Updated 4/8/11. Recent additions are at the bottom of each week's post.
Register Your Invasive Plant Volunteer Group! (Mid-Atlantic Region)
Do you have a volunteer-based invasive plant management program in the mid-Atlantic region? If so, please register it!
If you oversee a group of volunteers who conduct invasive plant removals in DC, DE, MD, NJ, PA, VA, or WV, please take a minute to add your group to the Invasive Plant Volunteers Directory.
To register, click here to complete a short survey:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/InvasivePlantVolunteers
Why bother? Because understanding the number and distribution of volunteer groups in our area will help to:
Recognize the significance of volunteer efforts in restoring invaded lands,
Identify areas in need of volunteer assistance,
Help connect interested volunteers with a suitable group,
Build a stronger network of invasive plant workers in the region,
Build support for potential funding of volunteer-based programs.
The directory will eventually be posted to the Mid-Atlantic Invasive Plant Council (MAIPC) website at www.maipc.org.
Special thanks to Karan Rawlins, University of Georgia Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health, for putting our survey into SurveyMonkey!
Thank you,
Jil
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JIL SWEARINGEN
IPM & Invasive Species Specialist
NCR Center for Urban Ecology
Washington, DC 20007
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Caterpillar infestation seen in midcoast Maine
The Associated Press
Posted April 06
AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine Conservation Department officials say an infestation of a noxious invasive caterpillar in the Brunswick area is worse this year than last.
Entomologists say web surveys during the winter show extremely high levels of brown-tail moth caterpillar webs in the tops of oak trees. Surveys were done in January and February in the southern Maine coastal area, from Belfast to south of Portland.
Entomologist Charlene Donahue says the number of webs in Brunswick, Bath, West Bath, Topsham and Bowdoinham appears to have doubled over last year. The caterpillar also is showing up in Falmouth, Turner, Augusta and Lewiston.
Read the full story here: link.
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Controlling Invasive Species in Your Woodlot
9am to noon on Saturday, May 21st, Sodus, New York
This outdoor hands-on session will be at a woodlot in Sodus, NY so dress appropriately for weather conditions.
During the workshop we'll cover identification and control options for invasive species in the woodlot and introduce participants to crop tree management, a forestry method well suited for owners of small woodlots.
Registration deadline is Friday May 13th 2011.
To register send $10.00 per person along with your name address and phone number to Cornell Cooperative Extension of Wayne County, 1581 Rte 88N, Newark, NY 14513
Any additional questions please call (315)-331-8415 or e-mail mgwayne@cornell.edu For special needs contact us one week prior to this program.
Sponsored by:
New York Forest Owners Association
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Cornell Cooperative Extension of Wayne County Master Gardener/Master Forest Owner Programs
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CT DEP training targets spread of zebra mussels in Candlewood Lake
The Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the Candlewood Lake Authority (CLA) has announced that training is available for people interested in volunteering their time to monitor boat launches on Candlewood Lake for the presence of the invasive plants and animals, such as zebra mussels. Zebra mussels were discovered in Lake Zoar and Lake Lillinonah on October 2010. This is the first new report of zebra mussels in Connecticut since 1998 when they were discovered in East and West Twin Lakes in Salisbury.
The training will educate volunteers on how to identify and detect invasive species and also to instruct boaters on how to do the same. Volunteers will also be talking to boaters about ways they can prevent the spread of zebra mussels. Volunteers will receive a handbook, supplies and a t-shirt that identifies them as volunteers.
The first training session will be held Saturday April 9, 2011 from 9:30 AM until 12:00 PM at the New Milford Police Department located at 49 Poplar Street (Route 202) in New Milford. For more information or to volunteer, contact the CLA at 860-354-6298 or by email at clapad@earthlink.net.
Read the full story at: link.
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Backpack and Spot Treatment Calibration Guidelines
Useful information from out West...
A simple, six-step method for calibrating your single-nozzle backpack or other spot-treatment spray equipment.
link
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Maryland Invasive Plant Bill Set to Become Law
News from the Anacostia Watershed Society
The invasive plant bill (HB 831) we have worked on for the last two years has now passed both chambers of the Maryland General Assembly. The bill was sponsored by 19 Delegates and was passed unanimously in the State Senate yesterday, 46-0! AWS staff is thrilled to see this bill passed since we brought back the conversation to the table at the Maryland Invasive Species Council (MISC) two years ago. At that time we came up with a proposed bill we crafted with the valuable help of one of our best interns ever: Leena Chapagain. Thanks you so much, Leena! Almost at the same time another bill was being proposed by a lawyer from Baltimore and his visionary school-age son! Consensually AWS decided to sit down with all the stakeholders and craft a new bill, that's the HB 831. The other stakeholders were the representatives from the following organizations: Maryland Department of Agriculture, Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Anacostia Watershed Society, The Nature Conservancy, Sylvan Green Earth Consulting, Maryland Nursery and Landscape Association –among other representatives of the horticultural industry--, and Whiteford, Taylor & Preston LLP.
Read the full story here: link.
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Nature’s “Melting Pot”: Invasive Species and Ecosystem Value
Courtesy of the Southern IPM blog
In Friday’s OpEd section in the New York Times, writer Hugh Raffles offered an interesting–but somewhat inaccurate–view on exotic invasive species. His premise was that invasive species can provide diversity and benefits to the earth, just as new immigrants contribute to the diversity and health of society. You can read the full article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/opinion/03Raffles.html?_r=2
Since the article was published on Friday, several of our colleagues who work in the area of invasive species have developed responses to the article. The following is by Sylvan Kaufman of Sylvan Green Earth Consulting in Maryland:
"Although the author is correct that many non-native species provide beneficial goods and services, there is a fundamental difference between the melting pot of humanity and the melting pot of a community of plants and animals. Humans are all one species even if they have different cultural backgrounds. Communities are made up of many species. If a non-native plant or animal threatens the continued existence of one that has lived here for thousands of years, do we just let that species disappear or do we decide that it may have some value and that we should protect it? For many species, we don’t yet know what value they may provide humans. It takes years of research to determine whether the chemical compounds of a particular plant might yield a life-saving drug, or if the pollinator services offered by honeybees are more valuable than those offered by a diversity of native insects. "
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Virginia Invasive Plant Removal Day, May 7
Join volunteers for the 3rd annual event at sites throughout Virginia on an endeavor to stop the spread of non-native invasive plants.
Virginia Invasive species are recognized nationally and locally as a costly and leading threat to healthy ecosystems. The estimated annual cost of invasive species in Virginia is $1 billion (Va Dept. of Conservation & Recreation). Non-native invasive plants, animals, and diseases occur in all of Virginia's ecosystems and negatively impact water quality, wildlife populations, and other natural resources. Virginia's citizens can improve the situation by not planting or spreading invasive plants, by removing invasives on their own properties, and by helping to remove them from parks and other public areas. Help us spread more awareness and understanding to engage Virginians in these efforts.
Invasive plants are threatening Virginia's natural areas from Norfolk to the Shenandoahs. Plant invaders alter wildlife habitats and reduce biodiversity. They can kill trees, picture kudzu climbing to the tops of trees, and cost money, like hydrilla depressing fisheries or getting caught in boat props. But volunteers like you can make a difference. In 2009, More than 400 volunteers contributed more than 1300 hours of service and removed more than 250 bags of invasive plants. In 2010, more than 300 volunteers contributed more than 750 hours of service in works sites covering more than 50 acres. Their service and additional in-kind donations are valued at more than $15,000. We need your support again in 2011.
For more information, see link.
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Showing posts with label Virginia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Virginia. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Monday, March 30, 2009
Week of March 30, 2009
Updated 4/2
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Economic Stimulus Could Boost Invasive Species Management
On February 17, President Barack Obama signed the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 to stimulate the economy by creating jobs and building infrastructure.
As of March, implications for invasive species management were unclear. The stimulus package includes more than $3 billion for agencies and programs that will directly affect natural resources. The ARRA spending mandates are very broad and include concepts such as habitat restoration, watershed improvement, forest health protection, and wildland fire management that may allow funding to flow toward invasive plant management.
States and federal agencies face a May 3 deadline to begin reporting how ARRA dollars will be allocated. Until that time, governors are coordinating state allocations, while regional and national offices of the federal agencies are evaluating needs and deciding how to distribute funds.
Information about individual state and federal ARRA programs – how the dollars are being allocated and progress toward goals – can be found at http://e2ma.net/go/1862571322/1698740/63287196/goto:http:/www.recovery.gov/. This website is the primary online portal through which the government will continue to report how ARRA funds are being spent "in a timely, targeted, and transparent manner," according to the President.
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Book makes case for native plants
By Bill Cary • Gannett News Service
People in the gardening world are calling Douglas W. Tallamy's book on native plants the next "Silent Spring," Rachel Carson's 1962 book that warned of the dangers of chemical pesticides and helped launch the modern-day environmental movement.
In his book, "Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens" (Timber Press, 2007, $27.95), Tallamy argues that native plants are vital to the survival of our ecosystems because they sustain native wildlife. When native plants disappear, so do the insects that have evolved with them, thus depriving birds and other animals of the food they need to survive.
Tallamy, professor and head of the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware in Newark, Del., has spent years studying insects and the many ways they interact with plants. This food web helps to determine the diversity of our ecosystem...
...We've put nature into neat little quadrants and many of these are filled with invasive species, he said. Look at the narrow strips of land next to our highways - many are overflowing with invasive porcelain berry and bittersweet vines that are pulling down the native trees and choking out everything else.
When we load up our ecosystem with pretty plants from China or Europe, our native insects can't eat them. From the insects' point of view, we might as well stick plastic flowers in our yard instead of peonies or lilacs.
Nationwide, 100 million acres have been invaded by alien plants, and that's expected to double in the next five years...
Read the full article at Link.
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Agricultural agents in NJ wage war on bugs, plants, and disease
By Judy Peet - The Star-Ledger
All Alba Lugardo wanted was her chicken tamales.
She stood sobbing at international customs inspection at Newark Liberty International Airport as agents explained why they seized her vittles. Lugardo didn't care about the big picture; she just wanted the comfort food she brought in her carry-on luggage from Ecuador for her pregnant daughter in Newark.
But invasion can come from the most unlikely places.
To Lugardo, a tamale is a meal. To federal bug and germ hunters, uninspected foreign meat wrapped in corn husks is a possible carrier of avian flu that could sicken hundreds and destroy the livelihood of thousands of chicken-farm workers in Delaware. It is quite a stretch, but one that Customs and Border Protection agriculture specialists at every U.S. port of entry make daily in the fight against tiny alien predators.
Ten days ago, Newark agents announced they discovered a plant bug never before seen in the U.S. Botanists don't know if it is a killer, because, like most of the estimated 30 million insect species on the planet, it has never been studied...
...Every day, inspectors in Newark intercept on average more than 100 bugs, according to customs reports. About once a month, they come across a species never before seen in the U.S. The stowaway found 10 days ago was hiding in a bunch of Israeli thyme, said Thomas Henry, the USDA botanist who examined the insect.
It is of the Miridae family, but the species is unknown. Henry said that of the estimated 30 million bug species worldwide, only 1.5 million have been fully classified. It is definitely not one of the 90,000 species native to the U.S., Henry said.
