ban permanent
By BRIAN NEARING, Staff writer, TimesUnion.com
ALBANY, NY — To fight the spread of invasive pests, the state is moving to permanently bar the movement of untreated firewood from one part of the state to another.
Temporary emergency rules that ban moving firewood more than 50 miles from its source have been in place since June 2008, State officials hope the ban will prevent the spread of such invasive species as the emerald ash borer, Asian longhorned beetle and sirex wood wasp through infested wood.
The regulations do not affect homeowners cutting wood on their own property for use on that same property. They also do not affect firewood being transported through New York for sale and use in another state.
"Invasive pests and diseases damage both the environment and the economy," said Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Pete Grannis. "By taking proactive measures, we can reduce the risks of the inadvertent introduction of invasive and destructive pests and further protect our forests, woodlands and urban trees."
Under the regulation, only firewood cured by heating to a core temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit for 75 minutes can be moved without restriction.
A public comment period on the proposed permanent rules ends Feb. 9. Comment may be sent via e-mail to firewood@gw.dec.state.ny.us, or by writing to Bruce Williamson, NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation, 625 Broadway, 5th Floor, Albany, NY 12233. Link
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Comments sought on draft invasive species plan
From GeorgiaFrontPage.blogspot.com
A draft plan that targets more than 180 invasive species threatening Georgia’s rich variety of native wildlife is available for public comment.
The Georgia Invasive Species Strategy describes the complex scope of problems posed by non-native plants, animals and disease-causing organisms and proposes ways to lessen the impacts in a state ranked sixth in the nation in biological diversity.
Jon Ambrose, assistant chief of the Georgia Wildlife Resources Division’s Nongame Conservation Section, said the strategy provides a framework that will help communicate and coordinate invasive species management priorities.
Copies are available at www.georgiawildlife.com (click the “Conservation” tab to reach the link) or from the Georgia Wildlife Resources Division office in Social Circle (770-761-3035). A public comment meeting is set for 5:30-7:30 p.m. Feb. 12 at the Wildlife Resources Division’s Conservation Center in Social Circle. For directions, go to http://www.georgiawildlife.com/.
The deadline to submit comments is Feb. 16. Send written comments to jon.ambrose@gadnr.org or Jon Ambrose, Georgia Wildlife Resources Division, 2070 U.S. Highway 278 S.E., Social Circle, Ga.30025.
Link
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North Carolina officially bans vitex, "kudzu of the coast"
By Gareth McGrath, Staff Writer, StarNewsOnline.com
A plant that was first promoted by North Carolina has now been outlawed by state officials.
Rules to ban the sale, transport and possession of beach vitex by nurseries, garden shops and private property owners passed their final regulatory hurdle on Thursday.
The plant will be officially added to the state’s “noxious weed” list on Feb. 1.
Fast-growing, salt-tolerant, disliked by animals and sporting a beautiful purple flower during the summer, vitex was marketed as a coastal landscaping plant by N.C. State University in the 1980s.
But vitex started worrying researchers earlier this decade when it began overtaking dunes, crowding out the native sea oats and sea grasses.
Beach vitex has been found all along the North Carolina and South Carolina coasts, including on most barrier islands in Southeastern North Carolina.
It also has been reported in Virginia, Georgia and along the Gulf Coast.
For more information about the invasive plant or to report an infestation, go to http://www.beachvitex.org/.
Link
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Help on way for New England cottontail
By DAVID BROOKS Staff Writer, Nashua Telegraph
The cutest endangered species in New Hampshire is getting some federal help – which is good, because the New England cottontail needs all the help it can get."
This is one of our top priorities," John Kanter, the state's endangered-wildlife program coordinator, said of the elusive bunny.
As recently as the 1960s, the New England cottontail was found from the Hudson River through southern Maine and also thrived in New Hampshire. Today, officials know of only 10 places where the species is found at all, mostly in a few flooded areas along the Merrimack River south of Concord and in the Seacoast.
The New England cottontail, like many species, has suffered from changes in habitat.
It likes brushy land in transition between field and forest, with lots of brambles and low bushes where it can hide and find food. That sort of thicket was common when New Hampshire was filled with farms. Today, however, the state mostly consists of mature forests, which don't have much undergrowth, or developed land, which has even less.
Adding to its problems are invasive plants, such as multiflora rose, honeysuckle bush and autumn olive, that drive out the rabbits' preferred cover and food, plus the increase in whitetail deer, which compete with the cottontail for food.
Finally, there's the Eastern cottontail, which is a distinct species of rabbit despite the fact that it looks so similar that most people can't tell them apart; only by sampling DNA from fecal pellets can scientists be sure.
The Eastern cottontail was introduced into the Northeast in the first half of the 20th century, largely by hunting clubs, and is doing fine, largely because it seems better at spotting predators, according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Link
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Invasion of the Blobs
By Lily Whiteman, National Science Foundation
Although the moon jellyfish is currently widely distributed throughout the world, scientists believe that this jellyfish was probably transported and introduced to many of its current habitats by ships.
How do ships introduce non-native species of jellyfish to new habitats? For one thing, young jellyfish, known as polyps, travel with ships after clinging to their hulls. In addition, ships take on ballast water needed for stability in originating harbors, and then dump this water along with accompanying organisms, including jellyfish, into destination harbors.
Ships currently transport millions of gallons of ballast water around the world annually. Largely because of this phenomenon, 15 to 25 percent of all marine species that are currently found in global sea ports are non native.
Once non-native jellyfish are released from ships into new habitats where conditions suit them, they may colonize these habitats. And if these invasive jellyfish face few or no predators to control their numbers, their populations may explode into large swarms. Large jellyfish swarms may consume large numbers of commercial fish and thereby damage the fishing industry.
Invasions of non-native species of jellyfish have wreaked havoc on many ecosystems, including the Gulf of Mexico, the Sea of Japan, the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea and the Mediterranean. The costs of resulting ecological problems to the tourism and fishing industries have been staggering.
How do scientists distinguish native from invasive species of jellyfish? By using DNA analyses. Native species that have had a long history in a particular ecosystem have had time to diversify, while specimens taken from recently introduced species show more similarity with each other.
In addition, scientists are currently poring over records of worldwide marine life that were fastidiously maintained by some early explorers. Such analyses will help scientists map the natural distributions of jellyfish species before large-scale shipping introduced non-native species to new habitats. Link
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Drawdowns at Candlewood Lake could use study
Annual drawdowns at Candlewood Lake, Connecticut, to kill invasive watermilfoil plants could use more study
By Robert Miller, Staff Writer, NewsTimes.com
By now, there's a wide ring of ice and snow encircling Candlewood Lake. Unless there's a serious thaw, that wintry crust may stay in place until February.
"It's actually very nice,'' said Michael Calandrino, a member of the Danbury Common Council who lives on the lake and has walked and cross-country skied around its perimeter when the lake water is low. "We've had some good times out there.''
In February the season of the lake's deep drawdown will end, and Candlewood will gradually start rising. By spring it should be back to about 427 feet above sea level -- 8 to 10 feet higher than this winter's low.
FirstLight Power Resources, which owns the lake, manipulates its level. For the past 20 years, FirstLight and its predecessors -- Connecticut Light & Power Co., then Northeast Generation Services -- dropped the lake down deep every couple of years, the better to kill off Eurasian watermilfoil, the invasive plant that befouls the lake in summer.
In 2008 the watermilfoil was especially thick and noxious. Therefore, the news of a deep drawdown was welcome. Freezing winter weather can kill the exposed plants, leaving the lake a little less tangled for a year or two.
But that doesn't always happen. Sometimes, even after the lake has been low, the watermilfoil comes back strong.
That has led Larry Marsicano, the executive director of the Candlewood Lake Authority, to ask: When the drawdown doesn't work, what are we doing wrong?
"We've had years when we've had limited success, even when we've had back-to-back-to-back drawdowns,'' he said.
Working with the New Fairfield-based Candlewood Watershed Initiative, Marsicano has looked at the rise and fall of the lake over the past 20 years.
He's found that in recent years the owners have not dropped the lake as low as they had in the past. For example, in 1985 the lake fell below 419 feet for more than half of the two-month drawdown. In 1995 it fell below 418 feet for 21 days.
In comparison, in the last deep drawdown, January through March 2007, the lake was only below 419 feet for two days.
But Marsicano said what he and other researchers need to do is to match that data with weather records for the same year. A blanket of snow around the lake may act as a blanket, insulating rather than killing the watermilfoil.
"You need the cold,'' he said. "But you also need a dissicating dryness to kill them.''
Greg Bugbee, an assistant scientist at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven, is now studying watermilfoil on Candlewood Lake. He admits, somewhat ruefully, there's been little research on the weather's effect on the plant -- what conditions kill it, what conditions help it survive.
Given that watermilfoil is a problem in lakes throughout the continental U.S. and parts of Canada, he said, this lack of research is "kind of shocking.''
Bugbee said it makes sense that a layer of thick, fluffy snow would protect the watermilfoil. It's not clear that a shelf of ice would do the same.
Marsicano said if the region is undergoing climate change, that might also affect how the drawdown works. "There are so many variables to consider."
He said it may be that the drawdowns should start earlier -- in early December -- to expose the watermilfoil to winter cold without snow protection. Dropping the lake a foot or two lower may also help. Link
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New York farm fights starling flock
By JOE MINISSALE, Indenews.com
HILLSDALE--Bill Carney, 56, bends down in his backyard Friday and picks up a dead black bird with his bare hands and throws it away in the garbage. There are three European starlings on the ground around his home on Anthony Street.
"I noticed the one dead and didn't think anything of it," he said. "I came back later and there were two more. I'm upset about this whole scenario."
Residents in the area are discovering dead birds on their property, and while officials say there is no threat of disease from the birds, Mr. Carney wants some answers.
Last week officials with the United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services program visited a farm in Copake at the request of the farmer and applied a chemical called DRC-1339, a federally restricted pesticide. They were using it for what they call a "controlled baiting" of the non-native invasive species, which is not protected by federal law. The chemical kills the birds.
"We are focusing on the starlings for the feed consumption disease threats... with dairy farms," said Kenneth Preusser, a Craryville native who works for the USDA office on Route 9 in Castleton.
One example he cited was the possibility that the birds would spread salmonella.
The state Department of Conservation says that because DRC-1339, which has as its active ingredient 3-Chloro-4-methyl-benzenamine hydrochloride, is classified as a "Restricted Use Pesticide" it is "for use only by USDA personnel trained in bird control or persons under their direct supervision."
"The main issue is when they are actually feeding on the farm, they are going for high protein. They also impact milk production, and take high protein rations from the cattle, an economic loss to the farmer as well," said Mr. Preusser.
Mr. Preusser would not divulge the name of the farmer, but said the department supplied the farm with 500 pounds of "pre-bait," and then applied the pesticide via bait. He said officials observed as roughly a thousand starlings ate the bait. He also said the officials made sure no cardinals, blue jays or other species were in the area. If any other birds flew on the farm during the controlled baiting the officials scared them away.
Mr. Preusser said that the pesticide is metabolized and excreted by the birds, which he said eliminates the threat of secondary poisoning to pets or other wildlife. The birds succumb to the pesticide within 24 hours after the application of DRC-1339.
"There are no secondary hazards," he said. "It is mainly targeted to the starlings."
Farmers who would like the pesticide administered may apply during January and February, when the starlings tend to congregate on dairy farms and cause damage by consuming and contaminating feed and potentially transmitting diseases to livestock. The fee is $700-$800, which covers the pre-bait, bait, salary and vehicle use.
Anyone with questions may dial the USDA at (518) 477-4837 and (518) 495-4735 on the weekends. Link
---------------------------------------------------------
Move to make firewood transport ban permanent
By BRIAN NEARING, Staff writer, TimesUnion.com
ALBANY, NY — To fight the spread of invasive pests, the state is moving to permanently bar the movement of untreated firewood from one part of the state to another.
Temporary emergency rules that ban moving firewood more than 50 miles from its source have been in place since June 2008, State officials hope the ban will prevent the spread of such invasive species as the emerald ash borer, Asian longhorned beetle and sirex wood wasp through infested wood.
The regulations do not affect homeowners cutting wood on their own property for use on that same property. They also do not affect firewood being transported through New York for sale and use in another state.
"Invasive pests and diseases damage both the environment and the economy," said Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Pete Grannis. "By taking proactive measures, we can reduce the risks of the inadvertent introduction of invasive and destructive pests and further protect our forests, woodlands and urban trees."
Under the regulation, only firewood cured by heating to a core temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit for 75 minutes can be moved without restriction.
A public comment period on the proposed permanent rules ends Feb. 9. Comment may be sent via e-mail to firewood@gw.dec.state.ny.us, or by writing to Bruce Williamson, NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation, 625 Broadway, 5th Floor, Albany, NY 12233. Link
-----------------------------------------------------------
Comments sought on draft invasive species plan
From GeorgiaFrontPage.blogspot.com
A draft plan that targets more than 180 invasive species threatening Georgia’s rich variety of native wildlife is available for public comment.
