INVASIVE SPECIES NEWS
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The Winter 2010-2011 edition of Nebraska Department of Agriculture’s Pesticide & Noxious Weed Newsletter
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Field Guide for Biological Control of
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In 2008 the Platte Valley Weed Management Area (PVWMA) and West Central Weed Management Area (WCWMA), collectively referred to as WMA’s, collaborated to apply and receive grant funding for invasive plant species control within the Platte River channels. This joint effort allowed a larger landscape approach. The WMA’s consist of 12 counties in south-central Nebraska. The WMA’s boundary is Kingsley Dam on the North Platte River, the Keith/Deuel county line on the South Platte through the convergence at the town of North Platte, continuing downstream to Columbus, Nebraska. Approximately 336 river miles of the Platte River flow through the WMA’s. Prior estimates have shown over 14,000 acres of Phragmites infestation within this river stretch. Other invasive plants such as salt cedar, Russian olive trees and purple loosestrife also inhabit this stretch of the river. The western half of the river in this project area is classified as over-appropriated, and the remaining portion is classified as fully appropriated. WMA’s goal is to reduce invasive plant species within the Platte River corridor. Objectives include 1) increase flow conveyance 2) increase wildlife habitat 3) reduce water usage by invasive plant species 4) ensure long-term sustainable control by landowners.
 Primary focus of the WMA’s is controlling invasive phragmites. Phragmites has taken over low-lying areas along the Platte River including riverbanks, wetlands, meadows, side channels, sloughs and sandbars. Infestations have constricted channels, increasing flooding potential and reducing wildlife habitat.
Major control efforts started in both WMA’s in 2008-09 and continues to date (table 1 and table 2). In total approximately 18,641 acres of phragmites have been treated with herbicide and 1,800 acres of dead biomass have been mechanically removed.
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Latest Invasive News Stories:
New Video: Nebraska Zebra Mussel Documentary from the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.
Organizers of the 1st annual North American Invasive Plant Ecology and Management Short Course (NAIPSC) are pleased to announce the receipt of funding from the Nebraska Environmental Trust and the Nebraska Academy of Sciences to help finance graduate student participation.
Area Residents Are Encouraged to Report Any Signs of ALB And to Avoid Moving Firewood
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) announce that surveys are under way in Bethel, Ohio, after the detection and identification of the Asian longhorned beetle. Bethel is located 30 miles southeast of Cincinnati. First discovered in the United States in 1996, Asian longhorned beetles attack several species of trees including maple, willow, horsechestnut, buckeye and American elm. While in its larvae stage, the Asian longhorned beetle (ALB) kills trees by tunneling into large branches and the trunk. Ohio is the fourth state to detect ALB, which APHIS confirmed in Bethel after a citizen reported finding unusual damage in three maple trees to an Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Forestry service forester. Previous infestations sites, where the beetles are being successfully contained, include Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has finalized changes to regulations governing international trade in plants used in gardening and landscape design, which will go into effect on June 27, 2011. The Nature Conservancy has encouraged the USDA to revise these antiquated regulations to improve the ongoing efforts by the Department's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to prevent potentially invasive plants and pests from entering the country. As was recently discussed in a controversial article in the June 9th edition of Naturemagazine, the threat of invasive species is easily – and wrongly – confused as the incrimination of all non-native species. In fact, the regulations finalized by USDA-APHIS have put in place new systems that allow imported materials to be judged by their invasiveness potential, not simply by their non-native status.
The flooding in the south last month may be just what a ferocious fish ordered, as scientists say the overflowing Mississippi River may lead to a surge in the giant invasive fish called the Asian carp in new areas of the Mississippi and Missouri river basins.
The flooding stretched from the Midwest to the Gulf of Mexico covering 6.5 million acres of land. This water could serve as a throughway connecting the Mississippi and Missouri rivers to other lakes, bayous and marshes in the basin. The young fish, which float downstream before making their homes in a quiet "nursery," could ride these waters to other, not normally connected bodies of water. Photo: U.S. Geological Survey
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