Read the full article, with video, at Link.
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Birds vanishing in the Lehigh Valley, PA
By Christopher Baxter - The Morning Call
An unprecedented study of United States bird populations suggests development in the Lehigh Valley during the past decade has contributed to the steep decline of local species, signaling a deterioration of the region's environment.
Of the 132 most prevalent birds found in Pennsylvania, one-third show significant declines during the past 40 years, mirroring national trends, according to the study's raw data from the North American Breeding Bird Survey.''
The report, ''The State of the Birds,'' released this month by the U.S. Department of the Interior, found that about one-third of the nation's 800 species are endangered, threatened, or in decline.
...suffering precipitous drops in population are Eastern forest birds, which in Pennsylvania include the golden-winged warbler, down 6.7 percent annually since 1967; the wood thrush, down 2.3 percent annually; and the Eastern towhee, down 2 percent annually.
Those species rely on large tracts of pristine hardwood forest, a statewide specialty increasingly under attack by suburban sprawl, invasive species, and deer overpopulation, said Nels Johnson, director of conservation with The Nature Conservancy of Pennsylvania...
Read the full article at Link.
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Connecticut has key role in search for cause of white-nose syndrome in bats
By RINKER BUCK, Courant.com
The rapid spread from the Northeast to the South of the deadly white-nose syndrome in bats is more than a crisis that once again puts Connecticut at the center of a major outbreak like Lyme disease or West Nile virus.
The race to solve the white-nose mystery before the scourge reaches the large bat populations of the American South has set off a frenzied, CSI-like drama in veterinary and pathology laboratories from Italy to Wisconsin. Connecticut is playing a crucial role by compiling data on the syndrome and sending samples of diseased bats to important university and government diagnostic clinics.
The syndrome, first discovered in New York state in 2006, is a condition in which the heads, legs and wings of hibernating bats are coated with a white fungus that scientists have identified as a rare form of geomyces, a fungus usually found in cold, dry environments, such as the tundra in the Arctic.
Earlier this month, biologists from the state Department of Environmental Protection confirmed, after visits to bat caves in Litchfield County, that as many as 90 percent of Connecticut's bats have died...
...Al Hicks, a mammal specialist who runs the endangered species program for the New York Department of Environmental Conservation, led the team of field biologists who first discovered white-nose in bats. He considers it telling that the first site where white-nose was found was Howe Caverns in New York's Schoharie County, a popular tourist site where more than 200,000 visitors a year ride elevators down to a deep cave that houses hibernating bats on the far end.
"We've known since 1983 that there is a very similar geomyces fungus on bats in Europe but that it has not killed them in large numbers like here in the U.S.," Hicks said. "Someone from Europe might have carried that fungus into Howe Caverns on their shoes. This might have introduced a fungus from another continent that American bats had not yet developed resistance to."...
Read the full article at Link.
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Annapolis, Maryland bans invasive plants
By Tyeesha Dixon, BaltimoreSun.com
The City of Annapolis would impose restrictions on invasive plants if a bill the City Council is considering passes.
The bill would prohibit 97 species of invasive plants ... on "lots or parcels within the city unless completely contained to control growth and prevent encroachment." It would also limit growth of grass, weeds and other rank vegetation to one foot high.
The bill includes exceptions to the height requirement, including agricultural property, natural wooded areas, public parks, and recreational property and unimproved areas of more than three acres.
At Monday's public hearing, Ward 2 Alderman Fred Paone, the bill's sponsor, said he introduced the bill because of neighbor disputes regarding unruly bamboo. Paone said he started to learn of constituents' problems with bamboo and kudzu, in particular, in June.
David Prosten, chairman of the 1,400-member Anne Arundel County chapter of the Sierra Club, told the council that the group supports the bill.
Read the full story at Link.
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Swamp studies snag honors for two students in New York
By Roger Muehlig, BataviaNews.com
BERGEN, NY -- Two Byron-Bergen Central School students are headed for a state science competition in Albany in June with award-winning projects related to an endangered snake and an invasive weed in the Bergen Swamp.
Seniors Kelsey Hill and Daniel Madziarz won high honors for their projects at the Central Western Section of the Science Teachers Association of New York State's 2009 Science Congress at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, the school district said.
Hill's presentation, "Survey of the Invasive Species Eurasian species Phragmites Australis in the Bergen Swamp," also earned her a U.S. Army certificate of achievement, a U.S. Air Force certificate of achievement and an MP3 player, the district said.
Hill and Madziarz were mentored by Stephen Locke, a science teacher at Byron-Bergen and a trustee and vice president of the Bergen Swamp Preservation Society, which owns the 1,900-acre rare plant and wildlife preserve that stretches across the northern half of the town and into the neighboring town of Byron.
Locke said the two students volunteered for their projects, received no extra credit for their work and probably put in more than 500 hours of time each.
Hill's effort showed that an invasive species of phragmites, which originated in Europe, and the native species that came from New England were both in the swamp. Both like high-salt wetlands, Locke said, but Hill did a nice job of documenting the differences between the two and showed that the European species was taking over, occupying 27 percent of the swamp's open land.
Hill, who would like to pursue environmental writing in college, perhaps at Ohio Wesleyan, is not only the first to scientifically state the takeover is occurring, Locke said, but created a computer data-base to manage eradication of the invasive species.
The daughter of David and Lesle Hill said she spent about 16 hours a week in the swamp last summer and another 15 hours or so a week formulating her report.
"It was pretty hot out there, but it was worth it," she said.
Read the full story at Link.
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Cazenovia, NY bans phosphorus fertilizer to reduce AIS
By Alaina Potrikus, The Post-Standard
Cazenovia leaders want homeowners to know that most soils in the lake watershed contain adequate levels of naturally occurring phosphorus and should not be affected by the town's ban on fertilizers with the nutrient.
The town board in January passed the area's first ban restricting the use of phosphorus in lawn fertilizers in hopes of creating a less-fertile environment for algae and other aquatic plants, such as the weed Eurasian watermilfoil, that annually plague Cazenovia Lake. Village leaders are considering a similar resolution in support of the local law.
The community has been making plans all winter to tackle the growing problem of invasive species such as milfoil. The town, in conjunction with the village and the Cazenovia Lake Association, is applying for a permit from the state Department of Environmental Conservation to apply the herbicide Renovate to portions of the lake in hopes of knocking back the milfoil population, which has skyrocketed in recent summers.
While local officials work to solve the environmental and financial ramifications of the milfoil, Town Supervisor Liz Moran said, the phosphorus ban is something area homeowners can do to help prevent future weed growth.
The ban will be enforced by the town's code enforcement officer, and Moran said officials hope "the majority of residents recognize that, although not a magic bullet, a phosphorus reduction plan is an easy way for everyone to display good stewardship of the lake and contribute to the long-term health of this precious resource."
Read full story at Link.
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Lake Placid, NY to use beetles to combat purple loosestrife
By HEATHER SACKETT, for the Adirondack Enterprise
LAKE PLACID - "If you can't beat 'em, let the beetles eat 'em." This slogan of the Ausable River Association will be put to the test this summer, when Lake Placid will attempt to combat an invasive species with hungry beetles.
The golden loosestrife beetle (Galerucella pusilla) will be released into four dense stands of purple loosestrife on the shores of Mill Pond and Power Pond. The project's aim is to keep the tributaries of the Ausable River free from the invasive species. Mill and Power ponds are on the Chubb River, which feeds into the Ausable. The program is funded by a grant from the Lake Champlain Basin Program.
According to the association's director Carol Treadwell, no purple loosestrife has been recorded in the West Branch of the river between Lake Placid and Wilmington - and the association wants to keep it that way.
According to director of the Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program Hilary Smith, purple loosestrife is one of the most widespread invasive plants in the country.
"Our concern is because the Adirondacks have a lot of prime habitat for wetland invasives," Smith said. "If you're finding it along river complexes, it can be spread downstream."
The beetles, which eat only purple loosestrife, are used after other labor-intensive control methods like hand cutting and pulling the plants and spot applications of herbicide have failed to keep a population of purple loosestrife in check.
The beetles, which are light brown in color and four to six millimeters long, will be released this spring by a team of volunteers, headed up by Treadwell. Right now, they are being raised in a marsh near Utica.
Read the full article at Link.
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Cape May County hopes stimulus funds flow to Lower creek
By BRIAN IANIERI, PressofAtlanticCity.com
LOWER TOWNSHIP - Cape May County is asking for $2 million in federal stimulus money to help restore Cox Hall Creek in Lower Township.
The watershed, which covers 1,940 acres, is clogged by phragmites marsh reeds that hinder the creek's ability to drain and pose fire hazards when the stalks are dry. Poor water flow at Cox Hall Creek also presents concerns about mosquito breeding habitat.
County freeholders are applying for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Coastal and Marine Habitat Restoration Project grant, which would use federal stimulus money.
The $2 million proposed project would involve placing two culverts in the area to allow saltwater to flow in from the Delaware Bay to kill the invasive phragmites, said County Administrator Stephen O'Connor.
Federal funding would also pay for studies on a second phase of the proposed project.
That phase involves installing new pipes with tidal traps leading directly into the Delaware Bay to create a constant, controlled level of water, O'Connor said.
Read the full story at Link.
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National ANS Database now part of NYIS.INFO
I'm very excited to report that the aquatic invasive/aquatic nuisance species database of the National Aquatic Nuisance Species Clearinghouse (NANSC) is now a part of the NY Invasive Species Clearinghouse (NYIS.INFO). The database is a searchable annotated catalog of the NANSC international library of research, public policy, and outreach education publications pertaining to invasive marine and fresh-water aquatic nuisance species that are found in North America. It is also the home of North America's most extensive library of publications related to the spread, biology, impacts and control of zebra mussels.
The Aquatic Invasive Species Database (Link) can be searched via an extended outline search or via a powerful full text search feature.
Charles R. O'Neill, Jr.
Sr. Extension Specialist
Cornell University/New York Sea Grant
Director, NY Invasive Species Clearinghouse Director, National Aquatic
Nuisance Species Clearinghouse Coordinator, Cornell Invasive Species Program
Morgan II, SUNY College Brockport, NY 14420
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Share your phragmites samples and location data
Dr. Bernd Blossey at Cornell University is soliciting contributions of samples and data on native and invasive locations of common reed (Phragmites australis). In particular, Blossey is hoping to receive more data from western states, which currently are poorly represented in his database. Blossey and his colleagues will use the data to prepare a distribution map so that more targeted searches can be done in certain states. They also hope to launch a web-based approach that will allow volunteers or states to update data remotely.
Contact Dr. Bernd Blossey
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Volunteers needed to root out invasive plants in Virginia
By John Hopkins, The Virginian-Pilot
The local chapter of the Virginia Native Plant Society will join the Chesapeake Arboretum and interested volunteers on May 2 to uproot nonnative growth in the area during the first statewide Invasive Plant Removal Day.
They will target English ivy and ligustrum, also known as privet, at the arboretum's urban forest in Chesapeake, said Barbara Gelzer, the arboretum's coordinator. Statewide, various other groups will take on similar tasks in their own communities.
