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Archive Fall 2009
Updated 10-23-09
Freshwater Species Suffer Most as Extinctions Rise
Creatures and plants living in rivers and lakes are the most threatened on Earth because their ecosystems are collapsing, scientists said on Sunday. They urged the creation of a new partnership between governments and scientists to help stem extinctions caused by humans via pollution, a spread of cities and expanding farms to feed a rising population, climate change and invasive species.
"Massive mismanagement and growing human needs for water are causing freshwater ecosystems to collapse, making freshwater species the most threatened on Earth," according to Diversitas, an international grouping of biodiversity experts.
Extinction rates for species living in freshwater were "four to six times higher than their terrestrial and marine cousins". Fish, frogs, crocodiles or turtles are among freshwater species.
The Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks has confirmed the presence of zebra mussels in Wilson Reservoir, 55 miles west of Salina in Russell County. The owner of Marine Specialty in Wilson was working on a boat from Wilson Reservoir when he  noticed zebra mussels on the boat hull. He quickly notified KDWP and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (COE) officials about his discovery. KDWP fisheries biologist Tommie Berger soon discovered live zebra mussels in Wilson Reservoir, and marina staff found them attached to other boats at the lake.
Wilson Reservoir is a 9,000-acre impoundment on the Saline River. This discovery makes Wilson the westernmost zebra mussel-infested water in Kansas. Downstream reservoirs, such as Milford near Junction City, are now at risk for infestation if the mussels are carried in the Saline from Wilson. Because of its westward isolation from other infested waters, Wilson's infestation is likely the result of transport by lake users.
Flower fanciers have generally forsaken native plants over the years for the fashionable and the flashy, but the robust perennials are quickly becoming garden chic and the center of an ongoing conservation campaign. The handbook of the natural landscape movement may be Douglas Tallamy's ''Bringing Nature Home: How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens'' (2007, Timber Press), which brings into sharp focus the relationships between plants and wildlife.
''Plants generate the food for all the terrestrial life on the planet,'' Tallamy, a professor and chair of the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, said in an interview.
''Insects and birds are disappearing because we're starving them with the wrong kinds of plants when we landscape,'' he said.
THE MOUNDS OF reeking garbage on the edge of this settlement 960 kilometers off Ecuador’s Pacific coast are proof that one species is thriving on the fragile archipelago whose unique wildlife inspired Darwin’s theory of evolution: man.
Tiny gray finches, descendants of birds that were crucial to his thesis, flutter around the dump, which serves a growing town of Ecuadoreans who have moved here to work in the islands’ thriving tourism industry.
 Photo by RUTH FREMSON/THE NEW YORK TIMES
The burgeoning human population of the Galapagos, which doubled to about 30,000 in the last decade, has unnerved environmentalists. They point to evidence that the growth is already harming the ecosystem that allowed the islands’ more famous inhabitants - among them giant tortoises and boobies with brightly colored webbed feet - to evolve in isolation before mainlanders started colonizing the islands more than a century ago.
Letchworth State Park (Kansas) has a Whitetail deer problem and is being stripped of its rare, varied plant life. The deer also are spreading invasive species that are making the situation even worse, and the deer overpopulation has led to 61 motor vehicle collisions in the area over the past five years.
Letchworth officials are considering a late archery season to reduce the deer population in the sanctuary area of the park’s southern end, where hunting has been prohibited for years. Under the plan, 50 permits would be issued to hunters and the season would be conducted in December.
There are good arguments on both sides of this issue, but we believe Letchworth’s sanctuary area should remain just that. Hunting isn’t the only effective way of controlling deer populations and protecting rare plant life.
Shaping the Future of America's Outdoor Resources
The nation’s parks, public lands, waterways, and other outdoor recreational assets provide the American public a multitude of benefits, but a new study by Resources for the Future concludes that they face major challenges in funding and maintaining the condition of these lands and associated amenities.
This wide-ranging study, The State of the Great Outdoors: America's Parks, Public Lands, and Recreation Resources, delves into the status of America’s outdoor resources, the demand for recreation, and the financing of conservation, parks, and open space. It was carried out in conjunction with the Outdoor Resources Review Group, a bipartisan assemblage of public officials, conservation specialists, and recreation professionals that released its own policy recommendations in a July 2009 report.
The Nature Conservancy (www.nature.org), working with industry partners and scientists, is supporting revamped regulations proposed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to improve its ongoing efforts to block non-native insects and diseases from entering the country and protect American homeowners, businesses, agriculture and native trees.
