Weeks of February 15 and February 22, 2009

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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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Week of December 16

Updated December 21

Nassau County, New York, legislature bans the sale and dumping of invasive plants

Legislation was approved on Monday that prohibits the sale and dumping of invasive non-native plant species in Nassau County, New York. The County recently spent more than $1 million cleaning non-native plant species out of Mill Pond on the Wantagh-Merrick border.

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Red Palm Mite Infestation Identified in Florida

TALLAHASSEE -- Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charles H. Bronson announced today the detection of the red palm mite (Raoiella indica) on a coconut palm at a medical facility in Palm Beach Gardens in Palm Beach County. This is the first confirmed report of this serious plant pest in the United States. Red palm mite is a pest of coconut, areca palm, and date palms in the Middle East and is probably widespread in tropical and subtropical regions throughout the Eastern Hemisphere. The red palm mite was first identified in the Western Hemisphere in 2004 on the eastern Caribbean island of Martinique. By 2006, the mite was reported as established in the Dominican Republic, Guadeloupe, Puerto Rico, Saint Martin and Trinidad-Tobago, St. Lucia and Dominica. In 2007 the US Virgin Islands, Granada, Haiti, Jamaica and Venezuela have been added to the list of islands and countries infested with the red palm mite. In all instances, this mite has established itself on various palms, with significant outbreaks on coconut palms. Press Release

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Not quite eastern USA, but interesting nonetheless: Wisconsin DNR's Draft Invasive Species Identification, Classification and Control Rule

According to Wisconsin DNR, the proposed rules will establish a fairly consistent classification and regulatory system for all listed invasive species. The rules will set specific restrictions on actions such as sales, transporting and planting or releasing certain species to the wild. It will allow DNR to work with local units of government and landowners to quickly contain new infestations of species likely to become problematic. Full Article

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NPMA: European Paper Wasps and Formosan Termites Prove to Be the Year's Most Influential Pests

FAIRFAX, VA.--(BUSINESS WIRE) -- According to the National Pest Management Association, invasive pests became a hot topic in 2007 as stink bugs, carpet beetles, and other insects traversed the United States in record numbers. This year, however, the European paper wasp and Formosan termites emerged as the pests that generated the greatest attention from homeowners and entomologists. These invasive pests were often highlighted because of their national prominence and the potential harm each can cause to public health and property. Full Article

Originally from East Asia, the Formosan termite (Coptotermes formosanus) infests over a dozen southern states, costing an estimated $1 billion a year in property damages, repairs, and control measures. Before 1981, the dominulus or European paper wasp (Polistes dominulus) was not recorded in North America. In its native region, P. dominulus is the most abundant paper wasp in those countries around the Mediterranean. It is also found in southern Europe, northern Africa, the Middle East, and eastward into China. It appears that this new introduction has had an adverse impact on the native species of Polistes. Some entomologists worry that the large numbers of P. dominulus will adversely affect species of desirable insects (i.e., butterflies). Fact Sheet

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Halting the Invasion in the Chesapeake Bay

The Environmental Law Institute announced the publication of "Halting the Invasion in the Chesapeake Bay: Preventing Aquatic Invasive Species Introduction through Regional Cooperation," a report by attorney Read D. Porter that examines coordination on aquatic invasive species (AIS) prevention among the Chesapeake Bay states. The report focuses on prevention-related legal authorities in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania in particular, and recommends actions to improve regional cooperation both within the existing regulatory frameworks and through potential amendments to state laws and regulations to enhance prevention. The report is available free of charge from ELI's website. Website

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Upper Delaware Scenic Byway awarded national grant, partly to raise Japanese knotweed awareness

Narrowsburg - The Federal Highway Administration has awarded the Upper Delaware Scenic Byway, Inc. a $12,400 grant to undertake an Invasive Plant Species Educational Campaign and Interpretive Signage Project. The project will raise awareness of the detrimental effects of Japanese Knotweed on the Upper Delaware Scenic Byway corridor and offer eradication strategies. The grant will cover the Upper Delaware Scenic Byway, Inc.’s development and distribution of 20,000 copies of a Japanese Knotweed brochure in cooperation with the Delaware River Foundation, Inc. and the National Park Service’s Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River Resource Management Division. Full Article