The Georgia Invasive Species Strategy describes the complex scope of problems posed by non-native plants, animals and disease-causing organisms and proposes ways to lessen the impacts in a state ranked sixth in the nation in biological diversity.
Jon Ambrose, assistant chief of the Georgia Wildlife Resources Division’s Nongame Conservation Section, said the strategy provides a framework that will help communicate and coordinate invasive species management priorities.
Copies are available at www.georgiawildlife.com (click the “Conservation” tab to reach the link) or from the Georgia Wildlife Resources Division office in Social Circle (770-761-3035). A public comment meeting is set for 5:30-7:30 p.m. Feb. 12 at the Wildlife Resources Division’s Conservation Center in Social Circle. For directions, go to http://www.georgiawildlife.com/.
The deadline to submit comments is Feb. 16. Send written comments to jon.ambrose@gadnr.org or Jon Ambrose, Georgia Wildlife Resources Division, 2070 U.S. Highway 278 S.E., Social Circle, Ga.30025.
Link
------------------------------------------------------------
North Carolina officially bans vitex, "kudzu of the coast"
By Gareth McGrath, Staff Writer, StarNewsOnline.com
A plant that was first promoted by North Carolina has now been outlawed by state officials.
Rules to ban the sale, transport and possession of beach vitex by nurseries, garden shops and private property owners passed their final regulatory hurdle on Thursday.
The plant will be officially added to the state’s “noxious weed” list on Feb. 1.
Fast-growing, salt-tolerant, disliked by animals and sporting a beautiful purple flower during the summer, vitex was marketed as a coastal landscaping plant by N.C. State University in the 1980s.
But vitex started worrying researchers earlier this decade when it began overtaking dunes, crowding out the native sea oats and sea grasses.
Beach vitex has been found all along the North Carolina and South Carolina coasts, including on most barrier islands in Southeastern North Carolina.
It also has been reported in Virginia, Georgia and along the Gulf Coast.
For more information about the invasive plant or to report an infestation, go to http://www.beachvitex.org/.
Link
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Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Week of November 2, 2008
Suffolk County targets invasive aquatic plants in Yaphank
BY JENNIFER SMITH, Newsday.com
By autumn, little remains of the thick green carpet of plant life that covers Yaphank's Upper and Lower lakes for much of the year. But the weedy culprits - cabomba and variable leaf watermilfoil - are still here, washing in clumps over the dam at Mill Road or waiting, submerged, to bloom in spring.
Each year, dismayed residents here and at Canaan Lake in North Patchogue have watched the rampant growth of invasive aquatic plants turn these popular fishing spots into virtual swamps.
"The whole lake is just one mat of weeds," said Robert Kessler, an Upper Lake resident and member of the Coalition to Save the Yaphank Lakes. "By June you can almost walk across the lakes."
Now Suffolk County has taken up the problem with a $200,000 study on the best way to eradicate the pesky plants. The study should be completed sometime next year, with work expected to begin on a pilot project at Canaan Lake in 2010.
Options include dredging, dosing the water with herbicide, using a machine harvester to remove the plants or some combination of those techniques. Some have even proposed dismantling the dams that created the lakes in the first place - something Kessler and other Yaphank residents oppose.
Each method has drawbacks. And because rivers run through all three lakes, any action taken there would likely have consequences downstream.Nineteen-acre Upper Lake and 25-acre Lower Lake sit on the Carmans River, which the state has designated a scenic and recreational river. The main stem of the Patchogue River flows through 26-acre Canaan Lake, which is on the state's impaired waterways list because of nitrogen pollution."
It's a really complicated situation, because you're balancing the needs of the residents living on the lake and the issues they are facing, in addition to the ecological and financial issues," said Kathy Schwager, an invasive species ecologist with the Nature Conservancy on Long Island. The Conservancy was part of a coalition of concerned residents, environmental advocates and government officials that researched the issue for more than a year.
At times, the weeds cover 70 percent to 90 percent of the surface of the affected Brookhaven lakes, said Charles Guthrie, regional fisheries manager for the state Department of Environmental Conservation. Fish still swim there, but the overgrowth makes it hard to get to the water."
It has really ruined the recreational resource that the community of Yaphank and many others have enjoyed for hundreds of years, since the river was dammed," said Brookhaven Town Councilwoman Connie Kepert.
Last year Kepert set up the Carmans River task force to address the problem at Upper and Lower lakes. The group assembled detailed information on the lakes' plant life and other physical characteristics, and reviewed how other communities have dealt with cabomba and watermilfoil.
In Manorville, the Peconic River Sportsman's Club had tried using a mechanical harvester to remove cabomba from its private 45-acre lake, but the lake was too big for one machine to make much of a dent, Guthrie said.
The club had better luck with an herbicide known as fluridone. But that alone is unlikely to solve the problem in Yaphank and North Patchogue. The herbicide pellets have to remain in place for one to three months, a tricky proposition in a free-flowing river. And fluridone doesn't kill watermilfoil, which requires a different chemical called triclopyr. While both herbicides are approved for use in New York state, DEC regulations don't permit them to be used at the same time, Guthrie said.
Dave Thompson of Trout Unlimited, a fishing conservation group, says removing the dams would help because the plants don't thrive in cool, fast-moving water. It would also create more habitat for native brook trout. Residents have resisted that option, saying they want to restore the lakes' past recreational use. Article
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Town of Esopus purchases weed harvester
Dailyfreeman.com
Projects in Columbia and Ulster counties (New York) are among funding awards announced under the state Environmental Protection Fund's Local Waterfront Revitalization Program.
All grants are awarded on a 50-50 matching basis.
Receiving funding locally are:
* Town of Esopus, $59,088 to purchase a mechanical aquatic weed harvester to improve the town's aquatic vegetation control program, thereby preserving access to public beaches, use of non-motorized boating facilities and fishing areas of the river. Article
---------------------------------------------------------
Invading bugs ravage Georgia's forests
By Charles Seabrook for the Journal-Constitution
In Georgia’s rugged mountain forests and its lush maritime woods on the coast, ecological tragedies of great consequence are unfolding —- alarming die-offs of native trees from exotic insect pests.
On the coast, it is the red bay tree —- and possibly the sassafras —- that’s succumbing. Driving around Jekyll Island the other day, I saw scores of red bays dead or dying. I saw no healthy ones. The same situation is true for red bays in other maritime forests all along the Southeast coast. Killing them —- and threatening them with extinction —- is a relentless disease called laurel wilt.
Some reports indicate that the malady also may be spreading to our beloved sassafras trees, which are kin to red bays.
The disease is caused by a fungus spread by the exotic red bay ambrosia beetle (Xyleborus glabratus), a native of Asia. The beetle likely entered the country in wood packing material with cargo imported at Port Wentworth, Ga. Red bays began dying in Georgia and South Carolina in 2003.
“All of Georgia’s coastal counties now have confirmed laurel wilt, and the disease is moving northward in South Carolina, southward in Florida, and inland at an alarming rate,” said James Johnson, a tree disease expert with the Georgia Forestry Commission.
No known treatment exists, he notes. Landowners, loggers and others are asked to leave dead red bay trees in the woods and not salvage them for logs, chips or firewood.
Red bays are native to the Coastal Plain region from Virginia to eastern Texas. They are ecologically and culturally important, although of minor commercial timber value. Red bay trees provide fruit for songbirds, turkeys and quails. Deer and black bears browse on the foliage and fruits. The caterpillars of the palamedes swallowtail butterfly require red bay leaves for development.
More information: www.state.sc.us/forest/idwilt.pdf.
Mountain trees
In North Georgia’s mountains —- and throughout much of the Southern Appalachians —- it is the magnificent hemlock that’s dying by the tens of thousands. The cause is a tiny, exotic, aphidlike insect known as the hemlock wooly adelgid, also a native of Asia. It sucks the sap at the base of hemlock needles, which die and fall off. The tree then starves to death.
Hardly any area of the 750,000-acre Chattahoochee National Forest is untouched by the voracious pest. Dead and dying hemlocks —- large and small —- are now common sights along mountain streams, slopes and trails. Scientists say the hemlock, a major component of Southern Appalachian forests, could go the way of another once-common forest tree, the American chestnut, which was virtually wiped out by an exotic blight during the first half of the last century and has never recovered.
A sliver of good news is that special chemical treatments done by trained arborists can help hemlocks withstand adelgid infestations. The treatment is helping save some hemlocks in homeowners’ yards and at some forest campgrounds.
But for the vast majority of hemlocks in the forest, the treatment is impractical. About the only hope —- slim at best —- for the forest hemlocks is imported beetles that prey on the adelgid. Three Georgia institutions —- the University of Georgia, Young Harris College and North Georgia State College and University —- are raising the beetles in special laboratories for release into the forest. But funding is critical. The Georgia ForestWatch organization (www.gafw.org.) is trying to raise funds for the labs. Article
---------------------------------------------------------
BY JENNIFER SMITH, Newsday.com
By autumn, little remains of the thick green carpet of plant life that covers Yaphank's Upper and Lower lakes for much of the year. But the weedy culprits - cabomba and variable leaf watermilfoil - are still here, washing in clumps over the dam at Mill Road or waiting, submerged, to bloom in spring.
Each year, dismayed residents here and at Canaan Lake in North Patchogue have watched the rampant growth of invasive aquatic plants turn these popular fishing spots into virtual swamps.
"The whole lake is just one mat of weeds," said Robert Kessler, an Upper Lake resident and member of the Coalition to Save the Yaphank Lakes. "By June you can almost walk across the lakes."
Now Suffolk County has taken up the problem with a $200,000 study on the best way to eradicate the pesky plants. The study should be completed sometime next year, with work expected to begin on a pilot project at Canaan Lake in 2010.
Options include dredging, dosing the water with herbicide, using a machine harvester to remove the plants or some combination of those techniques. Some have even proposed dismantling the dams that created the lakes in the first place - something Kessler and other Yaphank residents oppose.
Each method has drawbacks. And because rivers run through all three lakes, any action taken there would likely have consequences downstream.Nineteen-acre Upper Lake and 25-acre Lower Lake sit on the Carmans River, which the state has designated a scenic and recreational river. The main stem of the Patchogue River flows through 26-acre Canaan Lake, which is on the state's impaired waterways list because of nitrogen pollution."
It's a really complicated situation, because you're balancing the needs of the residents living on the lake and the issues they are facing, in addition to the ecological and financial issues," said Kathy Schwager, an invasive species ecologist with the Nature Conservancy on Long Island. The Conservancy was part of a coalition of concerned residents, environmental advocates and government officials that researched the issue for more than a year.
At times, the weeds cover 70 percent to 90 percent of the surface of the affected Brookhaven lakes, said Charles Guthrie, regional fisheries manager for the state Department of Environmental Conservation. Fish still swim there, but the overgrowth makes it hard to get to the water."
It has really ruined the recreational resource that the community of Yaphank and many others have enjoyed for hundreds of years, since the river was dammed," said Brookhaven Town Councilwoman Connie Kepert.
Last year Kepert set up the Carmans River task force to address the problem at Upper and Lower lakes. The group assembled detailed information on the lakes' plant life and other physical characteristics, and reviewed how other communities have dealt with cabomba and watermilfoil.
In Manorville, the Peconic River Sportsman's Club had tried using a mechanical harvester to remove cabomba from its private 45-acre lake, but the lake was too big for one machine to make much of a dent, Guthrie said.
The club had better luck with an herbicide known as fluridone. But that alone is unlikely to solve the problem in Yaphank and North Patchogue. The herbicide pellets have to remain in place for one to three months, a tricky proposition in a free-flowing river. And fluridone doesn't kill watermilfoil, which requires a different chemical called triclopyr. While both herbicides are approved for use in New York state, DEC regulations don't permit them to be used at the same time, Guthrie said.
Dave Thompson of Trout Unlimited, a fishing conservation group, says removing the dams would help because the plants don't thrive in cool, fast-moving water. It would also create more habitat for native brook trout. Residents have resisted that option, saying they want to restore the lakes' past recreational use. Article
---------------------------------------------------------
Town of Esopus purchases weed harvester
Dailyfreeman.com
Projects in Columbia and Ulster counties (New York) are among funding awards announced under the state Environmental Protection Fund's Local Waterfront Revitalization Program.
All grants are awarded on a 50-50 matching basis.
Receiving funding locally are:
* Town of Esopus, $59,088 to purchase a mechanical aquatic weed harvester to improve the town's aquatic vegetation control program, thereby preserving access to public beaches, use of non-motorized boating facilities and fishing areas of the river. Article
---------------------------------------------------------
Invading bugs ravage Georgia's forests
By Charles Seabrook for the Journal-Constitution
In Georgia’s rugged mountain forests and its lush maritime woods on the coast, ecological tragedies of great consequence are unfolding —- alarming die-offs of native trees from exotic insect pests.