The Virginia Native Plant Society and the Virginia Master Naturalists are sponsoring the statewide event. Activities are being coordinated now and interested people can learn more by going to www.virginiamasternaturalist.org/invasives/index.html.
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Very cute biological control agents on Long Island
BY ARI GOLDSTEIN, Newsday.com
The Town of Hempstead has a new set of grass cutters for the Norman J. Levy Park and Preserve in Merrick, and they go by the names Sleepy, Sneezy, Bashful, Happy and Doc.
The five are Nigerian dwarf goats and their assignment will be controlling weeds and overgrowth at the 50-acre preserve.
The puppy-sized goats, between 4 and 6 weeks old, spent Monday in their pen, grazing on goat pellets. By autumn, town officials hope the five will be chowing down grass and weeds.
We'll let them eat to their hearts' content," said Town Supervisor Kate Murray. "Basically, they're going to be our natural lawn mowers."
But the goats won't have free rein of the preserve: They will either be tethered to a line, tended on leashes or kept inside a movable fence.
And although the animals are considered gentle, children will not be allowed to pet them."
There's an overabundance of caution at this point," Murray said. "They're young, they're unpredictable and it's not really their purpose.
"The town paid $1,200 for the five goats, which were born at the Long Island Zoological Society in Manorville. The town expects to save money that would have been spent on labor, gas, lawn mowers and line trimmers. Officials also touted the goats' value to the environment, as their carbon footprint will be smaller than that of lawn care machinery.
It's not the first time the preserve has turned to unusual methods to respond to issues at the facility. Four years ago, guinea fowl were brought in to control ticks. They feed on insects and, since their arrival, the preserve hasn't had any reports of ticks, Murray said.
The preserve hopes the goats will thrive -- and perhaps add to their ranks.
"We figure with one boy and four girls, nature might take its course," Murray said.
Read the full article and see some very cute photos at Link.
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Phragmites' last stand?
By LEE PROCIDA, PressofAtlanticCity.com
For more than a century, North American scientists, engineers, environmentalists, sportsmen and others have fought the invasion of a foreign form of the common reed, Phragmites australis, and lost...
...After a decade of studies, scientists at Cornell University have narrowed a field of 150 different species of fungus, pathogens and insects down to four moths that, if released into the wild here, could potentially attack and kill the invasive form of phragmites.
Bernd Blossey, associate professor at the university and lead researcher on the project, said any release of the species would not be for another three to five years, since they are currently being carefully studied in Rhode Island and Switzerland.
Nevertheless, he said initial studies have been very promising, and the moths the researchers are studying seem to have a singular interest in eating the one species of phragmites that has plagued this area.
"The biological control of plants has been around for 120 to 150 years," Blossey said, "but for phragmites, it's extremely novel and no one has tried that."
In southern New Jersey - what Blossey called "the middle of the storm" in the invasion - other techniques have mostly centered on burning, chopping, mowing or spraying with herbicide the large stands of phragmites found here.
These attempts, particularly spraying, have not only been met with much public resistance, but they also usually only serve to push the reed back rather than eradicate it altogether. Most require continuous maintenance as the reed creeps back in, making them more expensive and time consuming.
But the moths that Blossey is studying have a long history of being effective phragmites killers. They are all found in Europe, where the form of phragmites that has taken over marshes here also came from, and they have adapted a particular taste for the plant - one is even called a Reed Leopard.
In Europe they are so proficient they are sometimes considered pests, but that's only because the form of phragmites that is considered invasive here provides valuable habitat overseas.
Whatever species is eventually released to attack the foreign variety of phragmites will have to leave that native species alone, which Blossey said is the main concern now as studies of the moths are continued.
Read the full article at Link.
For more information, visit InvasivePlants.Net.
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Exotic species at the 36th Natural Areas Conference
September 11-18, 2009
Vancouver, Washington
In association with the Natural Areas Association, the National Association of Exotic Pest Plant Councils will host an Invasive Exotic Species track at the 2009 Natural Areas Conference in Vancouver, Washington. The theme for the September 15-18, 2009, conference is “Living on the Edge: Why Natural Areas Matter.”
All NAEPPC chapters are invited and encouraged to submit some aspect of their work in a contributed paper or poster. Submission of abstracts and other information about the conference is available online at the Natural Areas Conference web site. Please note the April 30, 2009 deadline for abstract submission.
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New Hampshire lake group tackles invasive milfoil
By Eric Parry, EagleTribune.com
HAMPSTEAD, NH — Residents around Big Island Pond believe a 30-foot pontoon boat — complete with a pump, hoses and a perforated deck — in Skip Lanouette's front yard is their best hope of fighting an invasive weed that has spread across the lake for the past decade.
Lanouette and a group of residents from around the lake are converting the boat into a harvester that will help scuba divers remove milfoil from the pond.
There have been attempts to rid the lake of the milfoil in the past, but pulling the weeds by hand and stuffing them into bags was a tedious process that didn't accomplish much.
But with this new tool, Bob Patterson, who is leading a team of 15 divers, said a lot more of the lake should be free of the weed that spreads quickly and can choke natural vegetation.
"What took us a whole month by hand last year can take us a day with the harvester," Patterson said.
While two divers are in the water pulling weeds, a 4-inch-wide hose attached to one of the divers will suck the weed into large holding tanks on the deck of the boat. The holding tanks and deck have been fitted with a tight mesh that will collect the weed in bags, but will allow the water to drain back into the pond.
At most, divers will only have to go down 12 feet because the weed doesn't grow any deeper than that in the lake, Patterson said.
To make sure they collect it all, volunteers armed with pool skimmers will circle the boat in kayaks to trap any small pieces of the weed that float to the top.
"A little 2-inch piece can float away and start a new colony somewhere else," Patterson said.
After the milfoil is bagged and tagged, volunteers will then send a complete report back to the state Department of Environmental Services. The report will include how much of the weed was collected, where it was growing, water temperature and air temperature.
About 60 volunteers are involved with the project, helping to retrofit the boat with benches for the divers, hooking up the hoses and spending weekends navigating the boat around the lake. So far, 135 dives have been scheduled starting at the end of the month and continuing every weekend through the summer.
"The volunteerism on the lake is incredible," said Paul LaRochelle, who was one of the neighbors who helped Lanouette install the pump last weekend.
The boat was purchased earlier this year with the help of the lake association, donations from residents and the New Hampshire Lakes Association.
But even with this new tool, the state DES is suggesting a chemical, 2-4-D, be used to assist in the cleanup.
Amy Smagula, a DES limnologist, said the combination of the hand pulling and herbicide treatment will eliminate the weed faster than either technique alone.
"Fifty acres is a little daunting when you're trying to physically remove it," Smagula said.
Still, residents know the lake will never be completely rid of the weed.
Read the full story at Link.
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Southeast Herbicide Applicator Conference
University of Florida
Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences
Sep 22-24, 2009
Edgewater Beach Resort
Panama City Beach, Florida
Training for those who conduct weed control in canals, lakes, water retention ponds, golf course ponds, rivers, parks, highway rights-of-ways, transmission lines, and are responsible for vegetation management along right-of-ways and in natural areas, and use biological control techniques to suppress aquatic weed growth.
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Monday, March 16, 2009
Week of March 16, 2009
Updated 3/20
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Vitex eradication effort gains traction
Group tallies past year's accomplishments
By Gareth McGrath, StarNewsOnline.com
Fort Fisher, North Carolina - The invasive plant has been discovered in Virginia and in places in North Carolina thought to be vitex-free.
But that's not necessarily a bad thing, since it shows that the educational and outreach efforts of the Carolinas Beach Vitex Task Force about the menace posed by the foreign invader are working.
It also shows, however, that there's a lot of work to do to eradicate the shrub. It is native to the Pacific Rim and was once viewed as the savior of the coast, but it's turned out to be a huge biological menace.
On Friday members of the task force gathered at the N.C. Aquarium at Fort Fisher to celebrate the past year's successes and discuss the remaining challenges facing the multi-state effort to eradicate beach vitex.
Among the 2008 accomplishments included getting North Carolina to declare beach vitex a noxious weed, making it illegal to be sold or possessed by nurseries or individuals, and securing a $128,000 grant for coastal eradication and educational efforts.
But Melanie Doyle, the state's beach vitex task force coordinator and horticulturist at the aquarium, said there's been an even bigger success over the past year.
"What I'm most proud about is nothing's been mandated by anyone," she said, ticking off the local and voluntary support up and down the coast that the task force has received in promoting eradication efforts. "This has all come about because of people who care."
But with greater awareness of the threat posed by vitex has come the reality of how big the problem is in North Carolina.
"We've got vitex in the northern part of the state," said Dale Suiter, a Raleigh-based biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "Just a year ago, we didn't know that."
So far there are more than 400 known locations, including worrisome outbreaks along inland waterways that dramatically increases the amount of shoreline to survey. Link
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Fire service's newest toy burns invading grasses on Mullica River, NJ
By LEE PROCIDA, PressofAtlanticCity.com
WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP, NJ - The thumping sound of helicopter blades preceded the state Forest Fire Service’s Bell 206 JetRanger as it flew south over the Mullica River and turned to survey Hog Island, where it burned 132 acres of reeds Friday morning.
Hanging out the side was Rob Gill, an aerial ignition specialist, who would be operating the service’s new fire-starting device mounted to the helicopter, “The Red Dragon.”
Generically referred to as a plastic-sphere dispenser, the dragon is filled with paintball-like orbs containing potassium permanganate. When turned on, the machine injects the balls with antifreeze and drops them to the ground, where the mixture of chemicals bursts into flames about a minute later.
The group recently cooperated with the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife to spray herbicide over an infestation of phragmites, and is now paying the fire service a few thousand dollars to burn the invasive plants away to make room for native flora and fauna.
“Global warming aside, phragmites is the No. 1 threat to the health of our estuaries,” said Emile DeVito, manager of science for the NJ Conservation Foundation, who was familiar with Friday’s project. “It basically consumes all the habitat and virtually wipes out all the species.”
On the Atlantic County bank of the river, a crowd of trucks and people assembled to watch the blaze. A red fire service truck was parked near an Egg Harbor City police SUV in case the fire jumped the water, and a couple other pickup trucks were around from the locals fishing.
Continued at Link
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Weed removal money sought in Massachusetts
By JOHN APPLETON, The Republican
BRIMFIELD, MA - The Lake Sherman Association is asking the town for financial help while also seeking grants to cover the $10,300 cost of removing invasive weeds which have been dramatically spreading the past few years.
Association president Robert Chevalier said the $10,300 figure is based on a price quote from Lycott Environmental, Inc., of Southbridge, MA for a chemical treatment this spring to wipe out what has been identified as aquatic variegated milfoil.
The 55-member lake association is basing its case for financial assistance from the town in part on the fact that the town has a boat launch at the pond and that people go in swimming from the launch area.
"It's a landmark for the town and for anyone who is close to this town," said David W. McVeigh, a member of the association.
"We are trying to preserve it in any way we can," McVeigh said.
The association has applied to the Norcross Foundation for a grant for the weed eradication work and is considering other grant possibilities.