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Some landscaping species to think twice about planting in Delaware

The University of Delaware Cooperative Extension discusses several landscape tree and shrub species that are often used for screens, windbreaks, or border plantings in Delaware. Each has problems and should be avoided in some or all landscapes. Species to avoid include privet (Ligustrum spp.), autumn olive (Elaeagnus spp.), spreading bamboos (Phyllostachys spp. and others), burning bush (Euonymus alatus), and Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii). Full Article

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Paid Internships: Invasive species removal in Virginia

The Fairfax County Park Authority, Virginia, is seeking five highly motivated college students to be part of the stewardship team (more positions may be available) to help rescue our 24,000+ acres of parkland from a host of different invasive, non-native plants such as English ivy and kudzu. The paid internship will last ten (10) weeks, this summer from May through August. Full Article

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Migratory Bird Die-off in Great Lakes Region Prompts New York DEC Investigation

More than 100 dead loons and other migratory birds washed up on Great Lakes shores in mid-November, prompting the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to suspect another botulism-poisoning episode linked to the spread of invasive species.
DEC is investigating the die-off and, although results are not complete, preliminary evidence closely matches die-offs related to type E botulism that have occurred during fall migration every year since 2000 on Lake Erie, and since 2002 on Lake Ontario, according to state Wildlife Pathologist Ward Stone. The die-offs are tied to two invasive species consumed by birds during migration stopovers: quagga mussels and a fish called round goby. Loons especially feed on round goby. Full Article

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Research Project: Effects of Elevated Atmospheric CO2 on Invasive Weed Species

Summary: "A neglected aspect of global environmental change is how invasive plants might react to the rise in atmospheric CO2 level. Invasive plants can disrupt farm and forest systems and this threat is great for the southeastern U.S., with its numerous ports of entry and mild climate. We studied the response of several invasive plants by growing them under two levels of atmospheric CO2 (ambient or elevated). While most plants grew larger under high CO2, grasses showed a smaller growth response to CO2. We also found a delay or reduction in flowering under high CO2. Our findings suggest that although these invasive plants may grow bigger in a high CO2 world, their ability to spread might be reduced." Full Article

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Pretty, but pushy

By Karen Nugent TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF - Peter C. Alden watched as the well-dressed older woman bought a wreath decorated with Oriental bittersweet, a nonnative vine that he says is rapidly killing off forests, fields and wetlands — and probably trees and shrubs in the woman’s own backyard. Mr. Alden, a naturalist author, illustrator and lecturer, followed the woman to her car, and explained the environmental dangers of the aggressive vine with the bright orange-red berries. “She listened, she nodded. And then she said, ‘But it looks pretty’ and got into her car and left,” he said. Mr. Alden, who lives in Concord, Massachusetts, was not surprised. Despite warnings from horticultural societies, conservationists and state agencies — including a state ban with fines for violators — Oriental bittersweet, along with multiflora rose, a thorny shrub that produces bright red fruits called “hips” — are wildly popular in holiday wreaths, garlands and fall dried flower arrangements. Full Story

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New York State Parks’ natural resources are threatened by pollution, invasive species, soil erosion and global warming

The New York State Council of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation today released its 2007 Annual Report to Governor Eliot Spitzer highlighting achievements over the past year and setting forth recommendations for improving the (1) infrastructure and management and (2) stewardship of New York’s 213 State Parks and Historic Sites. The report details the growing backlog of urgent capital needs at state parks and historic sites and identifies priorities of the State Council for 2008. Capital needs include remediation of existing facilities (65% of capital need), health and safety (15% of capital need), new facilities development (15% of capital need), and natural resources (5% of capital need) including invasive species management to restore habitats and ecosystems. Full Article

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