On the coast, it is the red bay tree —- and possibly the sassafras —- that’s succumbing. Driving around Jekyll Island the other day, I saw scores of red bays dead or dying. I saw no healthy ones. The same situation is true for red bays in other maritime forests all along the Southeast coast. Killing them —- and threatening them with extinction —- is a relentless disease called laurel wilt.
Some reports indicate that the malady also may be spreading to our beloved sassafras trees, which are kin to red bays.
The disease is caused by a fungus spread by the exotic red bay ambrosia beetle (Xyleborus glabratus), a native of Asia. The beetle likely entered the country in wood packing material with cargo imported at Port Wentworth, Ga. Red bays began dying in Georgia and South Carolina in 2003.
“All of Georgia’s coastal counties now have confirmed laurel wilt, and the disease is moving northward in South Carolina, southward in Florida, and inland at an alarming rate,” said James Johnson, a tree disease expert with the Georgia Forestry Commission.
No known treatment exists, he notes. Landowners, loggers and others are asked to leave dead red bay trees in the woods and not salvage them for logs, chips or firewood.
Red bays are native to the Coastal Plain region from Virginia to eastern Texas. They are ecologically and culturally important, although of minor commercial timber value. Red bay trees provide fruit for songbirds, turkeys and quails. Deer and black bears browse on the foliage and fruits. The caterpillars of the palamedes swallowtail butterfly require red bay leaves for development.
More information: www.state.sc.us/forest/idwilt.pdf.
Mountain trees
In North Georgia’s mountains —- and throughout much of the Southern Appalachians —- it is the magnificent hemlock that’s dying by the tens of thousands. The cause is a tiny, exotic, aphidlike insect known as the hemlock wooly adelgid, also a native of Asia. It sucks the sap at the base of hemlock needles, which die and fall off. The tree then starves to death.
Hardly any area of the 750,000-acre Chattahoochee National Forest is untouched by the voracious pest. Dead and dying hemlocks —- large and small —- are now common sights along mountain streams, slopes and trails. Scientists say the hemlock, a major component of Southern Appalachian forests, could go the way of another once-common forest tree, the American chestnut, which was virtually wiped out by an exotic blight during the first half of the last century and has never recovered.
A sliver of good news is that special chemical treatments done by trained arborists can help hemlocks withstand adelgid infestations. The treatment is helping save some hemlocks in homeowners’ yards and at some forest campgrounds.
But for the vast majority of hemlocks in the forest, the treatment is impractical. About the only hope —- slim at best —- for the forest hemlocks is imported beetles that prey on the adelgid. Three Georgia institutions —- the University of Georgia, Young Harris College and North Georgia State College and University —- are raising the beetles in special laboratories for release into the forest. But funding is critical. The Georgia ForestWatch organization (www.gafw.org.) is trying to raise funds for the labs. Article
---------------------------------------------------------
Monday, August 4, 2008
Week of August 3, 2008
Invasive species bills stuck in Congress
By ERICA WERNER
WASHINGTON (AP) — Tiny foreign mussels assault drinking water sources in California and Nevada. A deadly fish virus spreads swiftly through the Great Lakes and beyond. Japanese shore crabs make a home for themselves in Long Island Sound, more than 6,000miles away.
These are no exotic seafood delicacies. They're a menace to U.S. drinking water supplies, native plants and animals, and they cost billions to contain.
Yet Congress is moving to address the problem at the pace of a plain old garden snail.
With time for passing laws rapidly diminishing in this election year, two powerful Senate committee chairmen are at loggerheads over legislation to set the first federal clean-up standards for the large oceangoing ships on which aquatic invasive species hitch a ride to U.S. shores.
The dispute is between Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who chairs the Environment and Public Works Committee, and Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.
Boxer is blocking a clean-up bill passed by Inouye's committee over concerns it would pre-empt stronger standards in California and a handful of other states; Inouye believes a single national standard is needed. Boxer also insists the clean-up program be governed in part by the Clean Water Act — which would give environmental groups the right to sue to enforce it — while Inouye's bill keeps the program in the hands of the Coast Guard.
Similar clean-up legislation has already passed the House, but advocates on both sides are pessimistic about breaking the impasse before Congress finishes up work for the year. Article
--------------------------------------------------------
Off summer for some invasive species in Massachusetts
By Doug Fraser, CapeCodTimes.com
Cape Cod trees were largely spared the scourges of that voracious triumvirate — the winter moth, forest tent, and gypsy moth caterpillars — this summer.
"There were some localized pockets, but there wasn't any widespread defoliation," said Roberta Clark of the Cape Cod Cooperative Extension. But that doesn't signal an end to the plague. Next year, given favorable weather conditions, the pests could be back in greater numbers.
That could affect orchards, blueberry growers and the average homeowner. After three or four years of complete defoliation by winter moths or gypsy and tent caterpillars, even larger trees can die, Clark said. Stands of dead trees in Sandwich and along Route 3 in Kingston testify to that, she added.
In the case of the gypsy moth and forest tent caterpillars, the humid, cool conditions this past spring helped two strains of the entomophagia fungus attack and decimate their populations. One of those strains is itself an alien species that was introduced in 1989 to attack the gypsy moth. Biological "controls" like the fungus sometimes take a decade or more to establish themselves.
University of Massachusetts entomology professor Joseph Elkinton believes the 1989 fungus is just now taking a major toll on gypsy moths.
For winter moths, it was the hard freeze following Thanksgiving that trapped many of the adult moths in the frozen ground before they could emerge and take their mating flight. Article
----------------------------------------------------------
Mapping a menace in Connecticut
By Robert Miller, NewsTimes.com
If you look across Candlewood Lake on a bright day, the sunlight glints and dances on the water.
In his shallow-bottomed boat, Greg Bugbee is now busy slowly criss-crossing Candlewood, wearing sunglasses that help him peer through the surface sheen. The object of his attention -- Eurasian watermilfoil -- lies underwater.
This year, it's hard not to see it.
"Last year, we could stay away from the docks," Bugbee said, pointing out that the plants in 2007 were mostly out in deeper water, away from the shoreline. "This year, it's in closer. That means I have to work between the docks in some places."
Bugbee is a an assistant scientist for the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. For the past four years, he's helped map the thick beds of watermilfoil in Candlewood Lake. For the past two years, working in conjunction with FirstLight Power Resources -- which owns the Housatonic River hydroelectric plants -- he's added Lake Lillinonah and Lake Zoar to the project. Article
---------------------------------------------------------
Fish species on the decline in the Hudson River, in part due to invasive species
By Michael Risinit, The Journal News
Where the Hudson River bends around Jones Point in Rockland County, there is a navigational marker labeled P 47 on the charts - the letter signifying nearby Peekskill and the figure its height in feet. Two ospreys one morning perched on the structure, which looks like a small oil derrick.
The black-and-white fish hawks also sit atop the river's web of life. Feet first, they can snatch a meal from a river whose biological productivity has been described as "staggering."
State lawmakers heralded the river's fish life when they created the Hudson River Estuary Management Program in 1987, declaring it to be an estuary of "statewide and national importance." An arm of the sea filled with food and shelter for young fish, the Hudson, the Legislature proclaimed then, "is the only major estuary on the East Coast to still retain strong populations of its historical spawning stocks."
Now, 21 years later, many of the Hudson's signature fish populations are suffering. Numbers of American shad, American eel, smelt and blueback herring are declining, according to state fisheries biologists and others. Alewives and Atlantic sturgeon seem to be holding their own, the latter possibly rebounding from rock-bottom population numbers in the early 1990s.
About 214 species of fish call the river and its tributaries home sometime in their lives. Research and monitoring, though, concentrates mostly on sport fish and commercially important species. Several factors could be blamed for the tumbling numbers: loss of habitat and spawning grounds, contamination from sewage and storm water overflows, riverside power plants sucking in water (along with billions of fish larvae and eggs) to cool their equipment, the unintentional take of some species by ocean trawlers, climate change, and invasive species changing the river's food web. Article
---------------------------------------------------------
Don't be seduced by purple loosestrife
Richard Ceponis, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Broome County (New York)
In the middle of July you start to notice her along the riverbank, on the shore of a pond or along the highway. She catches your eye with a flirting bit of color as she pops up here and there. By August, she is everywhere that she could take root, and her seductive beauty is so strong that it makes you want to just pull over and pick some. But beware; she is not the cute and innocent native wildflower that she wants you to believe she is.
Purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) is not native to North America; it is native to Eurasia. It entered the United States about 1814 by using its enticing beauty to lure European settlers into bringing it over for their flower gardens. It soon escaped cultivation and is now a major threat to the wetlands of the Northeast. It is one of the top 12 invasive exotic plants in upstate New York. The Nature Conservancy considers it a contributing factor to the potential extinction of some of our native wetland plants and animals. Article
---------------------------------------------------------
2008 Invasive Plant Atlas of New England Invasives Training
New Hampshire SentinelSource.com
HANCOCK, N.H. — The Harris Center for Conservation Education is offering the “2008 Invasive Plant Atlas of New England Invasives Training” for those interested in learning how to collect and submit data on invasive species.
The Invasive Plant Atlas of New England (IPANE) has created a Web site database of invasive plant species in the region, which is updated with the help of professionals and trained volunteers.
The workshop will provide participants with the know-how to monitor invasive species in their areas, along with a handbook and invasive species field guide.
Part of the workshop will be spent outdoors and will be Tuesday, Aug. 5, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m at the Harris Center, 83 King’s Highway, Hancock, New Hampshire.
Bring field guides, a hand lens magnifier, bug repellent, a hat, sunscreen, lunch, water, a daypack, binoculars and pencils or pens. Wear sturdy footwear.
Information: 508-877-7630 extension 3203 or e-mail telliman@newenglandwild.org.
Article
----------------------------------------------------------
Cotton farmers face a formidable foe
By GREG BLUESTEIN, Associated Press
IDEAL, Ga. — It’s only a few months into the cotton growing season, but already the budding rows of cotton are dwarfed by towering weeds that starve them of sunlight, nutrients and water.
This pesky pigweed species, called palmer amaranth, has long been held in check by powerful herbicides.
But three years ago, scientists discovered a far-from-ideal development in this central Georgia farming hamlet: The first species that’s resistant to all but the most aggressive chemical treatments.
Now, this powerful new breed has spread to farms throughout the Southeast and is threatening to move further west, baffling farmers and bringing comparisons to that deadliest scourge of cotton.
In Georgia alone, researchers expect to find it in about 40 counties this year. It’s steadily spread throughout the Southeast, afflicting farms in the Carolinas, Tennessee and Arkansas. With each farm it devastates, it’s brought comparisons to the boll weevil, the beetle that lays eggs in the plant’s boll and ruins them.
...the only proven method to stop the weed is prevention. Article
---------------------------------------------------------
State of Connecticut and volunteers make gains against water chestnut
By Candace Page, Free Press staff writer
WEST HAVEN, Ct. — In the battle of humans v. alien invaders on Lake Champlain, the home team has made it on the scoreboard.
Water chestnut, a native of Eurasia, once choked bays as far north as the Crown Point Bridge in Addison. Dense beds of the invasive plant drove fish away from oxygen-depleted waters, tangled boat propellers and made some stretches impossible to navigate.
Today, thanks to 10 years of work, more than $2 million and nearly 13,000 hours of volunteer labor, the worst infestations have been removed from 20 miles of lake between West Addison and Benson Landing.
Thick mats still cover much of South Bay, the lake’s southernmost finger, near Whitehall, N.Y. Yearly patrols by volunteers in canoes remove more scattered plants and keep the chestnut from surging north again.
“This is the closest you get to a real success story when it comes to invasives,” said Tim Hunt, field supervisor of Vermont’s water chestnut control program. Article
---------------------------------------------------------
Saratoga Lake's milfoil curbed
By LEIGH HORNBECK, Timesunion.com
STILLWATER, New York -- Eurasian milfoil, an invasive plant that creates a nuisance for boaters and swimmers, is almost under control in Saratoga Lake, according to the Saratoga Lake Protection and Improvement District.
The district, which is supported by 1,400 taxpayers who live around the lake, paid for an application of a herbicide to kill the weeds. Last year the chemicals were used on the south end of the lake and in May the district moved to the east side. The cost of the project is $550,000 so far.
This year the district switched from the Sonar brand of herbicide to Renovate, a chemical that needs only three days of contact with the weed to work, rather than 30 days, said lake administrator Dean Long, the director of Environmental Planning for the LA Group in Saratoga Springs.
"It killed the milfoil on the east side or stressed it to the point its growth was slowed down and it is 80 to 90 percent under control," Long said.
In 2009, the district will complete the application cycle on the west side of the lake.
Milfoil grows in large floating beds that kill off native plants and can become tangled in boat propellers. Herbicide used to control milfoil is used in the early spring so it is absorbed by milfoil rather than the native plants that come up later in the season, Long said.
"We were happy the native weeds were not stressed," said Joe Finn, a representative from the town of Saratoga on the improvement district board.