"We have been working on trying to get funding for three or four years," said Janet L. Hastings, the association vice president. Association members told the selectmen last week that the weeds already interfere with swimming and boating and, if left unchecked, they can spread to the point of choking the lake, which is only 12 feet deep at its deepest point. Link
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Waging war on invasive plants in Connecticut
By Keila Torres, ConnPost.com
Invasive plants are taking over the state's parklands and killing off native species, throwing fragile eco-systems into turmoil as wildlife is starved of its natural food source.
Invasive species -- including Oriental bittersweet and Japanese barberry -- have become a widespread problem around the state, said Todd Mervosh, a weed scientist for the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven.
This year, the state Department of Environmental Protection is offering cities and towns grants to get rid of the annoying, non-native plants that have cropped up and taken root here.
The invasive species "are displacing the native vegetation, the plants that have always been here as part of our ecological system," Mervosh said. "There are a lot of animal species that co-exist with these native species, that depend on them."
Oriental bittersweet, an Asian vine with yellow fruit that entwines itself around other plants, is considered by many the "worst invasive plant in the state," he said.
Richard Tiani, executive director of Groundwork Bridgeport, said a group of Harding High School students working with his agency has also found a lot of Japanese barberry -- a vine that wraps around trees -- during their cleanup efforts in Bridgeport's parks and in surrounding towns.
"Over time it becomes so strong and heavy that it kills trees and pulls them down," Tiani said of the invasive plant.
The Harding "Green Team," working with Groundwork Bridgeport as paid summer interns, is partnering this year with the city of Bridgeport in a project to remove a multiflora rose and garlic mustard infestation in Veterans Memorial Park.
The city is seeking a $49,236 grant from the DEP to clean up a section of the 107-acre park. Another section of the park and wetlands, near the proposed Discovery Magnet School, will be cleaned up as part of the $31 million inter-district school project.
Getting rid of invasive plants is essential to preserving the city's parklands and wildlife, officials say.
Continued at Link
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Congress Approves Funds For Invasive Species Prevention
By KBJR News 1
Congress has granted nearly 1–million dollars to help slow the spread of invasive species into the Great Lakes Chain.
President Obama signed the bill into law this week, which will help researchers test various ways to treat ballast water before it's discharged into the lakes.
For more than 20 years invasive species have hitch hiked their way into the Great Lakes causing a wide range of economic and environmental problems.
From clogging water pipes to interfering with the lake's natural ecology, many environmental agencies have worked hard to slow the spread of these exotic pests.
The new funding will go towards the Great Ships Initiative which aims to do just that.
"The goal of the great ships initiative is to try to find ballast water treatment methods so that the water can be cleaned or sterilized before it is transported between one place to another."
Continued at Link
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Henry Hudson's majestic view altered by invasives
By Michael Risinit, LoHud.com
PHILIPSTOWN, NY - The slice of the Hudson River visible from a bluff on Little Stony Point in Philipstown probably appears much as it did to Henry Hudson and his crew aboard the Half Moon 400 years ago...
...The river was full of fish to levels that are just about unimaginable today," said Fran Dunwell, director of the state's Hudson River Estuary Program. "It was a very rich natural environment."
Dunwell recently wrote "The Hudson America's River." Waterfowl and other birds, she said, darkened the sky where they flew. Oak trees grew 70 feet tall without knots, perfect for shipbuilding. The banks, according to Juet, contained a "great store of goodly Oakes and Wal-nut trees and Chest-nut trees. Ewe trees and trees of sweet wood in great abundance, and great store of slate for houses, and other good stones."
Marshes lined most of the river, not just at Piermont, Iona Island and a few other places as they do today. Chairmaker's rush, horned pondweeds and umbrella sedge are gone, replaced by cattails and phragmites (aka common reed).
But seeds from the original plants are found in sediment cores pulled from the existing marshes, said Dorothy Peteet, a NASA senior researcher and an adjunct scientist with the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University in Palisades.
"We can see back in time," Peteet said. "I think it was vastly different. You had this diversity which would have gone up the food chain."
Read the full article at Link
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American chestnut ready to reign again
BY MORGAN SIMMONS SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE
After decades of selective breeding and countless hours of fieldwork, researchers believe they have developed an American chestnut tree that is ready to reclaim the Appalachian forests.
The first batch of these blight-resistant chestnut seedlings arrived recently at a greenhouse on the agricultural campus of the University of Tennessee, where workers trimmed the roots and identified each tree with a numbered tag.
The trees -- 1,200 in all -- were planted in three Southern national forests as a groundbreaking experiment to determine if decades of crossbreeding have produced a chestnut tree that is blight-resistant yet retains the superior timber qualities of the American chestnut tree.
"This is the very first planting of the final generation and the culmination of a lot of hard work," said Scott Schlarbaum, forest geneticist with the UT Department of Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries.
The trees were grown in a Georgia nursery in cooperation with the American Chestnut Foundation, an organization dedicated to restoring the American chestnut.
The American chestnut accounted for 25 percent of all the trees in the Appalachian mountains until a blight virtually eliminated them between 1904 and 1950.
Today, the airborne bark fungus still survives and kills virtually all American chestnuts by the time they've reached 20 feet in height.
For more than 30 years, the American Chestnut Foundation has been crossing Chinese chestnuts, which are naturally resistant to the blight, with American chestnuts to produce a super hybrid that can be reintroduced in the wild. Only American chestnuts that demonstrate natural blight resistance qualify for the breeding program, and scientists have been careful to breed trees from local environments.
Of the 1,200-year-old chestnut seedlings brought to the UT greenhouse, 500 were the blight-resistant hybrids. The remaining trees were either pure American chestnut, pure Chinese chestnut or hybrid trees from an intermediate back-cross generation.
Earlier this year, the 4-foot-tall seedlings were planted on national forest lands throughout the Southern Appalachian region. In the coming years, researchers will regularly monitor the trees for blight resistance, mortality and growth characteristics.
Stacy Clark, research forester for the Forest Service's Southern Research Station, said American chestnuts were renowned for their straight-grained wood and rapid growth rate.
"We want these trees to be blight-resistant, but also competitive," Clark said. "They're going out into the forest where they'll have to grow quickly to get above the deer browse, and compete with species like yellow poplar and red maple."
The goal of the American Chestnut Foundation was to breed a blight-resistant tree that is genetically 94 percent American chestnut. The foundation chose the Southern Appalachians as the proving ground for the final generation of seedlings because the region was once a stronghold for the American chestnut.
Clark, who leads the study for the U.S. Forest Service, said she is especially excited about two milestones in the trees' development: the fourth year of growth, which will reveal if the trees have held their own against competing species; and years 10 through 20, when American chestnuts normally succumb to the blight.
"If the trees are blight-resistant, we'll definitely know by that time," Clark said.
The chestnut blight robbed the Eastern forest of its undisputed champion. American chestnuts routinely grew 4 feet across and 120 feet high, and lived for centuries. The nuts were an important food source for a wide range of wildlife, and the rot-resistant wood was a prized building material.
Clark said that if the final generation of crossbred chestnuts survives in the national forests, this will raise great hopes about other species, like hemlocks and ash trees, that are being destroyed by nonnative pests.
"If we can restore this tree to its natural habitat, it will be the greatest success story in natural resource conservation," Clark said. Link
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Local anglers weigh in on aquatic weed control in Tennessee
Daimon Duggar, MarionCountyNews.net
Though many in Marion County are disappointed with last year’s decision by the Tennessee Valley Authority’s to discontinue aquatic weed control in the Nickajack reservoir, there is another segment of the community that couldn’t be happier: Fishermen.
According to a number of local fishermen and those in the fishing industry, TVA’s aquatic weed control program presents a danger to one of the area’s most popular sports and pastimes.
Last Saturday, March 7, dozens of fishermen and fishing enthusiasts gathered at Sullivan’s Landing on Highway 41 for the annual Grassmasters fishing tournament. The name of the competition says it all and reflects the opinion of many regarding the indispensable nature of aquatic growth as it relates to fishing.
“(Aquatic weed control) is really hard on the fish,” said fisherman Darren “Dobie” Kilgore. “It kills grass on humps. If they only did it in channels it wouldn’t be a big deal.”
A common complaint among fishermen is that the weed control program is non-selective. In addition to killing invasive exotic species, many feel, the long standing program also killed native aquatic grasses that allow the reservoirs variety of fish, including large mouth bass, to thrive.
“Grass helps the whole ecosystem. We used to have a good bank but not any more. It has been bad for 10 years,” said Marion County resident and fisherman Roger Kendrick...
...Avid fisherman and stakeholder Jim Henry worries that TVA’s discontinuance of their weed control problem will be more of a detriment to fishing than would unfettered growth however.
“It’s a mess and its going to be a lot worse,” said Henry. “There’s a lot of spots that you won’t be able to get to now. Mullin’s cove, for example. It was already hard to navigate it. This year I think its going to be impossible. This year will absolutely be worse.”
Only time will tell the wisdom of TVA’s new policy. But for fishermen and stakeholders alike, aquatic weed control in the Nickajack Reservoir will continue to be a growing problem.
Read the full article at Link
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South East Exotic Pest Plant Council 11th Annual Symposium
Creating Sustainable Landscapes for the Future
May 13-15, 2009
Quality Inn and Suites
Georgetown, SC
Agenda and Registration available online. Go to http://www.se-eppc.org/2009/ for all conference information.
Deadline to Register and Reserve hotel room: April 13, 2009.
Plenary speaker topics to include:
- Raising funds for your invasive species project
- Innovative approaches to effective invasive programs through partnerships
- Invasive plants from the perspective of the nursery/landscape industry
Other topics addressed through platform presentations and field trips include:
- Current research in invasive plant control and land restoration
- Building communication and consensus among key players
- Building cooperative weed and invasive species management areas
- Early Detection and Rapid Response efforts
- Control of tidal marsh invasives (ie. Chinese tallow, phragmites)
- And more!
Wonderful fieldtrips, workshops, and social events planned!
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'Red Baron' Nabbed In Baltimore
WBAL Radio as reported by Scott Wykoff
A Customs and Border Protection plant seed interception was confirmed on Monday (3/9/09) as the Baltimore area’s first reported discovery of cogon grass weed seed, aka Red Baron grass seed, and just as the legendary Red Baron was a menace to allied fighters during World War I, Red Baron grass has become a despised invasive weed throughout parts of the United States.
During a routine inspection on Friday at the Baltimore seaport, CBP agriculture specialists discovered weed seeds littered among non-compliant wood packing in a container of travertine tile that arrived from Turkey. On Monday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture pest identifier database determined the seeds to be Imperata cylindrica, or cogon grass, a Federal Noxious Weed, and confirmed that this is Baltimore’s first Red Baron seed report.
According to the USDA, cogon grass is an invasive weed from Asia that spreads quickly and disrupts ecosystems, reduces wildlife habitat and can decrease tree seedling growth and establishment. Cogon grass is considered one of the 10 worst invasive plant species in the world and is listed as a federal noxious weed. Cogon grass is believed to have invaded more than one million acres in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, and Texas.
“This interception is a significant find for our agriculture specialists, and it further illustrates our continued commitment to protect America’s agriculture industry and our economy from invasive insect pests and plants,” said James Swanson, CBP Port Director for the Port of Baltimore. “Invasive species pose dire consequences on our nation’s economy, potentially more so than even a single terrorist act could have.”