First adopted in 1918, U.S. regulations governing international trade in plants have remained fundamentally unchanged as this trade has mushroomed to at least 500 million plants imported each year. The U.S. government is accepting public comments until Oct. 21 on the revised rules. Read the full story to get the details.
Tamarisk Beetle ( Diorhabda spp.) found along Colorado River within Grand Canyon National Park
Grand Canyon, Ariz. –Biologists and ecologists from the National Park Service and the Tamarisk Coalition, based in Grand Junction, Colorado, recently found the first tamarisk leaf beetle (Diorhabda spp.) in Grand Canyon National Park. The tamarisk leaf beetle, which feeds specifically on tamarisk, was approved for release as a biological control agent in certain areas of the west in 2001 to help manage tamarisk. Also known as salt cedar, tamarisk (Tamarix spp.) is a highly invasive plant native to Eurasia that grows along the Colorado River and in riparian habitats throughout the southwest. Tamarisk, which is particularly successful in areas with altered flow regimes, impacts water resources, native plant diversity, wildlife habitat, and recreation, and poses an increased wildfire risk where it grows in dense stands.
Photo: Dan Bean, Colorado Department of Agriculture
The Department of Natural Resources has found cases of botulism in shore birds on the Green Bay side of Door County this month.
Tests at the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison show evidence of Type E botulism toxicity in ring-billed gulls.
The cause of the outbreak is not completely known, but Julie Langenberg, wildlife veterinarian with the DNR, said that a leading explanation is the growing presence of invasive species in Lake Michigan.
Langenberg said that birds such as ring-billed and herring gulls and cormorants eat invasive species like zebra and quagga mussels and somehow concentrate the naturally occurring botulism. Botulism spores germinate and grow into toxic bacteria. The botulism doesn't seem to affect the invasives, she said.
Updated 10-9-09
Fighting invasive weeds on the Platte River
Invasive weeds that thrive in wetlands seriously harm wildlife habitat and water flows in the Platte River, but University of Nebraska-Lincoln researchers are working to combat them.
Phragmites, also known as common reed, grow profusely along the river, particularly between Grand Island and North Platte, said Stevan Knezevic, integrated weed management specialist. Mechanical, cultural, chemical and biological control methods are being used to fight phragmites.
photo: courtsey Gary Stone, Panhandle Research & Extension Center
North Dakota to Set Up Zebra Mussel Check Stations
Bismarck, N.D. (AP) North Dakota wildlife officials plan to set up check stations in popular duck hunting sites during the waterfowl hunting season to help guard against zebra mussels.
The striped shellfish that is considered a nuisance species recently was found in northwestern Minnesota, and the North Dakota Game and Fish Department is trying to stem further spread of the mussels west.
Lynn Schlueter, the aquatic nuisance species coordinator for the department, says the lake where the mussels were found in Minnesota is a popular destination for many North Dakotans.
Photo: courtsey D. Hamilton, California Dept. Fish and Game
Across the Country, Invasive Pest Species Are Causing Problems
National Pest Management Association.
Conservative estimates by the Smithsonian Institution put the number of known insect species found in the United States at more than 91,000 -- not including an additional 73,000 unidentified species. These numbers are likely to climb as increased international travel and shipping provide a means for foreign insects (invasive species), to more easily infiltrate the country. The National Pest Management Association urges vigilance against invasive species.
A new study from Ecological Economics reports on future costs of Emerald Ash Borer.
As of March 2009, isolated populations of emerald ash
borer (EAB) have been detected in nine additional states and Quebec. EAB is a highly invasive forest pest that
has the potential to spread and kill native ash trees (Fraxinus sp.) throughout the United States.  We estimate
the discounted cost of ash treatment, removal, and replacement on developed land within communities in a
25-state study area centered on Detroit using simulations of EAB spread and infestation over the next decade
(2009–2019). An estimated 38 million ash trees occur on this land base. The simulations predict an
expanding EAB infestation that will likely encompass most of the 25 states and warrant treatment, removal,
and replacement of more than 17 million ash trees with mean discounted cost of $10.7 billion.
photo:David Cappaert, Invasive.org
Availability of an Environmental Assessment for a Biological Control Agent for Japanese Beetle
Federal Register:APHIS, USDA
SUMMARY: We are advising the public that the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has prepared an environmental assessment relative to the control of Japanese beetle (Popillia japonica).