Long said he expects the herbicide to work for three to five years with occasional spot treatment. Article
-----------------------------------------------------------
By ERICA WERNER
WASHINGTON (AP) — Tiny foreign mussels assault drinking water sources in California and Nevada. A deadly fish virus spreads swiftly through the Great Lakes and beyond. Japanese shore crabs make a home for themselves in Long Island Sound, more than 6,000miles away.
These are no exotic seafood delicacies. They're a menace to U.S. drinking water supplies, native plants and animals, and they cost billions to contain.
Yet Congress is moving to address the problem at the pace of a plain old garden snail.
With time for passing laws rapidly diminishing in this election year, two powerful Senate committee chairmen are at loggerheads over legislation to set the first federal clean-up standards for the large oceangoing ships on which aquatic invasive species hitch a ride to U.S. shores.
The dispute is between Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who chairs the Environment and Public Works Committee, and Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.
Boxer is blocking a clean-up bill passed by Inouye's committee over concerns it would pre-empt stronger standards in California and a handful of other states; Inouye believes a single national standard is needed. Boxer also insists the clean-up program be governed in part by the Clean Water Act — which would give environmental groups the right to sue to enforce it — while Inouye's bill keeps the program in the hands of the Coast Guard.
Similar clean-up legislation has already passed the House, but advocates on both sides are pessimistic about breaking the impasse before Congress finishes up work for the year. Article
--------------------------------------------------------
Off summer for some invasive species in Massachusetts
By Doug Fraser, CapeCodTimes.com
Cape Cod trees were largely spared the scourges of that voracious triumvirate — the winter moth, forest tent, and gypsy moth caterpillars — this summer.
"There were some localized pockets, but there wasn't any widespread defoliation," said Roberta Clark of the Cape Cod Cooperative Extension. But that doesn't signal an end to the plague. Next year, given favorable weather conditions, the pests could be back in greater numbers.
That could affect orchards, blueberry growers and the average homeowner. After three or four years of complete defoliation by winter moths or gypsy and tent caterpillars, even larger trees can die, Clark said. Stands of dead trees in Sandwich and along Route 3 in Kingston testify to that, she added.
In the case of the gypsy moth and forest tent caterpillars, the humid, cool conditions this past spring helped two strains of the entomophagia fungus attack and decimate their populations. One of those strains is itself an alien species that was introduced in 1989 to attack the gypsy moth. Biological "controls" like the fungus sometimes take a decade or more to establish themselves.
University of Massachusetts entomology professor Joseph Elkinton believes the 1989 fungus is just now taking a major toll on gypsy moths.
For winter moths, it was the hard freeze following Thanksgiving that trapped many of the adult moths in the frozen ground before they could emerge and take their mating flight. Article
----------------------------------------------------------
Mapping a menace in Connecticut
By Robert Miller, NewsTimes.com
If you look across Candlewood Lake on a bright day, the sunlight glints and dances on the water.
In his shallow-bottomed boat, Greg Bugbee is now busy slowly criss-crossing Candlewood, wearing sunglasses that help him peer through the surface sheen. The object of his attention -- Eurasian watermilfoil -- lies underwater.
This year, it's hard not to see it.
"Last year, we could stay away from the docks," Bugbee said, pointing out that the plants in 2007 were mostly out in deeper water, away from the shoreline. "This year, it's in closer. That means I have to work between the docks in some places."
Bugbee is a an assistant scientist for the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. For the past four years, he's helped map the thick beds of watermilfoil in Candlewood Lake. For the past two years, working in conjunction with FirstLight Power Resources -- which owns the Housatonic River hydroelectric plants -- he's added Lake Lillinonah and Lake Zoar to the project. Article
---------------------------------------------------------
Fish species on the decline in the Hudson River, in part due to invasive species
By Michael Risinit, The Journal News
Where the Hudson River bends around Jones Point in Rockland County, there is a navigational marker labeled P 47 on the charts - the letter signifying nearby Peekskill and the figure its height in feet. Two ospreys one morning perched on the structure, which looks like a small oil derrick.
The black-and-white fish hawks also sit atop the river's web of life. Feet first, they can snatch a meal from a river whose biological productivity has been described as "staggering."
State lawmakers heralded the river's fish life when they created the Hudson River Estuary Management Program in 1987, declaring it to be an estuary of "statewide and national importance." An arm of the sea filled with food and shelter for young fish, the Hudson, the Legislature proclaimed then, "is the only major estuary on the East Coast to still retain strong populations of its historical spawning stocks."
Now, 21 years later, many of the Hudson's signature fish populations are suffering. Numbers of American shad, American eel, smelt and blueback herring are declining, according to state fisheries biologists and others. Alewives and Atlantic sturgeon seem to be holding their own, the latter possibly rebounding from rock-bottom population numbers in the early 1990s.
About 214 species of fish call the river and its tributaries home sometime in their lives. Research and monitoring, though, concentrates mostly on sport fish and commercially important species. Several factors could be blamed for the tumbling numbers: loss of habitat and spawning grounds, contamination from sewage and storm water overflows, riverside power plants sucking in water (along with billions of fish larvae and eggs) to cool their equipment, the unintentional take of some species by ocean trawlers, climate change, and invasive species changing the river's food web. Article
---------------------------------------------------------
Don't be seduced by purple loosestrife
Richard Ceponis, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Broome County (New York)
In the middle of July you start to notice her along the riverbank, on the shore of a pond or along the highway. She catches your eye with a flirting bit of color as she pops up here and there. By August, she is everywhere that she could take root, and her seductive beauty is so strong that it makes you want to just pull over and pick some. But beware; she is not the cute and innocent native wildflower that she wants you to believe she is.
Purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) is not native to North America; it is native to Eurasia. It entered the United States about 1814 by using its enticing beauty to lure European settlers into bringing it over for their flower gardens. It soon escaped cultivation and is now a major threat to the wetlands of the Northeast. It is one of the top 12 invasive exotic plants in upstate New York. The Nature Conservancy considers it a contributing factor to the potential extinction of some of our native wetland plants and animals. Article
---------------------------------------------------------
2008 Invasive Plant Atlas of New England Invasives Training
New Hampshire SentinelSource.com
HANCOCK, N.H. — The Harris Center for Conservation Education is offering the “2008 Invasive Plant Atlas of New England Invasives Training” for those interested in learning how to collect and submit data on invasive species.
The Invasive Plant Atlas of New England (IPANE) has created a Web site database of invasive plant species in the region, which is updated with the help of professionals and trained volunteers.
The workshop will provide participants with the know-how to monitor invasive species in their areas, along with a handbook and invasive species field guide.
Part of the workshop will be spent outdoors and will be Tuesday, Aug. 5, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m at the Harris Center, 83 King’s Highway, Hancock, New Hampshire.
Bring field guides, a hand lens magnifier, bug repellent, a hat, sunscreen, lunch, water, a daypack, binoculars and pencils or pens. Wear sturdy footwear.
Information: 508-877-7630 extension 3203 or e-mail telliman@newenglandwild.org.
Article
----------------------------------------------------------
Cotton farmers face a formidable foe
By GREG BLUESTEIN, Associated Press
IDEAL, Ga. — It’s only a few months into the cotton growing season, but already the budding rows of cotton are dwarfed by towering weeds that starve them of sunlight, nutrients and water.
This pesky pigweed species, called palmer amaranth, has long been held in check by powerful herbicides.
But three years ago, scientists discovered a far-from-ideal development in this central Georgia farming hamlet: The first species that’s resistant to all but the most aggressive chemical treatments.
Now, this powerful new breed has spread to farms throughout the Southeast and is threatening to move further west, baffling farmers and bringing comparisons to that deadliest scourge of cotton.
In Georgia alone, researchers expect to find it in about 40 counties this year. It’s steadily spread throughout the Southeast, afflicting farms in the Carolinas, Tennessee and Arkansas. With each farm it devastates, it’s brought comparisons to the boll weevil, the beetle that lays eggs in the plant’s boll and ruins them.
...the only proven method to stop the weed is prevention. Article
---------------------------------------------------------
State of Connecticut and volunteers make gains against water chestnut
By Candace Page, Free Press staff writer
WEST HAVEN, Ct. — In the battle of humans v. alien invaders on Lake Champlain, the home team has made it on the scoreboard.
Water chestnut, a native of Eurasia, once choked bays as far north as the Crown Point Bridge in Addison. Dense beds of the invasive plant drove fish away from oxygen-depleted waters, tangled boat propellers and made some stretches impossible to navigate.
Today, thanks to 10 years of work, more than $2 million and nearly 13,000 hours of volunteer labor, the worst infestations have been removed from 20 miles of lake between West Addison and Benson Landing.
Thick mats still cover much of South Bay, the lake’s southernmost finger, near Whitehall, N.Y. Yearly patrols by volunteers in canoes remove more scattered plants and keep the chestnut from surging north again.
“This is the closest you get to a real success story when it comes to invasives,” said Tim Hunt, field supervisor of Vermont’s water chestnut control program. Article
---------------------------------------------------------
Saratoga Lake's milfoil curbed
By LEIGH HORNBECK, Timesunion.com
STILLWATER, New York -- Eurasian milfoil, an invasive plant that creates a nuisance for boaters and swimmers, is almost under control in Saratoga Lake, according to the Saratoga Lake Protection and Improvement District.
The district, which is supported by 1,400 taxpayers who live around the lake, paid for an application of a herbicide to kill the weeds. Last year the chemicals were used on the south end of the lake and in May the district moved to the east side. The cost of the project is $550,000 so far.
This year the district switched from the Sonar brand of herbicide to Renovate, a chemical that needs only three days of contact with the weed to work, rather than 30 days, said lake administrator Dean Long, the director of Environmental Planning for the LA Group in Saratoga Springs.
"It killed the milfoil on the east side or stressed it to the point its growth was slowed down and it is 80 to 90 percent under control," Long said.
In 2009, the district will complete the application cycle on the west side of the lake.
Milfoil grows in large floating beds that kill off native plants and can become tangled in boat propellers. Herbicide used to control milfoil is used in the early spring so it is absorbed by milfoil rather than the native plants that come up later in the season, Long said.
"We were happy the native weeds were not stressed," said Joe Finn, a representative from the town of Saratoga on the improvement district board.
Long said he expects the herbicide to work for three to five years with occasional spot treatment. Article
-----------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Week of June 8
Foxes are latest threat to sea turtle population, nesting shorebirds
By Gareth McGrath Staff Writer, StarNewsOnline.com
Fort Fisher, North Carolina - Kneeling next to a wire-mesh box turned upside down, Jeff Owen pushed back the sand to show the box's sides extending into the beach and the flaps protruding several feet.
Installed over the top of a buried sea turtle nest, the exclusion device looked like a pretty good deterrent.
But Owen, superintendent for the Fort Fisher State Recreation Area, just shook his head when asked how effective the cages are in keeping the local red foxes out of the nests.
"They pick up things real fast," Owen said. "It didn't take them long to figure this stuff out."
Officials up and down the coast are struggling with what to do about foxes that have developed a hankering for sea turtle eggs.
Adding to their concern is the precipitous decline in the nesting population of the northern loggerhead, the predominant sea turtle found in North Carolina waters.
Last year North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida all saw loggerhead nesting numbers more than 30 percent lower than those in 2006. Smaller declines also had been observed in previous years.
That's prompted several environmental groups to petition the federal government to declare the northern population of the loggerhead a separate species and give it "endangered" status under the Endangered Species Act.
But sea turtles aren't the only creatures feeling the fox's bite.
Last year, not a single shorebird nested successfully on Masonboro Island, where half the turtle nests were raided. "We're assuming most of that impact came from foxes," said Hope Sutton, southern sites manager for the N.C. Division of Coastal Management.
The drop in turtle and nesting shorebird numbers comes just as the coast's fox population is increasing, apparently fueled by its ability to feel perfectly at home among humans.
Because the red fox is a non-native species, brought to coastal North Carolina by British settlers centuries ago as a game animal, eradication of nuisance animals is supported by some officials and environmentalists as a reasonable solution.
But that support hasn't carried over into the general public - yet. A proposal by Caswell Beach to use lethal means, probably sharpshooters, to control its fox problem prompted a strong reaction from residents. Full Article
---------------------------------------------------------
Beach in New Hampshire stays open during milfoil treatment
By Terry Date, staff writer, Eagle-Tribune
WINDHAM — Residents can swim at the town beach next week while Cobbetts Pond undergoes milfoil treatment.
The town's recreation director announced at the selectmen's meeting Monday there would be no swimming in the entire 2-mile-long pond for seven days.
But yesterday, Recreation Director Cheryl Haas announced swimming would be allowed at the town beach, which is a good distance from the treatment area.
The confusion stemmed from incomplete information she received about a state law that restricts swimming for seven days in ponds and lakes that have been treated for milfoil with the herbicide Navigate.
Upon further research, the town learned the seven-day prohibition against swimming applies only to treatment areas. At Cobbetts, that is a 49-acre section at the north end of the pond and a 2.7-acre area in the middle of the pond — as well as 200-foot areas extended from those sections, said Amy Smagula, exotic species program coordinator for the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services.