CBP issued an Emergency Action Notification to the importer to immediately re-export the container. Link
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Call for volunteers in Virginia for first Invasive Plant Removal Day on May 2
(Media-Newswire.com) - Volunteers are needed across the Commonwealth to help remove invasive plants that are wreaking havoc on Virginia’s landscape. The Virginia Master Naturalists and the Virginia Native Plant Society are seeking help Saturday, May 2nd at locations throughout Virginia in the first ever Invasive Plant Removal Day.
“From kudzu to English Ivy to tree of heaven, there are dozens of invasive species that are causing both ecological and economical harm,” said Michelle Prysby, Virginia Master Naturalist coordinator. “These invasive plants out-compete native species for the same resources, eventually harming trees, wildlife and water quality.”
The Virginia Native Plant Society and the Virginia Master Naturalists are sponsoring this event. Activities are being coordinated locally, and interested people can learn more about how and where they can help by going to www.virginiamasternaturalist.org/invasives/index.html .
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Feds release invaders to save native plants
BY JIM WAYMER • FLORIDA TODAY
They're using new invaders to devour old ones. And while these weevils gobble, they won't wolf down the plants that belong in Florida.
To give native plants a fighting chance, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers this year announced a $16.6 million plan to send at least 14 invasive bug species on seek-and-destroy missions.
Biologists would set the insects free -- some just a few miles from Brevard County -- along 18,000 square miles from south of Orlando to the Florida Reef Tract in an effort to preserve the character of the Everglades.
They say the bugs will spread to the Space Coast and beyond. And they assure their introduction won't trigger further ecological harm.
"You don't let these things go and . . . forget about them," said Donald Strong, an ecologist and "biocontrol" expert at the University of California, Berkeley. "In the large majority of cases, the insects are chosen and put through rigorous tests based on the fact that they don't attack other things."
The invasive insects in coming years would control Florida's massive problem with melaleuca, Brazilian pepper, Old World climbing fern and Australian pine...
...The insects won't completely wipe out the targeted trees, just keep them in check. That could take two decades or longer.
The melaleuca weevil, for example, can eat away about 98 percent of the tree's seed production, said Ted Center, research leader in Davie.
"What we're basically doing is biologically sterilizing the tree. We're not eliminating the plant. We're neutering it," Center said...
...In addition to melaleuca, the Corps proposes to fight three other notorious invasive plants with insects.
Brazilian pepper: Unlike melaleuca, no one's quite sure how it got here. Most credit a doctor in Port Charlotte. Fond of how the tree looked, he raised hundreds of them in the 1920s, passing them to friends. The Corps hopes a sawfly, a thrips and a weevil can undo the doctor's good work.
Old World climbing fern: Two moths, a gall mite and a stem borer will tackle this much more recent invasion. A Delray Beach nursery introduced the fern -- a native of Africa, Asia and Australia -- in the late 1950s.
Australian pine: A seed wasp planned for release in the next few years holds the most promise to battle back the Australian pine, introduced to Florida in the late 1800s.
Although some past "biocontrols" grew into problems themselves, government biologists assure their extreme caution and long, careful study make these insects the best way to restore a more natural state.
Read the full article at Link
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U.S. Birds Struggling to Survive
WASHINGTON, DC, March 19, 2009 (ENS) - Nearly one-third of the more than 800 bird species in the United States are endangered, threatened or in decline due to climate change, habitat loss, and invasive species, finds the first comprehensive report ever produced on U.S. bird populations.
At a news conference in Washington today, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar released the report, which was developed by a partnership among the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Geological Survey, state government wildlife agencies and nongovernmental organizations...
"Just as they were when Rachel Carson published "Silent Spring" nearly 50 years ago, birds today are a bellwether of the health of land, water and ecosystems," Salazar said. "From shorebirds in New England to warblers in Michigan to songbirds in Hawaii, we are seeing disturbing downward population trends that should set off environmental alarm bells. We must work together now to ensure we never hear the deafening silence in our forests, fields and backyards that Rachel Carson warned us about."
...Invasive plants and animals are major threats. Domestic and feral cats kill hundreds of millions of birds each year. Island nesting birds, particularly seabirds, are vulnerable since they nest on the ground or in burrows and are preyed upon by rats, foxes, cats, dogs, and mongooses.
Read the full article at Link
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Vitex eradication effort gains traction
Group tallies past year's accomplishments
By Gareth McGrath, StarNewsOnline.com
Fort Fisher, North Carolina - The invasive plant has been discovered in Virginia and in places in North Carolina thought to be vitex-free.
But that's not necessarily a bad thing, since it shows that the educational and outreach efforts of the Carolinas Beach Vitex Task Force about the menace posed by the foreign invader are working.
It also shows, however, that there's a lot of work to do to eradicate the shrub. It is native to the Pacific Rim and was once viewed as the savior of the coast, but it's turned out to be a huge biological menace.
On Friday members of the task force gathered at the N.C. Aquarium at Fort Fisher to celebrate the past year's successes and discuss the remaining challenges facing the multi-state effort to eradicate beach vitex.
Among the 2008 accomplishments included getting North Carolina to declare beach vitex a noxious weed, making it illegal to be sold or possessed by nurseries or individuals, and securing a $128,000 grant for coastal eradication and educational efforts.
But Melanie Doyle, the state's beach vitex task force coordinator and horticulturist at the aquarium, said there's been an even bigger success over the past year.
"What I'm most proud about is nothing's been mandated by anyone," she said, ticking off the local and voluntary support up and down the coast that the task force has received in promoting eradication efforts. "This has all come about because of people who care."
But with greater awareness of the threat posed by vitex has come the reality of how big the problem is in North Carolina.
"We've got vitex in the northern part of the state," said Dale Suiter, a Raleigh-based biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "Just a year ago, we didn't know that."
So far there are more than 400 known locations, including worrisome outbreaks along inland waterways that dramatically increases the amount of shoreline to survey. Link
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Fire service's newest toy burns invading grasses on Mullica River, NJ
By LEE PROCIDA, PressofAtlanticCity.com
WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP, NJ - The thumping sound of helicopter blades preceded the state Forest Fire Service’s Bell 206 JetRanger as it flew south over the Mullica River and turned to survey Hog Island, where it burned 132 acres of reeds Friday morning.
Hanging out the side was Rob Gill, an aerial ignition specialist, who would be operating the service’s new fire-starting device mounted to the helicopter, “The Red Dragon.”
Generically referred to as a plastic-sphere dispenser, the dragon is filled with paintball-like orbs containing potassium permanganate. When turned on, the machine injects the balls with antifreeze and drops them to the ground, where the mixture of chemicals bursts into flames about a minute later.
The group recently cooperated with the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife to spray herbicide over an infestation of phragmites, and is now paying the fire service a few thousand dollars to burn the invasive plants away to make room for native flora and fauna.
“Global warming aside, phragmites is the No. 1 threat to the health of our estuaries,” said Emile DeVito, manager of science for the NJ Conservation Foundation, who was familiar with Friday’s project. “It basically consumes all the habitat and virtually wipes out all the species.”
On the Atlantic County bank of the river, a crowd of trucks and people assembled to watch the blaze. A red fire service truck was parked near an Egg Harbor City police SUV in case the fire jumped the water, and a couple other pickup trucks were around from the locals fishing.
Continued at Link
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Weed removal money sought in Massachusetts
By JOHN APPLETON, The Republican
BRIMFIELD, MA - The Lake Sherman Association is asking the town for financial help while also seeking grants to cover the $10,300 cost of removing invasive weeds which have been dramatically spreading the past few years.
Association president Robert Chevalier said the $10,300 figure is based on a price quote from Lycott Environmental, Inc., of Southbridge, MA for a chemical treatment this spring to wipe out what has been identified as aquatic variegated milfoil.
The 55-member lake association is basing its case for financial assistance from the town in part on the fact that the town has a boat launch at the pond and that people go in swimming from the launch area.
"It's a landmark for the town and for anyone who is close to this town," said David W. McVeigh, a member of the association.
"We are trying to preserve it in any way we can," McVeigh said.
The association has applied to the Norcross Foundation for a grant for the weed eradication work and is considering other grant possibilities.
"We have been working on trying to get funding for three or four years," said Janet L. Hastings, the association vice president. Association members told the selectmen last week that the weeds already interfere with swimming and boating and, if left unchecked, they can spread to the point of choking the lake, which is only 12 feet deep at its deepest point. Link
-----------------------------------------------------------
Waging war on invasive plants in Connecticut
By Keila Torres, ConnPost.com
Invasive plants are taking over the state's parklands and killing off native species, throwing fragile eco-systems into turmoil as wildlife is starved of its natural food source.
Invasive species -- including Oriental bittersweet and Japanese barberry -- have become a widespread problem around the state, said Todd Mervosh, a weed scientist for the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven.
This year, the state Department of Environmental Protection is offering cities and towns grants to get rid of the annoying, non-native plants that have cropped up and taken root here.
The invasive species "are displacing the native vegetation, the plants that have always been here as part of our ecological system," Mervosh said. "There are a lot of animal species that co-exist with these native species, that depend on them."
Oriental bittersweet, an Asian vine with yellow fruit that entwines itself around other plants, is considered by many the "worst invasive plant in the state," he said.
Richard Tiani, executive director of Groundwork Bridgeport, said a group of Harding High School students working with his agency has also found a lot of Japanese barberry -- a vine that wraps around trees -- during their cleanup efforts in Bridgeport's parks and in surrounding towns.
"Over time it becomes so strong and heavy that it kills trees and pulls them down," Tiani said of the invasive plant.
The Harding "Green Team," working with Groundwork Bridgeport as paid summer interns, is partnering this year with the city of Bridgeport in a project to remove a multiflora rose and garlic mustard infestation in Veterans Memorial Park.
The city is seeking a $49,236 grant from the DEP to clean up a section of the 107-acre park. Another section of the park and wetlands, near the proposed Discovery Magnet School, will be cleaned up as part of the $31 million inter-district school project.
Getting rid of invasive plants is essential to preserving the city's parklands and wildlife, officials say.
Continued at Link
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Congress Approves Funds For Invasive Species Prevention
By KBJR News 1
Congress has granted nearly 1–million dollars to help slow the spread of invasive species into the Great Lakes Chain.
President Obama signed the bill into law this week, which will help researchers test various ways to treat ballast water before it's discharged into the lakes.
For more than 20 years invasive species have hitch hiked their way into the Great Lakes causing a wide range of economic and environmental problems.
From clogging water pipes to interfering with the lake's natural ecology, many environmental agencies have worked hard to slow the spread of these exotic pests.
The new funding will go towards the Great Ships Initiative which aims to do just that.
"The goal of the great ships initiative is to try to find ballast water treatment methods so that the water can be cleaned or sterilized before it is transported between one place to another."
Continued at Link
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Henry Hudson's majestic view altered by invasives
By Michael Risinit, LoHud.com
PHILIPSTOWN, NY - The slice of the Hudson River visible from a bluff on Little Stony Point in Philipstown probably appears much as it did to Henry Hudson and his crew aboard the Half Moon 400 years ago...