The environmental assessment considers the effects of, and alternatives to, the release of a bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis japonensis, into the continental United States for the use of biological control to reduce the severity of infestations of Japanese beetle on turfgrass. We are making the environmental assessment available to the public for review and comment.
photo:copyright Marlin E. Rice
Introduced Japanese White-eyes Pose Major Threat To Hawaii's Native And Endangered Birds
ScienceDaily (Sep. 18, 2009) — In the late 1920s, people intentionally introduced birds known as Japanese white-eyes into Hawaiian agricultural lands and gardens for purposes of bug control. Now, that decision has come back to bite us. A recent increase in the numbers of white-eyes that live in old-growth forests is leaving native bird species with too little to eat, according to a report published online on September 17th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication.
photo:courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
CIPM and Western Integrated Pest Management Center Offer Free Web Seminar Series
CIPM received a grant from the Western IPM Center to develop and present a series of six interactive web seminars on inventory and survey methods for invasive plants. This FREE seminar series will is based on chapters from Inventory and Survey Methods for Nonindigenous Plant Species (LJ Rew and ML Pokorny, editors. 2006. Montana State University Extension). CIPM coordinated and funded the development and printing of the publication, which presents practical inventory and survey methods for successful application over large areas and provides guidance for selecting methods that best meet the objectives of an integrated pest management strategy.
Study finds one-time herbicide use decreased native plants
Matt Rinella, a Montana State University affiliate and an ecologist at the Fort Keogh Agricultural Experiment Station in Miles City, recently published the results of a 16-year study in the journal Ecological Applications.
Rinella and his colleagues found that, due to an application of the herbicide Tordon made 16 years prior, native wildflowers--including Missouri goldenrod and yarrow--had been reduced to precipitously low levels and the target invasive weed (leafy spurge) had potentially increased. Although the herbicide dissipated after a few years, the plant community was permanently altered.
Camel burgers: Australia plans to shoot 650,000 camels
Here’s a potentially tasty solution to Australia’s invasive species: Eat them.
 The Australian government plans to fly in marksmen on helicopters to shoot 650,000 camels and turn them into burgers and other meaty treats, reports the Associated Press.
In the 1840s, explorers first brought camels of all sorts to Australia from India and the Middle East. Today, there are more than 1 million one- and two-humped animals in Australia and their population has been doubling every nine years. In a land where vegetation is already scarce, camels are competing with native fauna and livestock. They also, apparently, are fond of breaking water pipes and bathrooms in their quest for hydration.
Photo:Paleontour via Flickr
Updated 9-28-09
Minnesota DNR Scrambling to Make Sure Invasive Mussel Does Not Spread
September 22, 2009 -- The PelicanRiver in Ottertail Countyis now listed as infested waters, contaminated with zebramussels. TheDNR is now scrambling to make sure the invasive species doesn't spread.
Invasive Species on the March: Variable Rates of Spread Set Current Limits to Predictability
Whether for introduced muskrats in Europe or oak trees in the United Kingdom, zebra mussels in United States lakes or agricultural pests around the world, scientists have tried to find new ways of controlling invasive species by learning how these animals and plants take over in new environs.
In a paper published in this week's issue of the journal Science, biologists Brett Melbourne of the University of Colorado and Alan Hastings of the University of California at Davis report a previously unknown high variability in the rates of invasive species spread.
Fungus causes alarm as regulators seek to curb spread, protect Eastern trees
Regulators are growing increasingly concerned about the spread of a fungus-carrying beetle whose unusually aggressive behavior is so bizarre it sounds like something out of a bad science fiction movie.
 The invasive fungus has contaminated the nondescript walnut twig beetle, causing them to flee the native walnut trees in Arizona and New Mexico where they have stayed for decades and attack for the first time black walnut trees and others across the West. While the walnut twig beetle is native to the West and has been relatively harmless until recently, researchers are not sure where the fungus came from. But it is now found in eight states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Washington, as well as Chihuahua, Mexico.
Photo: Walnut twig beetle tunneling under the bark of a large branch. Once infected, trees die within three years. Photo by Ned Tisserat. Courtesy of Colorado State University.
Wheat Imports a Mixed Blessing, Hunt On for ‘Invasive’ Weeds
September 25, 2009 -- Agricultural scientists from ten Indian states have embarked on a hunt to trace and isolate five harmful “invasive weeds” which made their way into the country through wheat imports. The Centre had imported a huge quantity of wheat for supply through the Public Distribution System to tide over a scarcity two years ago. Surveillance officers are moving from village to village scanning backyards, compost pits and other places around godowns and fair price shops to locate the alien weeds Ambrosia Trifida, Viola Arvensis, Cenchrus Tribuloids, Cynoglosum Officinale and Carolinense.