Smagula said the town beach is well outside the treatment area and the state has no problem with the beach being open for swimming during treatment. Full Article
----------------------------------------------------------
Restoring nature’s oasis in Norwalk, Connecticut
By Marcia Powell, NorwalkPlus.com
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and Norwalk Seaport Association partner to restore natural biological habitat in the Norwalk islands
Due to heavy recreational use, habitat degradation by nonnative invasive plant species and unchecked animal populations, the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection has identified the Norwalk Islands and their habitats as one of the 13 most imperiled natural communities in Connecticut.
Now, thanks to a long-term partnership between the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the Norwalk Seaport Association, efforts to restore the natural habitat in the Norwalk Islands are underway. The Seaport Association, which owns and maintains Sheffield Island Lighthouse, is a recognized Friends organization of the National Wildlife Refuge System, in particular, the Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge in the Norwalk Islands.
The ongoing Habitat Restoration and Conservation Project will encompass the 51-acre refuge on Sheffield Island and the 68-acre refuge on Chimon Island. In October of 2007, a Fish & Wildlife Service team visited Sheffield Island to begin identifying and mapping the location of specific invasive plants and determine a strategy for habitat restoration and conservation.
Among the invasive species that have been targeted on Sheffield Island are mile-a-minute, perennial pepperweed, garlic mustard, Japanese barberry, Asiatic bittersweet and phragmites. Full Article
---------------------------------------------------------
Invasive Water Lettuce Harms Bay Grasses And May Impede Boating in Maryland
ANNAPOLIS, MD — The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) reminds water gardeners and aquarium owners to properly dispose of aquatic plants to prevent spread of invasive species like water lettuce that harm bay grasses and may impede boating. DNR biologists first identified invasive water lettuce (Pistia stratiotes) in Maryland last summer during a routine survey of Mattawoman Creek, a large Potomac River tributary in Charles County.
A native of South America, water lettuce is an aquatic weed that floats on the surface of slow-moving rivers, lakes and ponds. Unmistakable in appearance with light green leaves grouped in rosette like an open head of lettuce, the commonly used household aquatic plant floats on the surface of the water alone or in dense mats. Water lettuce produces seeds and spreads rapidly; growing into thick mats of vegetation that block sunlight from reaching underwater grasses and using dissolved oxygen in the water that fish need to survive. Once established, water lettuce becomes impenetrable to boats, swimmers and waterfowl. Full Article
By Gareth McGrath Staff Writer, StarNewsOnline.com
Fort Fisher, North Carolina - Kneeling next to a wire-mesh box turned upside down, Jeff Owen pushed back the sand to show the box's sides extending into the beach and the flaps protruding several feet.
Installed over the top of a buried sea turtle nest, the exclusion device looked like a pretty good deterrent.
But Owen, superintendent for the Fort Fisher State Recreation Area, just shook his head when asked how effective the cages are in keeping the local red foxes out of the nests.
"They pick up things real fast," Owen said. "It didn't take them long to figure this stuff out."
Officials up and down the coast are struggling with what to do about foxes that have developed a hankering for sea turtle eggs.
Adding to their concern is the precipitous decline in the nesting population of the northern loggerhead, the predominant sea turtle found in North Carolina waters.
Last year North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida all saw loggerhead nesting numbers more than 30 percent lower than those in 2006. Smaller declines also had been observed in previous years.
That's prompted several environmental groups to petition the federal government to declare the northern population of the loggerhead a separate species and give it "endangered" status under the Endangered Species Act.
But sea turtles aren't the only creatures feeling the fox's bite.
Last year, not a single shorebird nested successfully on Masonboro Island, where half the turtle nests were raided. "We're assuming most of that impact came from foxes," said Hope Sutton, southern sites manager for the N.C. Division of Coastal Management.
The drop in turtle and nesting shorebird numbers comes just as the coast's fox population is increasing, apparently fueled by its ability to feel perfectly at home among humans.
Because the red fox is a non-native species, brought to coastal North Carolina by British settlers centuries ago as a game animal, eradication of nuisance animals is supported by some officials and environmentalists as a reasonable solution.
But that support hasn't carried over into the general public - yet. A proposal by Caswell Beach to use lethal means, probably sharpshooters, to control its fox problem prompted a strong reaction from residents. Full Article
---------------------------------------------------------
Beach in New Hampshire stays open during milfoil treatment
By Terry Date, staff writer, Eagle-Tribune
WINDHAM — Residents can swim at the town beach next week while Cobbetts Pond undergoes milfoil treatment.
The town's recreation director announced at the selectmen's meeting Monday there would be no swimming in the entire 2-mile-long pond for seven days.
But yesterday, Recreation Director Cheryl Haas announced swimming would be allowed at the town beach, which is a good distance from the treatment area.
The confusion stemmed from incomplete information she received about a state law that restricts swimming for seven days in ponds and lakes that have been treated for milfoil with the herbicide Navigate.
Upon further research, the town learned the seven-day prohibition against swimming applies only to treatment areas. At Cobbetts, that is a 49-acre section at the north end of the pond and a 2.7-acre area in the middle of the pond — as well as 200-foot areas extended from those sections, said Amy Smagula, exotic species program coordinator for the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services.
Smagula said the town beach is well outside the treatment area and the state has no problem with the beach being open for swimming during treatment. Full Article
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Restoring nature’s oasis in Norwalk, Connecticut
By Marcia Powell, NorwalkPlus.com
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and Norwalk Seaport Association partner to restore natural biological habitat in the Norwalk islands
Due to heavy recreational use, habitat degradation by nonnative invasive plant species and unchecked animal populations, the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection has identified the Norwalk Islands and their habitats as one of the 13 most imperiled natural communities in Connecticut.
Now, thanks to a long-term partnership between the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the Norwalk Seaport Association, efforts to restore the natural habitat in the Norwalk Islands are underway. The Seaport Association, which owns and maintains Sheffield Island Lighthouse, is a recognized Friends organization of the National Wildlife Refuge System, in particular, the Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge in the Norwalk Islands.
The ongoing Habitat Restoration and Conservation Project will encompass the 51-acre refuge on Sheffield Island and the 68-acre refuge on Chimon Island. In October of 2007, a Fish & Wildlife Service team visited Sheffield Island to begin identifying and mapping the location of specific invasive plants and determine a strategy for habitat restoration and conservation.
Among the invasive species that have been targeted on Sheffield Island are mile-a-minute, perennial pepperweed, garlic mustard, Japanese barberry, Asiatic bittersweet and phragmites. Full Article
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Invasive Water Lettuce Harms Bay Grasses And May Impede Boating in Maryland
ANNAPOLIS, MD — The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) reminds water gardeners and aquarium owners to properly dispose of aquatic plants to prevent spread of invasive species like water lettuce that harm bay grasses and may impede boating. DNR biologists first identified invasive water lettuce (Pistia stratiotes) in Maryland last summer during a routine survey of Mattawoman Creek, a large Potomac River tributary in Charles County.
A native of South America, water lettuce is an aquatic weed that floats on the surface of slow-moving rivers, lakes and ponds. Unmistakable in appearance with light green leaves grouped in rosette like an open head of lettuce, the commonly used household aquatic plant floats on the surface of the water alone or in dense mats. Water lettuce produces seeds and spreads rapidly; growing into thick mats of vegetation that block sunlight from reaching underwater grasses and using dissolved oxygen in the water that fish need to survive. Once established, water lettuce becomes impenetrable to boats, swimmers and waterfowl. Full Article
Monday, April 14, 2008
Week of April 13, 2008
Updated April 18
Muskrat population declining significantly in Connecticut
JOHN BURGESON jburgeson@ctpost.com
The tall, feather-like reeds that have been crowding out native plants along the coastline are claiming another victim — the muskrat.
Wildlife biologists throughout the Northeast and eastern Canada say that they have observed significant declines in muskrat populations, and the culprit seems to be phragmites australis, also known as the common reed.
Paul Rego, a wildlife biologist with the state Department of Environment Protection, said that muskrats — an aquatic rodent that resembles a small beaver — have been in steep decline since the 1990s.
"The most widely accepted reason for this has been a change in wetland vegetation," Rego said. "The cattails — their principal source of food — have been replaced by phragmites and also by the purple loose-strife."
Rego said that muskrats have no use for either of these invasive plants. "Cattails are an important source of food for muskrats," he said, noting the muskrat population drop was discovered after analyzing the records of fur trappers. About 400trapping licenses are issued annually in Connecticut.
Muskrats also use cattails to make their nests.
According to the DEP, about 24,000 muskrat pelts were harvested in 1984. In recent years, the number is about 4,000 or less. This decline has corresponded closely with the spread of phragmites, which creates a plant "monoculture" once it invades a marsh, biologists say.
"Phragmites had definitely expanded its range in the last couple of decades," said Todd Mervosh, a weed scientist with the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station's Windsor office. "It's a very aggressive plant — it's tall — other plants can't get sunlight," Mervosh said. "And it spreads through rhizomes — they look like roots but actually they're underground branches that spread out 20 feet or more."
He said that phragmites can only be effectively controlled with herbicides, and that there are only a few companies in the Northeast with the training and equipment to do this work in the marshes where the weed grows.
Rego said that there are three other hypotheses being considered, none of which have gained much traction in the scientific community.
The first of these includes the so-called "succession" of marshland, in which it gradually changes from an "open marsh," with mostly grass-like plants, to a "closed marsh" with more trees.
Another has to do with an increase in predators, such as owls, hawks and mink. The third involves the gradual improvement of water quality in the last 40 years, which has, paradoxically, led to a reduction in marsh plant life because cleaner water doesn't have as many organic nutrients.
Rego said that the DEP has studied muskrats in the Quinnipiac River Marsh Wildlife Area — bounded by New Haven, Hamden and North Haven — most extensively. But, he said, it's likely that similar declines have taken place in the marsh at the mouth of the Housatonic River — the Charles E. Wheeler Wildlife Area — and other marshy sites between New Haven and Greenwich.
Rego said that phragmites involve two different plants that have a similar appearance. The invasive variety can be traced to a reed that originated in Europe.
"There is actually a domestic version of the plant which isn't nearly as bad," he said.
Mervosh said that the invasive phragmites are quite likely a hybrid of the native and European species. He doesn't see much letup in its advancement, either. "Unfortunately, it doesn't need a marsh — it can spread to upland areas, too." Full Article
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New computer model for gypsy moths
The gypsy moth is an invasive species that destroys over a million acres of forest land every year. A new computer model may help land managers formulate more effective plans of attack against these destructive pests.
The model indicates that the best strategies for managing the moths include eradicating medium-density infestations and reducing high-density infestations, rather than reducing spreading from the main infestation.
"Most managers currently use the same strategy in all situations, but our model suggests that by tailoring their approach to a particular situation, managers can be more effective in slowing the spread of invasive species," said Katriona Shea, a biologist at Pennsylvania State University who helped design the model.
The model will be detailed the April 2008 issue of the journal Ecological Applications.
-- LiveScience Staff Link
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New invasive aquatic plant position available in the Adirondack Park, New York
The Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program, one of NY's eight Partnerships for Regional Invasive Species Management, is thrilled to announce the availability of a new position - Adirondack Aquatic Invasive Species Coordinator (AISC). The AISC will join the Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program (APIPP) Director and Terrestrial Invasive Species Coordinator and assist the development and implementation of invasive species programs in the Adirondack region.
The AISC's primary role will be to build upon APIPP's early detection and monitoring programs for aquatic invasives and to coordinate partners working on aquatic invasive species issues (a full job description is attached).
APIPP is a partnership program, hosted by the Adirondack Chapter of The Nature Conservancy and recently funded by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, involving more than 30 cooperating organizations and hundreds of volunteers working to protect the Adirondack region from the harmful impacts of non-native invasive species.
This is an excellent opportunity for a motivated individual to work in a creative, team-oriented environment on an important and high profile conservation issue. Please send a letter of interest, resume, and names and contact information for three references by Monday, May 5 to Hilary Oles, PO Box 65, Keene Valley, NY 12943 or mailto:holes@tnc.org. A start date of early to mid June is desired.
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Biologist to seek elusive mollusks in Winsted's Highland Lake
BY JIM MOORE REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN
WINSTED, CONNECTICUT — Biologist Ethan Nedeau believes the elusive and nearly endangered Eastern pondmussel lurks in Highland Lake, and he soon will arrive to hunt it down. This state-listed "species of special concern" may complicate efforts to control invasive weeds that threaten water quality in the lake, which in turn supports home values where the greatest concentration of wealth (and tax dollars) are found here.
A suspicion that the mussel known to scientists as Ligumia nasuta might lurk in the depths delayed a state permit last year to continue four years of annual herbicide application. The Department of Environmental Protection finally agreed in July to allow the $14,950 application of Diquat, a herbicide used to kill invasive milfoil weeds, in exchange for the town's agreement to investigate the mussel population.