...The river was full of fish to levels that are just about unimaginable today," said Fran Dunwell, director of the state's Hudson River Estuary Program. "It was a very rich natural environment."
Dunwell recently wrote "The Hudson America's River." Waterfowl and other birds, she said, darkened the sky where they flew. Oak trees grew 70 feet tall without knots, perfect for shipbuilding. The banks, according to Juet, contained a "great store of goodly Oakes and Wal-nut trees and Chest-nut trees. Ewe trees and trees of sweet wood in great abundance, and great store of slate for houses, and other good stones."
Marshes lined most of the river, not just at Piermont, Iona Island and a few other places as they do today. Chairmaker's rush, horned pondweeds and umbrella sedge are gone, replaced by cattails and phragmites (aka common reed).
But seeds from the original plants are found in sediment cores pulled from the existing marshes, said Dorothy Peteet, a NASA senior researcher and an adjunct scientist with the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University in Palisades.
"We can see back in time," Peteet said. "I think it was vastly different. You had this diversity which would have gone up the food chain."
Read the full article at Link
----------------------------------------------------------
American chestnut ready to reign again
BY MORGAN SIMMONS SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE
After decades of selective breeding and countless hours of fieldwork, researchers believe they have developed an American chestnut tree that is ready to reclaim the Appalachian forests.
The first batch of these blight-resistant chestnut seedlings arrived recently at a greenhouse on the agricultural campus of the University of Tennessee, where workers trimmed the roots and identified each tree with a numbered tag.
The trees -- 1,200 in all -- were planted in three Southern national forests as a groundbreaking experiment to determine if decades of crossbreeding have produced a chestnut tree that is blight-resistant yet retains the superior timber qualities of the American chestnut tree.
"This is the very first planting of the final generation and the culmination of a lot of hard work," said Scott Schlarbaum, forest geneticist with the UT Department of Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries.
The trees were grown in a Georgia nursery in cooperation with the American Chestnut Foundation, an organization dedicated to restoring the American chestnut.
The American chestnut accounted for 25 percent of all the trees in the Appalachian mountains until a blight virtually eliminated them between 1904 and 1950.
Today, the airborne bark fungus still survives and kills virtually all American chestnuts by the time they've reached 20 feet in height.
For more than 30 years, the American Chestnut Foundation has been crossing Chinese chestnuts, which are naturally resistant to the blight, with American chestnuts to produce a super hybrid that can be reintroduced in the wild. Only American chestnuts that demonstrate natural blight resistance qualify for the breeding program, and scientists have been careful to breed trees from local environments.
Of the 1,200-year-old chestnut seedlings brought to the UT greenhouse, 500 were the blight-resistant hybrids. The remaining trees were either pure American chestnut, pure Chinese chestnut or hybrid trees from an intermediate back-cross generation.
Earlier this year, the 4-foot-tall seedlings were planted on national forest lands throughout the Southern Appalachian region. In the coming years, researchers will regularly monitor the trees for blight resistance, mortality and growth characteristics.
Stacy Clark, research forester for the Forest Service's Southern Research Station, said American chestnuts were renowned for their straight-grained wood and rapid growth rate.
"We want these trees to be blight-resistant, but also competitive," Clark said. "They're going out into the forest where they'll have to grow quickly to get above the deer browse, and compete with species like yellow poplar and red maple."
The goal of the American Chestnut Foundation was to breed a blight-resistant tree that is genetically 94 percent American chestnut. The foundation chose the Southern Appalachians as the proving ground for the final generation of seedlings because the region was once a stronghold for the American chestnut.
Clark, who leads the study for the U.S. Forest Service, said she is especially excited about two milestones in the trees' development: the fourth year of growth, which will reveal if the trees have held their own against competing species; and years 10 through 20, when American chestnuts normally succumb to the blight.
"If the trees are blight-resistant, we'll definitely know by that time," Clark said.
The chestnut blight robbed the Eastern forest of its undisputed champion. American chestnuts routinely grew 4 feet across and 120 feet high, and lived for centuries. The nuts were an important food source for a wide range of wildlife, and the rot-resistant wood was a prized building material.
Clark said that if the final generation of crossbred chestnuts survives in the national forests, this will raise great hopes about other species, like hemlocks and ash trees, that are being destroyed by nonnative pests.
"If we can restore this tree to its natural habitat, it will be the greatest success story in natural resource conservation," Clark said. Link
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Local anglers weigh in on aquatic weed control in Tennessee
Daimon Duggar, MarionCountyNews.net
Though many in Marion County are disappointed with last year’s decision by the Tennessee Valley Authority’s to discontinue aquatic weed control in the Nickajack reservoir, there is another segment of the community that couldn’t be happier: Fishermen.
According to a number of local fishermen and those in the fishing industry, TVA’s aquatic weed control program presents a danger to one of the area’s most popular sports and pastimes.
Last Saturday, March 7, dozens of fishermen and fishing enthusiasts gathered at Sullivan’s Landing on Highway 41 for the annual Grassmasters fishing tournament. The name of the competition says it all and reflects the opinion of many regarding the indispensable nature of aquatic growth as it relates to fishing.
“(Aquatic weed control) is really hard on the fish,” said fisherman Darren “Dobie” Kilgore. “It kills grass on humps. If they only did it in channels it wouldn’t be a big deal.”
A common complaint among fishermen is that the weed control program is non-selective. In addition to killing invasive exotic species, many feel, the long standing program also killed native aquatic grasses that allow the reservoirs variety of fish, including large mouth bass, to thrive.
“Grass helps the whole ecosystem. We used to have a good bank but not any more. It has been bad for 10 years,” said Marion County resident and fisherman Roger Kendrick...
...Avid fisherman and stakeholder Jim Henry worries that TVA’s discontinuance of their weed control problem will be more of a detriment to fishing than would unfettered growth however.
“It’s a mess and its going to be a lot worse,” said Henry. “There’s a lot of spots that you won’t be able to get to now. Mullin’s cove, for example. It was already hard to navigate it. This year I think its going to be impossible. This year will absolutely be worse.”
Only time will tell the wisdom of TVA’s new policy. But for fishermen and stakeholders alike, aquatic weed control in the Nickajack Reservoir will continue to be a growing problem.
Read the full article at Link
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South East Exotic Pest Plant Council 11th Annual Symposium
Creating Sustainable Landscapes for the Future
May 13-15, 2009
Quality Inn and Suites
Georgetown, SC
Agenda and Registration available online. Go to http://www.se-eppc.org/2009/ for all conference information.
Deadline to Register and Reserve hotel room: April 13, 2009.
Plenary speaker topics to include:
- Raising funds for your invasive species project
- Innovative approaches to effective invasive programs through partnerships
- Invasive plants from the perspective of the nursery/landscape industry
Other topics addressed through platform presentations and field trips include:
- Current research in invasive plant control and land restoration
- Building communication and consensus among key players
- Building cooperative weed and invasive species management areas
- Early Detection and Rapid Response efforts
- Control of tidal marsh invasives (ie. Chinese tallow, phragmites)
- And more!
Wonderful fieldtrips, workshops, and social events planned!
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'Red Baron' Nabbed In Baltimore
WBAL Radio as reported by Scott Wykoff
A Customs and Border Protection plant seed interception was confirmed on Monday (3/9/09) as the Baltimore area’s first reported discovery of cogon grass weed seed, aka Red Baron grass seed, and just as the legendary Red Baron was a menace to allied fighters during World War I, Red Baron grass has become a despised invasive weed throughout parts of the United States.
During a routine inspection on Friday at the Baltimore seaport, CBP agriculture specialists discovered weed seeds littered among non-compliant wood packing in a container of travertine tile that arrived from Turkey. On Monday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture pest identifier database determined the seeds to be Imperata cylindrica, or cogon grass, a Federal Noxious Weed, and confirmed that this is Baltimore’s first Red Baron seed report.
According to the USDA, cogon grass is an invasive weed from Asia that spreads quickly and disrupts ecosystems, reduces wildlife habitat and can decrease tree seedling growth and establishment. Cogon grass is considered one of the 10 worst invasive plant species in the world and is listed as a federal noxious weed. Cogon grass is believed to have invaded more than one million acres in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, and Texas.
“This interception is a significant find for our agriculture specialists, and it further illustrates our continued commitment to protect America’s agriculture industry and our economy from invasive insect pests and plants,” said James Swanson, CBP Port Director for the Port of Baltimore. “Invasive species pose dire consequences on our nation’s economy, potentially more so than even a single terrorist act could have.”
CBP issued an Emergency Action Notification to the importer to immediately re-export the container. Link
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Call for volunteers in Virginia for first Invasive Plant Removal Day on May 2
(Media-Newswire.com) - Volunteers are needed across the Commonwealth to help remove invasive plants that are wreaking havoc on Virginia’s landscape. The Virginia Master Naturalists and the Virginia Native Plant Society are seeking help Saturday, May 2nd at locations throughout Virginia in the first ever Invasive Plant Removal Day.
“From kudzu to English Ivy to tree of heaven, there are dozens of invasive species that are causing both ecological and economical harm,” said Michelle Prysby, Virginia Master Naturalist coordinator. “These invasive plants out-compete native species for the same resources, eventually harming trees, wildlife and water quality.”
The Virginia Native Plant Society and the Virginia Master Naturalists are sponsoring this event. Activities are being coordinated locally, and interested people can learn more about how and where they can help by going to www.virginiamasternaturalist.org/invasives/index.html .
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Feds release invaders to save native plants
BY JIM WAYMER • FLORIDA TODAY
They're using new invaders to devour old ones. And while these weevils gobble, they won't wolf down the plants that belong in Florida.
To give native plants a fighting chance, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers this year announced a $16.6 million plan to send at least 14 invasive bug species on seek-and-destroy missions.
Biologists would set the insects free -- some just a few miles from Brevard County -- along 18,000 square miles from south of Orlando to the Florida Reef Tract in an effort to preserve the character of the Everglades.
They say the bugs will spread to the Space Coast and beyond. And they assure their introduction won't trigger further ecological harm.
"You don't let these things go and . . . forget about them," said Donald Strong, an ecologist and "biocontrol" expert at the University of California, Berkeley. "In the large majority of cases, the insects are chosen and put through rigorous tests based on the fact that they don't attack other things."
The invasive insects in coming years would control Florida's massive problem with melaleuca, Brazilian pepper, Old World climbing fern and Australian pine...
...The insects won't completely wipe out the targeted trees, just keep them in check. That could take two decades or longer.
The melaleuca weevil, for example, can eat away about 98 percent of the tree's seed production, said Ted Center, research leader in Davie.
"What we're basically doing is biologically sterilizing the tree. We're not eliminating the plant. We're neutering it," Center said...
...In addition to melaleuca, the Corps proposes to fight three other notorious invasive plants with insects.
Brazilian pepper: Unlike melaleuca, no one's quite sure how it got here. Most credit a doctor in Port Charlotte. Fond of how the tree looked, he raised hundreds of them in the 1920s, passing them to friends. The Corps hopes a sawfly, a thrips and a weevil can undo the doctor's good work.