So, You Think Invasive Mussels and Pythons are a Problem?
September 24, 2009 -- For the better part of twenty years, zebra mussels have become the poster child for the very complex issue of aquatic invasive species, and rightfully so. These insidious little filter feeders are changing the dynamics and food web of the Great Lakes. However recently, pythons in the Everglades are beginning to challenge zebra mussels' notoriety as the worst invasive species.
Amazingly, there's another invasive species that has ratcheted up the bar and is creating unbelievable impacts. Known as giant salvinia, this nonnative aquatic plant is impacting States along the Gulf Coast.
photograph courtesy of Advocate and News 2
Introduced Species are Our New Residents
September 24, 2009 -- Humans have been transporting species around the world, intentionally and unintentionally, for centuries. Many of the species we think of as a natural part of our landscape are, in fact, non-native. For example, the honeybee, which nearly a third of US states have named as their state insect, was introduced into North America from Europe in the 1600s.
 Naturalists have long been aware of this bio-globalisation, but widespread research on introduced species did not begin until the early 1980s. In those days, the message from invasion biologists was clear and simple: introduced species were bad news. They were referred to as invaders, aliens, exotics or even "biological pollution". A common refrain was that invasive species were one of the greatest extinction threats for native species, second only to habitat destruction
Redington, the Latest Fly-Fishing Manufacturer, Introduces Eco Grip Feltless Wading Boot to Prevent Spread of Invasive Species
September 21, 2009 -- The Eco Grip™ is Redington’s first felt-less wading boot designed by Redington and engineered through an exclusive partnership with OTB. OTB developed the lugged and precisely razor-siped Tactical Rubber Technology™ to support their military customers and is yet another case of technology developed to support America’s Warfighters finding its way to the civilian market.
Updated 9-17-09
The mountain pine beetle, a small insect that has killed millions of acres of pine trees in the western U.S. and portions of Canada, has shown up on trees in several western Nebraska communities.
 Forest health experts with the Nebraska Forest Service said mountain pine beetle attacks have been reported in Scottsbluff, Gering, Minatare, Kimball, and areas of the Wildcat Hills.
Nebraska's first mountain pine beetle infestation was confirmed near Harrisburg this summer.
Over Time, an Invasive Plant (Garlic Mustard) Loses its Toxic Edge
University of Illinois.
 A new study on garlic mustard shows that its primary weapon, a fungus killing toxin injected into the soil, becomes less potent over time. The study, Evolutionary Limits Ameliorate the Negative Impact of an Invasive Plant (2009), in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is one of the first to show that evolutionary forces can alter the attributes that give an invasive plant its advantage. This study was funded by the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.
AGRICULTURE SECRETARY VILSACK ANNOUNCES ECONOMIC RECOVERY PROJECTS FOR FOREST HEALTH PROTECTION WASHINGTON, September 9, 2009 — Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced projects funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) for forest health protection projects. These 78 projects will receive almost $89 million and are located on forested lands in 30 states. This funding will be used to restore forest health conditions on Federal, State, and private forest and rangelands recovering from fires, forest insects and disease outbreaks.
ScienceDaily (Sep. 9, 2009) — Spring and summer often find homeowners out in their yards, busily attempting to control the onslaught of dandelions in a quest for green, weed-free lawns. Dandelions, broadleaf perennial plants that have a questionable reputation as lawn wreckers, can make even the most patient gardener reach for chemical weed killers to control the onslaught of the ubiquitous weeds. Now, the answer to an environmentally responsible way to control dandelions could be right on the front lawn.
 ScienceDaily (Sep. 2, 2009) — The green mussel is known for being a notoriously invasive fouling species, but scientists have just discovered that it also has a very powerful form of adhesion in its foot, according to a recent article in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. The stickiness of the mussel's foot could possibly be copied to form new artificial adhesives.
A team of scientists from the University of Toronto, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and the University of Guelph has identified a drastic invasion of round goby into many Great Lakes tributaries, including several areas of the Thames, Sydenham, Ausable and Grand Rivers. A number of the affected areas are known as "species-at-risk" hot spots. 
Adaptive Fly Fishing -- See the New Zebra Mussel Flies
September 04, 2009 -- Inspired by Capt. Drew of the Vermont Brownliner Brigade, I developed a few prototypes for a zebra mussel imitation based on my Darth Clam pattern. Drew has so graciously volunteered field testing these flies on the zebra mussel infested Lake Champlain.
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