Nedeau is expected to arrive in May, don scuba gear and explore the lake bottom to document the population and distribution of Eastern pondmussels. His services are expected to cost up to $2,000, which will come from the town budget for lake water quality maintenance. Article
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Georgia opens invasive species center
By Brad Haire, University of Georgia
University of Georgia experts have opened a new center in Tifton, Ga., to limit the spread of invasive species and understand their impact on native plants. They hope to teach others how to do the same.
The UGA Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health will pool the resources and expertise found in the university’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, said Dave Moorhead, a UGA professor of silviculture and the center’s co-director.
“Our strengths will be creating educational materials, partnering with others on the university level and creating outreach programs,” he said.
The center will be located on the UGA Tifton campus, he said, but its focus will include invasive and ecosystem health threats found around the Southeast, the country and even the world. Center co-director Keith Douce, a CAES entomologist, is in Europe teaching and learning about invasive species that could potentially cause problems here.
“With global trade, now more than ever, the possibility of invasive species being introduced from any part of the world is high,” Moorhead said.
An invasive species is one that is introduced either by accident or on purpose to an area where it hasn’t been in the past. At first, the species may go unnoticed, he said. But if a population is allowed to grow, it can out compete and dominate native species and cause major health problems for the ecosystem. Invasive species cause $100 million in damage annually in the U.S.
Georgia has many unwanted guests like privet and kudzu, a notorious, rapidly spreading vine of Southern legend. But other unwanted guests are now starting to wear out their welcome, too.
Honeysuckle, Japanese climbing fern and the vine Oriental bittersweet are stalking their way through Georgia forests. And cogongrass, an aggressive grass that can choke out native flora, has caused major problems in Florida and Mississippi. It now has a foothold in Georgia.
The Midwest and western states have problems with invasive species, too. Getting land managers on the same page there to control invasive species is a bit easier because a lot of the land is publicly owned, Moorhead said.
It’s different in the eastern U.S., where much of the land is privately owned, he said. “It’s more difficult to get a widespread program and get the word out in this area that invasives are starting to pose problems.”
The center evolved from the Bugwood Network, a UGA Web-based system used to collect, promote and distribute educational materials in entomology, forestry and natural resources. Article
---------------------------------------------------------
Invasive Species Task Force seasonal crew needed, Town of Lincoln, MA
2 Seasonal, Full Time Positions
Skill Level: Internship / Volunteer
Project Goals and Background Information: This is a project funded by the Lincoln Community Preservation Committee project for purposes of protecting the ecological integrity of the landscape.
Job Description: Crew members will be involved in conservation restoration projects. Duties will include removal of invasive species from conservation land using hand and power tools, and replanting with native species where appropriate. The invasive species to be focused on include bittersweet, buckthorn, garlic mustard, honeysuckle, phragmites, and black swallow-wort. Crew members will also census hemlock trees to determine the extent of the hemlock woolly adelgid infestation. Duties include taking inventory of various measurements, estimating health, and mapping results. Crew members will assist in the propagation of Galerucella beetles for purple loosestrife control.
Qualifications: Possess New England flora identification skills, ability to recognize various invasive species, ability to use various hand and power tools, ability to perform physically demanding tasks, ability and willingness to work in all New England summer weather conditions and tolerate ticks, poison ivy, mosquitoes, chiggers, hornets, etc., ability to work both independently and in cooperation with others, and possess valid driver's license. GPS/GIS experience beneficial.
Job duration: 10 weeks beginning in May or early June
Salary: $12 - $14 per hour depending upon experience
Contact Information: Tom Gumbart 781-259-2612 (phone) gumbartt@lincolntown.org
----------------------------------------------------------
Asian longhorned beetle eradicated in Illinois
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Asian longhorned beetle, a tree-killing pest, has been eradicated in Illinois, U.S., state and local officials said on Thursday.
Illinois is the first state to declare success against the insect. The beetle was discovered in the Ravenswood neighborhood of Chicago in 1998. There have been no signs of the invasive pest in four years.
Between 1998 and 2006, approximately 1,771 trees were removed to destroy the invasive insect in Chicago. Chemical treatments also were used against the beetle.
USDA currently is working with its state and local government partners to eradicate ALB in parts of New York and in central New Jersey.
The Asian longhorned beetle is about 1.5 inches long and shiny black with antenna up to twice the length of their bodies, banded in black and white. It favors maple, birch, elm and poplar trees, among others, as its hosts. Article
---------------------------------------------------------
Rutgers Coop Extension hosts invasive plant talk on May 8
NEWTON, NJ — Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Sussex County will present its spring forest management series by hosting Dr. Mark Vodak, forestry specialist at Rutgers, State University of New Jersey, on Thursday, May 8 at 7 p.m. at the Rutgers Cooperative Extension Office, 129 Morris Turnpike in Newton.
Vodak will present “Are Invasive Plants a Problem in my Woodlot?” He will describe why invasive plants are of concern in woodlot management, what species are of most concern and what management strategies are recommended for their control.
Contact Rutgers Cooperative Extension at 973-948-3040 to pre-register. Admission is free.
----------------------------------------------------------
Muskrat population declining significantly in Connecticut
JOHN BURGESON jburgeson@ctpost.com
The tall, feather-like reeds that have been crowding out native plants along the coastline are claiming another victim — the muskrat.
Wildlife biologists throughout the Northeast and eastern Canada say that they have observed significant declines in muskrat populations, and the culprit seems to be phragmites australis, also known as the common reed.
Paul Rego, a wildlife biologist with the state Department of Environment Protection, said that muskrats — an aquatic rodent that resembles a small beaver — have been in steep decline since the 1990s.
"The most widely accepted reason for this has been a change in wetland vegetation," Rego said. "The cattails — their principal source of food — have been replaced by phragmites and also by the purple loose-strife."
Rego said that muskrats have no use for either of these invasive plants. "Cattails are an important source of food for muskrats," he said, noting the muskrat population drop was discovered after analyzing the records of fur trappers. About 400trapping licenses are issued annually in Connecticut.
Muskrats also use cattails to make their nests.
According to the DEP, about 24,000 muskrat pelts were harvested in 1984. In recent years, the number is about 4,000 or less. This decline has corresponded closely with the spread of phragmites, which creates a plant "monoculture" once it invades a marsh, biologists say.
"Phragmites had definitely expanded its range in the last couple of decades," said Todd Mervosh, a weed scientist with the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station's Windsor office. "It's a very aggressive plant — it's tall — other plants can't get sunlight," Mervosh said. "And it spreads through rhizomes — they look like roots but actually they're underground branches that spread out 20 feet or more."
He said that phragmites can only be effectively controlled with herbicides, and that there are only a few companies in the Northeast with the training and equipment to do this work in the marshes where the weed grows.
Rego said that there are three other hypotheses being considered, none of which have gained much traction in the scientific community.
The first of these includes the so-called "succession" of marshland, in which it gradually changes from an "open marsh," with mostly grass-like plants, to a "closed marsh" with more trees.
Another has to do with an increase in predators, such as owls, hawks and mink. The third involves the gradual improvement of water quality in the last 40 years, which has, paradoxically, led to a reduction in marsh plant life because cleaner water doesn't have as many organic nutrients.
Rego said that the DEP has studied muskrats in the Quinnipiac River Marsh Wildlife Area — bounded by New Haven, Hamden and North Haven — most extensively. But, he said, it's likely that similar declines have taken place in the marsh at the mouth of the Housatonic River — the Charles E. Wheeler Wildlife Area — and other marshy sites between New Haven and Greenwich.
Rego said that phragmites involve two different plants that have a similar appearance. The invasive variety can be traced to a reed that originated in Europe.
"There is actually a domestic version of the plant which isn't nearly as bad," he said.
Mervosh said that the invasive phragmites are quite likely a hybrid of the native and European species. He doesn't see much letup in its advancement, either. "Unfortunately, it doesn't need a marsh — it can spread to upland areas, too." Full Article
----------------------------------------------------------
New computer model for gypsy moths
The gypsy moth is an invasive species that destroys over a million acres of forest land every year. A new computer model may help land managers formulate more effective plans of attack against these destructive pests.
The model indicates that the best strategies for managing the moths include eradicating medium-density infestations and reducing high-density infestations, rather than reducing spreading from the main infestation.
"Most managers currently use the same strategy in all situations, but our model suggests that by tailoring their approach to a particular situation, managers can be more effective in slowing the spread of invasive species," said Katriona Shea, a biologist at Pennsylvania State University who helped design the model.
The model will be detailed the April 2008 issue of the journal Ecological Applications.
-- LiveScience Staff Link
--------------------------------------------------------
New invasive aquatic plant position available in the Adirondack Park, New York
The Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program, one of NY's eight Partnerships for Regional Invasive Species Management, is thrilled to announce the availability of a new position - Adirondack Aquatic Invasive Species Coordinator (AISC). The AISC will join the Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program (APIPP) Director and Terrestrial Invasive Species Coordinator and assist the development and implementation of invasive species programs in the Adirondack region.
The AISC's primary role will be to build upon APIPP's early detection and monitoring programs for aquatic invasives and to coordinate partners working on aquatic invasive species issues (a full job description is attached).
APIPP is a partnership program, hosted by the Adirondack Chapter of The Nature Conservancy and recently funded by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, involving more than 30 cooperating organizations and hundreds of volunteers working to protect the Adirondack region from the harmful impacts of non-native invasive species.
This is an excellent opportunity for a motivated individual to work in a creative, team-oriented environment on an important and high profile conservation issue. Please send a letter of interest, resume, and names and contact information for three references by Monday, May 5 to Hilary Oles, PO Box 65, Keene Valley, NY 12943 or mailto:holes@tnc.org. A start date of early to mid June is desired.
----------------------------------------------------------
Biologist to seek elusive mollusks in Winsted's Highland Lake
BY JIM MOORE REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN
WINSTED, CONNECTICUT — Biologist Ethan Nedeau believes the elusive and nearly endangered Eastern pondmussel lurks in Highland Lake, and he soon will arrive to hunt it down. This state-listed "species of special concern" may complicate efforts to control invasive weeds that threaten water quality in the lake, which in turn supports home values where the greatest concentration of wealth (and tax dollars) are found here.
A suspicion that the mussel known to scientists as Ligumia nasuta might lurk in the depths delayed a state permit last year to continue four years of annual herbicide application. The Department of Environmental Protection finally agreed in July to allow the $14,950 application of Diquat, a herbicide used to kill invasive milfoil weeds, in exchange for the town's agreement to investigate the mussel population.
Nedeau is expected to arrive in May, don scuba gear and explore the lake bottom to document the population and distribution of Eastern pondmussels. His services are expected to cost up to $2,000, which will come from the town budget for lake water quality maintenance. Article
----------------------------------------------------------
Georgia opens invasive species center
By Brad Haire, University of Georgia
University of Georgia experts have opened a new center in Tifton, Ga., to limit the spread of invasive species and understand their impact on native plants. They hope to teach others how to do the same.
The UGA Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health will pool the resources and expertise found in the university’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, said Dave Moorhead, a UGA professor of silviculture and the center’s co-director.
“Our strengths will be creating educational materials, partnering with others on the university level and creating outreach programs,” he said.
The center will be located on the UGA Tifton campus, he said, but its focus will include invasive and ecosystem health threats found around the Southeast, the country and even the world. Center co-director Keith Douce, a CAES entomologist, is in Europe teaching and learning about invasive species that could potentially cause problems here.
“With global trade, now more than ever, the possibility of invasive species being introduced from any part of the world is high,” Moorhead said.
An invasive species is one that is introduced either by accident or on purpose to an area where it hasn’t been in the past. At first, the species may go unnoticed, he said. But if a population is allowed to grow, it can out compete and dominate native species and cause major health problems for the ecosystem. Invasive species cause $100 million in damage annually in the U.S.
Georgia has many unwanted guests like privet and kudzu, a notorious, rapidly spreading vine of Southern legend. But other unwanted guests are now starting to wear out their welcome, too.
Honeysuckle, Japanese climbing fern and the vine Oriental bittersweet are stalking their way through Georgia forests. And cogongrass, an aggressive grass that can choke out native flora, has caused major problems in Florida and Mississippi. It now has a foothold in Georgia.
The Midwest and western states have problems with invasive species, too. Getting land managers on the same page there to control invasive species is a bit easier because a lot of the land is publicly owned, Moorhead said.
It’s different in the eastern U.S., where much of the land is privately owned, he said. “It’s more difficult to get a widespread program and get the word out in this area that invasives are starting to pose problems.”
The center evolved from the Bugwood Network, a UGA Web-based system used to collect, promote and distribute educational materials in entomology, forestry and natural resources. Article
---------------------------------------------------------
Invasive Species Task Force seasonal crew needed, Town of Lincoln, MA
2 Seasonal, Full Time Positions
Skill Level: Internship / Volunteer
Project Goals and Background Information: This is a project funded by the Lincoln Community Preservation Committee project for purposes of protecting the ecological integrity of the landscape.