Old World climbing fern: Two moths, a gall mite and a stem borer will tackle this much more recent invasion. A Delray Beach nursery introduced the fern -- a native of Africa, Asia and Australia -- in the late 1950s.
Australian pine: A seed wasp planned for release in the next few years holds the most promise to battle back the Australian pine, introduced to Florida in the late 1800s.
Although some past "biocontrols" grew into problems themselves, government biologists assure their extreme caution and long, careful study make these insects the best way to restore a more natural state.
Read the full article at Link
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U.S. Birds Struggling to Survive
WASHINGTON, DC, March 19, 2009 (ENS) - Nearly one-third of the more than 800 bird species in the United States are endangered, threatened or in decline due to climate change, habitat loss, and invasive species, finds the first comprehensive report ever produced on U.S. bird populations.
At a news conference in Washington today, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar released the report, which was developed by a partnership among the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Geological Survey, state government wildlife agencies and nongovernmental organizations...
"Just as they were when Rachel Carson published "Silent Spring" nearly 50 years ago, birds today are a bellwether of the health of land, water and ecosystems," Salazar said. "From shorebirds in New England to warblers in Michigan to songbirds in Hawaii, we are seeing disturbing downward population trends that should set off environmental alarm bells. We must work together now to ensure we never hear the deafening silence in our forests, fields and backyards that Rachel Carson warned us about."
...Invasive plants and animals are major threats. Domestic and feral cats kill hundreds of millions of birds each year. Island nesting birds, particularly seabirds, are vulnerable since they nest on the ground or in burrows and are preyed upon by rats, foxes, cats, dogs, and mongooses.
Read the full article at Link
Monday, July 21, 2008
Week of July 20, 2008
Updated July 24
CHINESE MITTEN CRAB ALERT
Live Chinese Mitten Crabs (Eriocheir sinensis) have been found in Chesapeake Bay (2005-2007), Delaware Bay (2007), Hudson River (2007-2008), and most recently in New Jersey (2008). To date, there have been 19 crabs documented and confirmed in the eastern United States, including four states, all in the past four years.
In New Jersey, mitten crabs were found in Toms River (June 1, 2008) and Raritan Bay (June 17, 2008). The Toms River crab is the first confirmed record in the state of New Jersey. The male crab, measuring 50mm, was found crawling on a crab holding pen (peeler pot). The second crab caught in New Jersey was collected by a commercial waterman in the Raritan Bay near Keyport, NJ on June 17, 2008; it has been identified through pictures as an adult mitten crab, sex still unconfirmed. This crab apparently was not the waterman’s first catch, as the species was reportedly observed in the same area at least weekly for the three weeks prior to this catch.
Also in 2008, four other mitten crabs were captured in the Hudson River, New York, including one female (20mm on June 3) and three males (16-26mm from June 9 to July 18). All crabs were caught in freshwater near Tivoli, NY, approximately 100 miles inland along the Hudson River by a research scientist, who was studying eel movement on local tributaries. A total of seven mitten crabs have been confirmed for Hudson River to date.
Please Report Any New Sightings.
To determine the status, abundance, and distribution of this species along the eastern U.S., we have established a Mitten Crab Network. The Network began as a partnership among several state, federal, and research organizations, with an initial focus on Chesapeake and Delaware Bays. We have now expanded the Network to include resource managers, commercial fishermen, research organizations, and citizens along the eastern U.S.
Please help by reporting any mitten crabs directly to the Network or to your state resource manager.
Identification
• Commonly found in fresh waters of North America, but can occur in saltwater bays and estuaries.
• Claws equal in size with white tips and appear furry (with thick mats of hair-like covering on claws).
• If you find a crab, with a carapace length over one inch and no hair on the claws, it is NOT likely to be a Mitten Crab. NOTE: Juveniles under one inch may not have hair on the claws.
• Carapace up to 4 inches wide; light brown to olive green in color.
• No swimming legs. This crab has eight sharp-tipped walking legs.
If you catch a mitten crab, do not throw it back alive!
• Freeze the animal, keep it on ice, or preserve it in rubbing alcohol as a last resort.
• Note the precise location and date where the animal was found.
• Please take a close-up photo of the animal. Photos can be emailed to SERCMittenCrab@si.edu for preliminary identification. Include your contact information with the photo.
• If you cannot take a photo, contact the Mitten Crab Hotline (443-482-2222)
For additional information please visit http://www.serc.si.edu/labs/marine_invasions/ for updated Mitten Crab reports, downloadable pamphlets on the Chinese Mitten Crab Survey Program, and how to distinguish a Mitten Crab from other crabs in the region.
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Mile-a-minute vine removal in LaGrange, NY postponed
By John Davis, Poughkeepsie Journal
FREEDOM PLAINS, NY - It appears the LaGrange town government will not attempt to eradicate the invasive mile-a-minute vine until the spring.
This is because it will take at least two months to obtain a necessary state conservation permit to mow or pull out the weed along Jackson Creek. And the spring is the best time to combat the annual by either spraying with a herbicide or mowing the sprouting weeds.
"Mowing is probably the cheapest way to go," said Wendy Wollerton, a horticultural lab technician with Cornell Cooperative Extension in Millbrook.
The LaGrange town government has been trying to deal with mile-a-minute vine since the invasive species was discovered last year in several parts of town, including LaGrange Park on Noxon Road. It is also growing along portions of routes 82 and 55 and on the former farmland behind Blessed Kateri church where a bigger church building is under construction.
"There's really an infestation at the intersection of (routes) 82 and 55. It's all over," said Dutchess County Legislator William McCabe, D-LaGrangeville.
LaGrange Councilman Joseph Luna, a Republican, said the owner of the LaGrange Country Commons shopping plaza at the highway intersection plans to attack the vine with a weed whacker this summer.
The mile-a-minute vine has a sinister reputation for quickly growing and smothering other plants, crops and even trees.
"It can grow up to six inches a day," said Wollerton, who gave a presentation on mile-a-minute vine in LaGrange town hall recently.
The Dutchess County Legislature in June approved spending $59,000 to comb the mile-a-minute vine and other invasive species. Exactly $10,000 of that amount goes to the Town of LaGrange, where the vine is most prevalent. Article and Video
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Vermont targets invasive species
By Howard Weiss-Tisman, Brattleboro Reformer
BRATTLEBORO, VT -- The state took its fight against invasive species in Vermont's waterways to the front line this weekend.
The Department of Environmental Conservation held a workshop Sunday to spread the word about the serious threat posed by non-native plants, fish and other organisms in Vermont's streams, rivers and lakes.
The environmental officials were also there to try to get concerned water lovers to commit to joining the Vermont Invasive Patrollers, a volunteer group that keeps a lookout for invasive species and reports them to the environmental conservation department when they are found.
"We have only two people who are working on aquatic invasive species," explained Leslie Matthews, an environmental scientist with DEC who led the workshop Sunday. "We can't be the eyes and ears for the whole state, and we depend on the public to help us."
Matthews showed up at the presentation with bottles of preserved invasive fish and trays of the most dangerous plants.
Vermont has seen a sharp rise in both the number of invasive species and the locations where they are found.
The appearance last year of didymo, or rock snot, which has killed thousands of fish in the Midwest, and the spread of zebra mussels and Eurasian watermilfoil, has driven the state to start the citizen program.
Matthews said the department has been holding meetings all summer like the one held in Brattleboro Sunday.
Almost 40 people have signed on to the program so far, agreeing to monitor a waterway and conduct at least two surveys during the summer for the presence of invasive plants or animals.
Public education is one of the most important first lines of defense, Matthews said, and it is important for boaters and anglers to get into the habit of washing down their equipment to prevent the spread of the plants and organisms. Article
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Job opening: Invasive non-native species coordinator
This is a joint position between The Nature Conservancy’s Northwest Florida Program (NWFL) and U. S. Forest Service (USFS) Apalachicola National Forest.
Participates in preserve operations including the maintenance, management and development and coordination of conservation programs. This may include one or more of the following functions:
· Leads work teams
· Furthers the Conservancy’s strategic goals
· Removes exotic species and/or monitors removal efforts
· Maintains tools and equipment
· Operates heavy machinery
Potential candidates must submit resume, cover letter and application through The Nature Conservancy website. Please submit resume and cover letter as one document. www.nature.org/careers
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Tyler Smith joins APIPP team as aquatics coordinator
The Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program (APIPP) welcomes Tyler Smith to the Adirondack Invasive Species Team. Tyler joins Hilary Oles and Steven Flint at the Adirondack Chapter of The Nature Conservancy in Keene Valley. Tyler will focus on the wet side of invasive species as the Aquatic Invasive Species Project Coordinator.
Funding from the USFWS enabled APIPP to hire Tyler on a short-term basis. He is assisting the implementation of the Adirondack Aquatic Nuisance Species Management Plan.
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Invasive paper wasp population is growing in New York
By Nancy Madsen, Watertown Daily Times
It looks like a yellow jacket and acts like a wasp.
It's a European paper wasp, or Polistes dominulus, an invasive species that is more aggressive than native wasps and is steadily increasing its population in the north country.
"Every year, it's clearly displacing the native species," said Leland K. Russell, a senior technician at All Pest Inc., Adams Center.
He estimated that over the past five years, the invasive wasp species has increased so that it's 50 percent to 60 percent of the paper wasps he sees.
The invasive wasp is the most abundant paper wasp in the Mediterranean region, according to a fact sheet from Penn State University.
It was first discovered in the U.S. in Cambridge, Mass., during the late 1970s. The small wasp, which resembles a yellow jacket, has spread throughout the Northeast to states in the Midwest and West.
Fact sheets from Penn State University, Cornell University and Colorado State University indicated that the invasive is more aggressive, smaller and faster than native species. Like native paper wasps, the queens opt for protected areas, such as under eaves, in attics and in birdhouses.
But Mr. Russell said the European paper wasp is less selective and will build large colonies, even up to 50 nests together.
And unlike the native species, the invasive also reuses nests, which gives the insect a head start on reproduction each year.
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New research in Maryland seeks methods to kill alien species
By Tom Pelton, BaltimoreSun.com
Scientists at a new research center in Maryland will test strategies to kill invasive species and prevent them from hurting the Chesapeake Bay, according to an announcement scheduled for today.
More than 150 exotic species are now thriving in the bay, often hitchhiking here in the ballast water of ships from Asia and Europe. A few of the most aggressive, like the oyster-killing parasite MSX, have overwhelmed native creatures.
The new Maritime Environmental Resource Center at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science will be based in Solomons in Southern Maryland and receive about $5 million over five years from the state and federal governments.
Scientists plan to test ultraviolet light, filters and chemicals to see how effective they are at destroying exotic larvae and other creatures inadvertently transported in ship ballast tanks. Initial studies have already begun aboard a ship in Baltimore. Article
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New Hampshire workshop will help Seacoast landowners combat invasive plants
If you live in New Hampshire's coastal watershed and would like to learn the most effective ways to remove invasive plant species, come to a free, hands-on workshop, "It's Your Choice: Invasive Plant Species Options for Homeowners," on August 2, 2008, from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Great Bay Discovery Center, 89 Depot Road in Greenland, N.H. (Rain date is August 9). New Hampshire's coastal watershed spans 42 towns in Strafford and Rockingham counties. Staff of the Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (GBNERR), and the U.S. Forest Service are partnering to present the program.