Job Description: Crew members will be involved in conservation restoration projects. Duties will include removal of invasive species from conservation land using hand and power tools, and replanting with native species where appropriate. The invasive species to be focused on include bittersweet, buckthorn, garlic mustard, honeysuckle, phragmites, and black swallow-wort. Crew members will also census hemlock trees to determine the extent of the hemlock woolly adelgid infestation. Duties include taking inventory of various measurements, estimating health, and mapping results. Crew members will assist in the propagation of Galerucella beetles for purple loosestrife control.
Qualifications: Possess New England flora identification skills, ability to recognize various invasive species, ability to use various hand and power tools, ability to perform physically demanding tasks, ability and willingness to work in all New England summer weather conditions and tolerate ticks, poison ivy, mosquitoes, chiggers, hornets, etc., ability to work both independently and in cooperation with others, and possess valid driver's license. GPS/GIS experience beneficial.
Job duration: 10 weeks beginning in May or early June
Salary: $12 - $14 per hour depending upon experience
Contact Information: Tom Gumbart 781-259-2612 (phone) gumbartt@lincolntown.org
----------------------------------------------------------
Asian longhorned beetle eradicated in Illinois
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Asian longhorned beetle, a tree-killing pest, has been eradicated in Illinois, U.S., state and local officials said on Thursday.
Illinois is the first state to declare success against the insect. The beetle was discovered in the Ravenswood neighborhood of Chicago in 1998. There have been no signs of the invasive pest in four years.
Between 1998 and 2006, approximately 1,771 trees were removed to destroy the invasive insect in Chicago. Chemical treatments also were used against the beetle.
USDA currently is working with its state and local government partners to eradicate ALB in parts of New York and in central New Jersey.
The Asian longhorned beetle is about 1.5 inches long and shiny black with antenna up to twice the length of their bodies, banded in black and white. It favors maple, birch, elm and poplar trees, among others, as its hosts. Article
---------------------------------------------------------
Rutgers Coop Extension hosts invasive plant talk on May 8
NEWTON, NJ — Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Sussex County will present its spring forest management series by hosting Dr. Mark Vodak, forestry specialist at Rutgers, State University of New Jersey, on Thursday, May 8 at 7 p.m. at the Rutgers Cooperative Extension Office, 129 Morris Turnpike in Newton.
Vodak will present “Are Invasive Plants a Problem in my Woodlot?” He will describe why invasive plants are of concern in woodlot management, what species are of most concern and what management strategies are recommended for their control.
Contact Rutgers Cooperative Extension at 973-948-3040 to pre-register. Admission is free.
----------------------------------------------------------
Monday, March 10, 2008
Week of March 9, 2008
Updated March 14
Giant hogweed control technicians wanted in New York, April & May, 2008
Know of anyone interested in a job, starting 2-3 weeks from now, working to control the invasive giant hogweed plant in New York State during April & May?
DEC Forest Health and Protection is looking to hire 8 people to manually control giant hogweed plants (an invasive plant that can pose a serious health threat to humans) throughout the state on private and public lands. This control method involves cutting through the root 5" below the soil which kills the plant completely. Root cutting is recommended for sites with less than 200 plants as a very effective, though labor intensive, control method. These positions are for the months of April and May, as the root cutting needs to be done in the spring before the plants grow too large to work near.
The contact person for further information is Naja Kraus:
nekraus@gw.dec.state.ny.us
The application deadline for submittal of resumes is ASAP, March 25 or when positions are filled.
---------------------------------------------------------
Program removes half of invasive fish species from Satilla River, Georgia
WAYCROSS, Ga. -- Georgia Department of Natural Resources say they have removed nearly half of the flathead catfish population from the Satilla River as part of a program to help eradicate the invasive species.
A two-man crew and groups of volunteers spent most days from April to October of last year using electroshock fishing gear to catch the fish, dragging in about 4,500 flatheads. The flatheads have decimated native fish like the redbreast and bullhead since being introduced into the Satilla in the early 1990s. Full Article
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9th Annual Maine Milfoil Summit Focuses On Prevention
Susan Kimball, reporter
LEWISTON (NEWS CENTER) -- There was a big crowd at USM's Lewiston campus conference room Friday morning. The topic? Invasive Aquatic Plants, and how to stop them for getting more of a foothold in Maine.
There are thousands of lakes, ponds and streams in Maine. Twenty-eight of them are infested with invasive plants like milfoil. Once those plants take hold they can literally choke a lake. Many of the people at the Milfoil Summit were volunteers with various lake associations. Peter Lowell of the Lakes Environmental Association says the infestations that Maine now has are serious--and a reminder that the crucial work being done must continue. Full Article
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Maine groups seek funds to fight invasive plants
By M. Dirk Langeveld, SunJournal.com
LEWISTON - Six Maine organizations will seek approximately $4 million in funds over the next three years to fight invasive aquatic plants.Representatives from the Lakes Environmental Association, Little Sebago Lake Association, St. Joseph's College, the Maine Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program, Friends of the Cobbossee Watershed, and the Maine Congress of Lake Associations were present Friday at the Ninth Annual Maine Milfoil Summit.
According to Amy Smagula of the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, New England has seven native species of milfoil and two non-native invasive species: variable-leaf milfoil and Eurasian watermilfoil. According to the associations, 28 Maine lakes are infested with milfoil, which can lower water quality, form mats that inhibit recreation, and decrease property values. Smagula said New Hampshire has 62 affected lakes.
Scott Lowell, of the Little Sebago Lake Association, said the groups are seeking $2.8 million from federal appropriations, $800,000 from competitive federal grants, $150,000 from a state match, and $250,000 in private funds. Full Article
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Seasonal invasive plant intern wanted
The Peconic Estuary Program (Long Island, New York) seeks a seasonal intern, May to September, to assist program staff and partners in implementing their Ludwigia peploides (water primrose) early detection, rapid response monitoring and eradication project.
Specific Intern Tasks will include:
- Kayaking the Peconic River weekly in search of Ludwigia infestations
- Taking GPS coordinates of infestations
- Producing GIS maps to track infestations and document eradication event successes
- Manually removing small Ludwigia infestations
- Assisting in coordinating/organizing volunteer eradication events
- Attending and participating at volunteer eradication events
- Developing educational materials
How to apply:
Please prepare and submit a resume and cover letter. The cover letter should clearly state your interest in seeking a temporary position assisting with aquatic invasive species eradication. Cover letters and resumes should be clearly marked with "Summer 2008" in the upper right hand corner and sent to: Suffolk County Department of Health Services - Office of Ecology, 360 Yaphank Ave., Suite 2B, Yaphank, NY 11980, Attn: Theresa Goergen
For more information contact: Theresa Goergen at 631-852-5750 or Laura Stephenson at 631-444-087
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20,000 fish arrive to combat invasive weed in South Florida
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- More than 20,000 Asian grass carp were delivered at the North New River Canal in Fort Lauderdale Thursday.
The South Florida Water Management District is using the grass carp to combat hydrilla, an invasive weed that is clogging canals throughout South Florida. The grass carp chew their way through the hydrilla and experts say it is a successful bio-control program that helps reduce the need for more expensive treatments to keep waterways clear. Full Article
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Species discovered to help address hemlock pest epidemic
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Forestry researchers at Oregon State University have discovered two likely candidates for biological control of a tiny, invasive insect that is devastating hemlock forests up and down the East Coast, disrupting ecosystems and in some places threatening the very survival of Eastern Hemlock as a tree species.
The findings may provide an important new way to address the growing epidemic of the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid – an insect about the size of a small ant that sucks the juices from tree needles, ultimately killing the tree. More research is needed on safety and efficacy. The findings are being published in Environmental Entomology, a professional journal.
Various other predators have been used in attempted biological control of this pest, so far with no proven success. The Adelgid, first found in eastern United States forests in the 1950s, is affecting trees in a vast area from Georgia to Maine, and is spreading west. It can cause 90 percent tree mortality in heavily infested areas, with major economic and ecological repercussions.
In eastern forests, hemlock is one of the few dominant conifer species in what are mostly deciduous forests. It can provide cover for grouse, turkey and deer, and is a food source, nesting site or shelter for almost 90 species of birds. Some bird species depend on hemlock forest habitats, and the trees’ shade helps cool streams, enhances fisheries, and provides a winter wind break.
The newest candidates for control are two species of Chamaemyiidae flies, which are similar to related species that have successfully been used for biological control of pests in Hawaii and Chile. It appears these flies prey only on Adelgids and have a life history that is closely synchronized with the pest.
“The potential of this species for biological control looks very promising at this point,” said Darrell Ross, a professor of forest science at OSU. “With biocontrol it’s always hard to predict what will work and what won’t, but flies very similar to these have worked well elsewhere.”
The insects previously used in attempted control of the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid have been beetles, Ross said. Some beetles imported from China and Japan have not worked well, and a beetle from British Columbia is now in early testing stages.
Continued study of the host specificity and preferences of the Chamaemyiidae flies will be necessary before they could be released as a biological control agent, Ross said. Full Article
----------------------------------------------------------
Road salt, sand is hurting roadside wildlife in Maine
Seacoastonline.com - With this years' big winter bringing lots of snow and ice to the area, many biologists are becoming increasingly concerned about the impact of road salt on local wildlife. What happens when the salty residue washes into local waterways and soil systems with our spring rains?
Recently, Maine has begun to put more salt on the roads and less sand. Both are bad for the environment, so the question is which is worse? Sand, when washed from roads into adjoining waterways, literally muddies the water. Increased turbidity (cloudiness of water) impacts aquatic communities by blocking light needed by fish and aquatic invertebrates and for photosynthesis by aquatic plants. Fish and invertebrate eggs and vegetation can be covered and killed by sediment deposits. However, these problems pale in comparison with salt contamination. Currently 100,000-120,000 tons of salt are applied to roads in Maine over the course of a normal winter.
Why is salt such a problem? It is a naturally occurring compound. Most of us know that most plants don't like to grow in salty soil, and that a freshwater fish like a perch can't live in the ocean, but why? When soil or a pond or stream get too salty an osmotic (salt concentration) imbalance is created between plants and animals and their surroundings. Plants and animals are adapted to particular conditions, for example, salt marsh plants have evolved to withstand the high salt concentrations of a salt marsh, most have some kind of mechanism that allows them to excrete excess salt. Salt water animals excrete excess salt, through their gills (if they're fish), in their tears (many seabirds and sea turtles) and urine.
The forests, woods, fields and streams along most roads in Maine are home to plants and animals that lack these adaptations to salty conditions. Plants start to lose water instead of taking it up if their surroundings become too salty. Freshwater plants can be displaced by invasive salt-tolerant plants — just look at the increase in the highly invasive common reed (Phragmites) along roadways. Fish eggs don't hatch. Soil bacteria, vitally important to soil ecosystems, start to die at relatively low salt concentrations. This can have long-reaching effects including loss of normal soil structure and increased erosion.
Salt is normally in short supply in nature. A number of studies have shown that both mammals and birds are drawn to the salty snowmelt along roads. In Quebec, ingestion of road salt has been shown to be a major cause of moose-vehicle accidents. Salt is also lethal when over-consumed, both birds and small mammals are particularly vulnerable; a few particles of sodium chloride are enough to cause behavioral changes and death in small birds. Full Article
Sue Pike of York has worked as a researcher and a teacher in biology, marine biology and environmental science for years. She teaches at York County Community College and St. Thomas Aquinas High School.
----------------------------------------------------------
New York State Museum's plan to control zebra mussels going to market
(Media-Newswire.com) - ALBANY, NY --- Marrone Organic Innovations, Inc. ( MOI ) of Davis, CA has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to commercialize technology invented and patented by a New York State Museum scientist that uses a natural bacterium to control invasive mussels that have fouled water supplies across the United States. The NSF has awarded Marrone a two-year $500,000 Small Business Technology Transfer grant for the “Commercialization of an Innovative Green Technology for Controlling Zebra Mussels.” Last year, the State Museum selected MOI as a commercial partner for this microbial biopesticide technology that was invented and patented by Dr. Daniel Molloy, director of the Museum’s Field Research Laboratory in Cambridge, N.Y.
The fouling caused by zebra mussels and their close relatives, quagga mussels, represents billions of dollars in economic damage and has a major negative impact on freshwater ecosystems. To find an environmentally safe control method, Molloy’s lab screened over 700 bacteria before identifying a strain of the common bacterium, Pseudomonas fluorescens, as being lethal to these mussels when ingested. Full Article
-----------------------------------------------------------
Getting to know green invaders in North Carolina
Invasive species are plants, animals or other organisms that are introduced to a given area outside their original range and cause harm in their new home. Invasive species are recognized as one of the leading threats to biodiversity and impose enormous costs to agriculture, forestry, fisheries and other human enterprises, as well as to human health.