At the workshop, participants will learn how to identify the most common invasive plants and overview both chemical and pesticide-free options for their removal. The session will explain the best removal techniques for conditions specific to your yard, and suggest species that could be planted as an alternative to invasives. It also will provide an overview of potential funding sources and tool loan programs available to support these efforts.
The Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve is a cooperative federal-state partnership between the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department and the National Oceanice and Atmospheric Administration. Visit http://www.greatbay.org/.
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Additional discoveries of didymo in New York State fishing rivers
ALBANY, NY (07/22/2008; 1302)(readMedia)-- The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) today announced the presence of the invasive algae didymo (Didymosphenia geminata) in the West Branch of the Delaware River downstream from the Cannonsville Reservoir, indicating that the main stem of the Delaware River is now infested as well.
This is the latest recorded incident of this aquatic nuisance species - also called "rock snot" - in New York State. Didymo has now been verified in the Batten Kill, the East Branch of the Delaware River downstream from the Pepacton Reservoir and the West Branch of the Delaware River downstream Cannonsville Reservoir. The main stem of the Delaware River is now also considered to be infested due to exposure from its East and West Branch tributaries. Currently, didymo is not known to be present in any other New York waterway.
The Delaware tailwaters are one of the premier trout fisheries on the East Coast, and are a popular destination for large numbers of anglers. The discovery of didymo in these waters is particularly troubling given their proximity to other famous trout streams, notably the Beaver Kill and Willowemoc Creek, and the tendency of anglers to fish multiple streams over the course of a day or weekend.
The microscopic algae - an invasive species to New York - can survive for many days in cool, damp conditions. Porous materials such as neoprene waders and felt soles used by wading anglers are prime suspects in the spread of didymo among streams.
Didymo cells can produce large amounts of stalk material that forms thick mats on stream bottoms. The appearance of these mats has been compared to brown shag carpet, fiberglass insulation, or tissue paper (picture can be seen at http://www.dec.ny.gov/environmentdec/36890.html ). During blooms these mats may completely cover long stretches of stream beds and persist for months. The stalk material produced by didymo is slow to break down and may persist for up to two months following its peak growth.
While didymo does not pose a threat to human health, it can alter stream conditions, choking out many of the organisms that live on the stream bottom, potentially causing a ripple effect up the food chain affecting trout and other fish. Didymo has historically been limited to cold, nutrient-poor, northern waters, but in recent decades has been expanding its range and its tolerance to warmer and more productive streams.
Once introduced to an area, didymo can rapidly spread to nearby streams. Anglers, kayakers, swimmers, canoeists, boaters and jet skiers can all unknowingly spread didymo by transporting the cells on boats, bodies and other gear. There are currently no known methods for controlling or eradicating didymo once it infests a water body.
Anglers, canoeists, kayakers, boaters, or others who witness and suspect the presence of didymo in state waters are advised to contact DEC with the location so that samples can be taken to document and monitor the algae's spread.
DEC continues to urge anglers and other water recreationists to Check, Clean and Dry to prevent the introduction and spread of didymo and other potentially invasive organisms from one water to another:
Check -- Before leaving a river or stream, remove all obvious clumps of algae and look for hidden clumps. Leave them at the affected site. If you find any later, do not wash them down drains; dispose of all material in the trash.
Clean -- Treatment varies depending on what needs to be cleaned. Be sure that the solution completely penetrates thick absorbent items such as felt-soled waders and wading boots.
Non-absorbent items:
Detergent or salt: soak or spray all surfaces for at least one minute in a 5% solution (by volume) of dishwashing detergent or salt (7 ounces of detergent or salt added to water to make one gallon); or
Bleach: soak or spray all surfaces for at least one minute in a 2% solution (by volume) of household bleach (3 ounces of bleach added to water to make one gallon); or
Hot water: soak for at least one minute in very hot water kept above 140 °F (hotter than most tap water) or for at least 20 minutes or in hot water kept above 115 °F (uncomfortable to touch).
Absorbent items require longer soaking times. For example, felt-soled waders require:
Hot water: soak for at least 40 minutes in hot water kept above 115 °F; or
Hot water plus detergent: soak for 30 minutes in hot water kept above 115 °F containing 5% dishwashing detergent.
Dry -- If cleaning is not practical, after the item is completely dry to the touch, wait an additional 48 hours before contact or use in any other waterway. Check thick absorbent items closely to assure that they are dry throughout. Equipment and gear can also be placed in a freezer until all moisture is frozen solid.
NOTE: If cleaning, drying or freezing is not practical, restrict equipment to a single water body. While DEC recommends anglers always take these precautions, it is especially important that any gear used out of state be treated before using in New York waters.
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Declaration of exterior quarantine in North Carolina for European wood wasp (Sirex noctilio)
The Commissioner of Agriculture, North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (NCDA&CS) hereby immediately establishes an exterior quarantine for the European Wood Wasp (Sirex noctilio) for the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Vermont, and other states found to be infested with European Wood Wasp. This exterior quarantine is needed to prevent the establishment or potential spread of the European Wood Wasp into North Carolina and other states. Link
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Emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis) in Fairfax County, Virginia
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) confirmed the identification of Emerald Ash Borer (EAB), in Fairfax County, Virginia, on July 9, 2008. This EAB detection is in close proximity to Dulles International Airport. The initial detection was made on July 7, 2008, by an employee from the Virginia Department of Forestry (VDF), who noticed several suspect EAB exit holes. The VDF informed the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) who, in turn, notified APHIS of the suspect EAB find. Link
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Judge: EPA must regulate ship water discharge
By Malia Wollan, Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — An appeals court Wednesday upheld a ruling ordering the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate the water discharged from ships as a way to protect local ecosystems from invasive species.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said it agreed with the federal judge who in 2005 ruled that the EPA exceeded its authority in exempting certain ship discharges from the pollution control requirements of the 1972 Clean Water Act.
A handful of environmental groups and states sued the EPA to require it to regulate ballast water because of concerns that invasive aquatic species such as mollusks were being pumped into local waters.
Except for sewage, ship discharges are exempt from regulation. Wednesday's court ruling applies to bilge water and non-sewage wastewater from a ships' showers, laundries, galleys and engines.
While the EPA was appealing the judge's decision, it also drafted regulations requiring oceangoing freighters to dump ballast water at least 200 miles from shore and refill their tanks with new seawater to flush and kill invasive freshwater species.
The agency is taking public comments on the regulations, which would take effect Sept. 30.
"We're reviewing the decision to determine next steps," Benjamin H. Grumbles, EPA's assistant administrator for water said in a statement. "It's commonsense and good environmental policy not to require millions of boaters and vessel owners to get federal clean water permits."
The ruling comes as efforts to establish a federal standard for cleaning up ballast water have stalled in Congress.
Six states, including New York, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, joined as plaintiffs in the suit. A shipping industry group joined the EPA in fighting the regulations. Article
Comments from New York DEC:
"This is a critical victory that will help protect our waters from invasive species and their damaging impacts to our environment and economy," Commissioner Grannis of the New York State Department of Environemental Conservation (DEC) said. "Today we renew our call for EPA to uphold its responsibility under the law and implement effective controls to address these present and growing threats to our native ecosystems."
While EPA appealed the 2006 decision, DEC began the process of promulgating regulations for ballast water. Last year, DEC provided input to assist in the development of the regulations that would significantly and effectively help prevent ballast water from introducing invasive species to New York's -- and the nation's -- environment. Among the recommendations, Grannis said the EPA should require mandatory flushing of ballast water prior to entering inland waters. More information about DEC's comments can be found at http://www.dec.ny.gov/press/36857.html .
EPA announced draft regulations, "General Permits for Discharges Incidental to the Normal Operation of a Vessel," in June 2008. DEC will be submitting extensive comments on the draft by August 1 because they do not go far enough in addressing DEC's recommendations and close the existing ballast water loophole in the Clean Water Act.
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Divers in Vermont keep milfiol at bay
By KATHRYN FLAGG, Addison County Independent
SALISBURY — Collin Tompkins was one of the first out of the old Lund boat, springing onto the narrow dock while the 16-foot craft shimmied up alongside its moorings.
He, like the other three young men in the boat, was damp and smiling. It was a game of back and forth for a little while, and the four men, their wetsuits slung down to mid-waist, looked like they’ve done this a hundred times. Someone secured the boat. Another hoisted their dripping scuba equipment into a deep wheelbarrow.
And among the last items unloaded onto the dock, and then piled into the wheelbarrow, were several mesh bags filled with heavy, wet weeds — Eurasian watermilfoil, the invasive species this team of young divers is at work carefully plucking from Lake Dunmore’s lakebed.
Tompkins, 22, Nate Bierschenk, 19, Derek LaRosee, 19, and Will Pitkin, 17, are the specially trained corps of divers that make up the Lake Dunmore/Fern Lake Association (LDFLA) Milfoil Project. They’re charged with keeping the milfoil problem in Lake Dunmore and Fern Lake — Dunmore’s little sister — in check.
But in addition to serving as lake watch guards, these divers also happen to be a friendly gaggle of students — boys happy with a summer job that puts them on the lake, in the water and among good company.
It’s a remarkable team, in large part because Tompkins, Bierschenk, Pitkin and LaRosee — and the “Lake System Monitors” who have staffed the project in previous summers — demonstrate that it is possible to control milfoil in an environmentally friendly way, without chemicals, herbicides or lumbering, expensive mechanical harvesters.
In fact, the project, which got its start in 1994, received an award a few years ago from the Environmental Protection Agency for modeling environmentally friendly practices in milfoil control.
And most troublesome of all, especially for Tompkins and his crew, is the plant’s propensity to fragment — both naturally and because of human disturbance. If even just a one-inch piece of the plant stalk or root breaks off, it can grow into a new plant.
“You want to grab it by the roots,” said Bierschenk. “Underwater, you can actually hear it a lot better — you can hear the roots ripping and tearing.”
They estimated that a plant will fragment on them up to 75 percent of the time — leaving them scrambling underwater to scoop up the remnants.
The monitors start their day with morning surveys. That means peering at the surface of Lake Dunmore or Fern Lake through polarized sunglasses, which eliminate the reflection and function, Tompkins said, “like x-ray for the water.”
Other times, Tompkins said, wielding a bright yellow piece of plastic that resembles a fin, they’ll use the tow board. Wearing a snorkel and mask, one diver will grab hold of the board while the boat tows him behind. Angling the board toward the lake’s floor, he’ll take one deep breath and then swoop down to scan for milfoil weeds.
They drop buoys in areas where they locate milfoil, and then return in the afternoons. Depending on the depth of the weeds — which can grow as deep as 15 to 20 feet — they break out their snorkels or diving equipment and go about the work of hand-plucking the plants.
“We’re not trying to eradicate it,” Bierschenk said — the project is more concerned with simply maintaining the status quo, and the divers are doing their best to keep the problem from spreading.
Last year, the crew — which included now-veterans Tompkins, Pitkin and Bierschenk — pulled 13,000 plants. Compared with what volunteers and early divers dragged from the lake — upwards of 21,000 plants in 1995 — it’s a modest harvest. Article
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