At North Carolina Cooperative Extension, we strive to educate the public of the effects of such species and how they can harm our natural environment. Henderson County has an ever-growing list of invasive, non-native plant species that continue to go unchecked or monitored. Often called non-native, exotic, non-indigenous, alien, or noxious weeds, these plants occur as trees, shrubs, vines, grasses, ferns and forbs.
According to Cornell University, non-native plant species are brought into North America for a number of reasons. For example, 98 percent of the United States food supply, including wheat, rice, domestic cattle and poultry, comes from introduced plants and animals. However, one of the biggest ecological problems in North America is the introduction of non-native species that later become weeds or pests. About 10 percent of the non-native species introduced to North America are able to survive and become established. Of these, roughly one in every 10 species that becomes established in a new region becomes a serious pest. These non-native plant species invade gardens, agricultural fields and natural areas such as wetlands, forests, and grasslands.
Alan Mizeras, a master gardener volunteer, is planning an educational lecture for the public. He will discuss some of the invasive plant species we encounter locally and share his list of the 10 most common problem plant species in Henderson County as well as strategies for their control. This program will aid the general public in becoming familiar with invasive plants to help protect our environment from the economic and ecological impacts of these biological pollutants. The program will be held on Monday, March 17 at the Bullington Center. Space is limited. Pre-registration is required, so call 697-4891 to reserve your spot. There will be a $5 cost for each program attendee.
Diane Turner is an agricultural extension agent with the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service in Henderson County. Full Article
-----------------------------------------------------------
Giant hogweed control technicians wanted in New York, April & May, 2008
Know of anyone interested in a job, starting 2-3 weeks from now, working to control the invasive giant hogweed plant in New York State during April & May?
DEC Forest Health and Protection is looking to hire 8 people to manually control giant hogweed plants (an invasive plant that can pose a serious health threat to humans) throughout the state on private and public lands. This control method involves cutting through the root 5" below the soil which kills the plant completely. Root cutting is recommended for sites with less than 200 plants as a very effective, though labor intensive, control method. These positions are for the months of April and May, as the root cutting needs to be done in the spring before the plants grow too large to work near.
The contact person for further information is Naja Kraus:
nekraus@gw.dec.state.ny.us
The application deadline for submittal of resumes is ASAP, March 25 or when positions are filled.
---------------------------------------------------------
Program removes half of invasive fish species from Satilla River, Georgia
WAYCROSS, Ga. -- Georgia Department of Natural Resources say they have removed nearly half of the flathead catfish population from the Satilla River as part of a program to help eradicate the invasive species.
A two-man crew and groups of volunteers spent most days from April to October of last year using electroshock fishing gear to catch the fish, dragging in about 4,500 flatheads. The flatheads have decimated native fish like the redbreast and bullhead since being introduced into the Satilla in the early 1990s. Full Article
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9th Annual Maine Milfoil Summit Focuses On Prevention
Susan Kimball, reporter
LEWISTON (NEWS CENTER) -- There was a big crowd at USM's Lewiston campus conference room Friday morning. The topic? Invasive Aquatic Plants, and how to stop them for getting more of a foothold in Maine.
There are thousands of lakes, ponds and streams in Maine. Twenty-eight of them are infested with invasive plants like milfoil. Once those plants take hold they can literally choke a lake. Many of the people at the Milfoil Summit were volunteers with various lake associations. Peter Lowell of the Lakes Environmental Association says the infestations that Maine now has are serious--and a reminder that the crucial work being done must continue. Full Article
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Maine groups seek funds to fight invasive plants
By M. Dirk Langeveld, SunJournal.com
LEWISTON - Six Maine organizations will seek approximately $4 million in funds over the next three years to fight invasive aquatic plants.Representatives from the Lakes Environmental Association, Little Sebago Lake Association, St. Joseph's College, the Maine Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program, Friends of the Cobbossee Watershed, and the Maine Congress of Lake Associations were present Friday at the Ninth Annual Maine Milfoil Summit.
According to Amy Smagula of the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, New England has seven native species of milfoil and two non-native invasive species: variable-leaf milfoil and Eurasian watermilfoil. According to the associations, 28 Maine lakes are infested with milfoil, which can lower water quality, form mats that inhibit recreation, and decrease property values. Smagula said New Hampshire has 62 affected lakes.
Scott Lowell, of the Little Sebago Lake Association, said the groups are seeking $2.8 million from federal appropriations, $800,000 from competitive federal grants, $150,000 from a state match, and $250,000 in private funds. Full Article
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Seasonal invasive plant intern wanted
The Peconic Estuary Program (Long Island, New York) seeks a seasonal intern, May to September, to assist program staff and partners in implementing their Ludwigia peploides (water primrose) early detection, rapid response monitoring and eradication project.
Specific Intern Tasks will include:
- Kayaking the Peconic River weekly in search of Ludwigia infestations
- Taking GPS coordinates of infestations
- Producing GIS maps to track infestations and document eradication event successes
- Manually removing small Ludwigia infestations
- Assisting in coordinating/organizing volunteer eradication events
- Attending and participating at volunteer eradication events
- Developing educational materials
How to apply:
Please prepare and submit a resume and cover letter. The cover letter should clearly state your interest in seeking a temporary position assisting with aquatic invasive species eradication. Cover letters and resumes should be clearly marked with "Summer 2008" in the upper right hand corner and sent to: Suffolk County Department of Health Services - Office of Ecology, 360 Yaphank Ave., Suite 2B, Yaphank, NY 11980, Attn: Theresa Goergen
For more information contact: Theresa Goergen at 631-852-5750 or Laura Stephenson at 631-444-087
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20,000 fish arrive to combat invasive weed in South Florida
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- More than 20,000 Asian grass carp were delivered at the North New River Canal in Fort Lauderdale Thursday.
The South Florida Water Management District is using the grass carp to combat hydrilla, an invasive weed that is clogging canals throughout South Florida. The grass carp chew their way through the hydrilla and experts say it is a successful bio-control program that helps reduce the need for more expensive treatments to keep waterways clear. Full Article
----------------------------------------------------------
Species discovered to help address hemlock pest epidemic
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Forestry researchers at Oregon State University have discovered two likely candidates for biological control of a tiny, invasive insect that is devastating hemlock forests up and down the East Coast, disrupting ecosystems and in some places threatening the very survival of Eastern Hemlock as a tree species.
The findings may provide an important new way to address the growing epidemic of the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid – an insect about the size of a small ant that sucks the juices from tree needles, ultimately killing the tree. More research is needed on safety and efficacy. The findings are being published in Environmental Entomology, a professional journal.
Various other predators have been used in attempted biological control of this pest, so far with no proven success. The Adelgid, first found in eastern United States forests in the 1950s, is affecting trees in a vast area from Georgia to Maine, and is spreading west. It can cause 90 percent tree mortality in heavily infested areas, with major economic and ecological repercussions.
In eastern forests, hemlock is one of the few dominant conifer species in what are mostly deciduous forests. It can provide cover for grouse, turkey and deer, and is a food source, nesting site or shelter for almost 90 species of birds. Some bird species depend on hemlock forest habitats, and the trees’ shade helps cool streams, enhances fisheries, and provides a winter wind break.
The newest candidates for control are two species of Chamaemyiidae flies, which are similar to related species that have successfully been used for biological control of pests in Hawaii and Chile. It appears these flies prey only on Adelgids and have a life history that is closely synchronized with the pest.
“The potential of this species for biological control looks very promising at this point,” said Darrell Ross, a professor of forest science at OSU. “With biocontrol it’s always hard to predict what will work and what won’t, but flies very similar to these have worked well elsewhere.”
The insects previously used in attempted control of the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid have been beetles, Ross said. Some beetles imported from China and Japan have not worked well, and a beetle from British Columbia is now in early testing stages.
Continued study of the host specificity and preferences of the Chamaemyiidae flies will be necessary before they could be released as a biological control agent, Ross said. Full Article
----------------------------------------------------------
Road salt, sand is hurting roadside wildlife in Maine
Seacoastonline.com - With this years' big winter bringing lots of snow and ice to the area, many biologists are becoming increasingly concerned about the impact of road salt on local wildlife. What happens when the salty residue washes into local waterways and soil systems with our spring rains?
Recently, Maine has begun to put more salt on the roads and less sand. Both are bad for the environment, so the question is which is worse? Sand, when washed from roads into adjoining waterways, literally muddies the water. Increased turbidity (cloudiness of water) impacts aquatic communities by blocking light needed by fish and aquatic invertebrates and for photosynthesis by aquatic plants. Fish and invertebrate eggs and vegetation can be covered and killed by sediment deposits. However, these problems pale in comparison with salt contamination. Currently 100,000-120,000 tons of salt are applied to roads in Maine over the course of a normal winter.
Why is salt such a problem? It is a naturally occurring compound. Most of us know that most plants don't like to grow in salty soil, and that a freshwater fish like a perch can't live in the ocean, but why? When soil or a pond or stream get too salty an osmotic (salt concentration) imbalance is created between plants and animals and their surroundings. Plants and animals are adapted to particular conditions, for example, salt marsh plants have evolved to withstand the high salt concentrations of a salt marsh, most have some kind of mechanism that allows them to excrete excess salt. Salt water animals excrete excess salt, through their gills (if they're fish), in their tears (many seabirds and sea turtles) and urine.
The forests, woods, fields and streams along most roads in Maine are home to plants and animals that lack these adaptations to salty conditions. Plants start to lose water instead of taking it up if their surroundings become too salty. Freshwater plants can be displaced by invasive salt-tolerant plants — just look at the increase in the highly invasive common reed (Phragmites) along roadways. Fish eggs don't hatch. Soil bacteria, vitally important to soil ecosystems, start to die at relatively low salt concentrations. This can have long-reaching effects including loss of normal soil structure and increased erosion.
Salt is normally in short supply in nature. A number of studies have shown that both mammals and birds are drawn to the salty snowmelt along roads. In Quebec, ingestion of road salt has been shown to be a major cause of moose-vehicle accidents. Salt is also lethal when over-consumed, both birds and small mammals are particularly vulnerable; a few particles of sodium chloride are enough to cause behavioral changes and death in small birds. Full Article
Sue Pike of York has worked as a researcher and a teacher in biology, marine biology and environmental science for years. She teaches at York County Community College and St. Thomas Aquinas High School.
----------------------------------------------------------
New York State Museum's plan to control zebra mussels going to market
(Media-Newswire.com) - ALBANY, NY --- Marrone Organic Innovations, Inc. ( MOI ) of Davis, CA has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to commercialize technology invented and patented by a New York State Museum scientist that uses a natural bacterium to control invasive mussels that have fouled water supplies across the United States. The NSF has awarded Marrone a two-year $500,000 Small Business Technology Transfer grant for the “Commercialization of an Innovative Green Technology for Controlling Zebra Mussels.” Last year, the State Museum selected MOI as a commercial partner for this microbial biopesticide technology that was invented and patented by Dr. Daniel Molloy, director of the Museum’s Field Research Laboratory in Cambridge, N.Y.
The fouling caused by zebra mussels and their close relatives, quagga mussels, represents billions of dollars in economic damage and has a major negative impact on freshwater ecosystems. To find an environmentally safe control method, Molloy’s lab screened over 700 bacteria before identifying a strain of the common bacterium, Pseudomonas fluorescens, as being lethal to these mussels when ingested. Full Article
-----------------------------------------------------------
Getting to know green invaders in North Carolina
Invasive species are plants, animals or other organisms that are introduced to a given area outside their original range and cause harm in their new home. Invasive species are recognized as one of the leading threats to biodiversity and impose enormous costs to agriculture, forestry, fisheries and other human enterprises, as well as to human health.
At North Carolina Cooperative Extension, we strive to educate the public of the effects of such species and how they can harm our natural environment. Henderson County has an ever-growing list of invasive, non-native plant species that continue to go unchecked or monitored. Often called non-native, exotic, non-indigenous, alien, or noxious weeds, these plants occur as trees, shrubs, vines, grasses, ferns and forbs.
According to Cornell University, non-native plant species are brought into North America for a number of reasons. For example, 98 percent of the United States food supply, including wheat, rice, domestic cattle and poultry, comes from introduced plants and animals. However, one of the biggest ecological problems in North America is the introduction of non-native species that later become weeds or pests. About 10 percent of the non-native species introduced to North America are able to survive and become established. Of these, roughly one in every 10 species that becomes established in a new region becomes a serious pest. These non-native plant species invade gardens, agricultural fields and natural areas such as wetlands, forests, and grasslands.
Alan Mizeras, a master gardener volunteer, is planning an educational lecture for the public. He will discuss some of the invasive plant species we encounter locally and share his list of the 10 most common problem plant species in Henderson County as well as strategies for their control. This program will aid the general public in becoming familiar with invasive plants to help protect our environment from the economic and ecological impacts of these biological pollutants. The program will be held on Monday, March 17 at the Bullington Center. Space is limited. Pre-registration is required, so call 697-4891 to reserve your spot. There will be a $5 cost for each program attendee.
Diane Turner is an agricultural extension agent with the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service in Henderson County. Full Article
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