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Updated July 4 - Happy 4th! -------------------------------------------------------- Accord herbicide approved to control swallow-wort in NY The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has approved the use of Accord (EPA Reg. No. 62719-324) to control the unlabeled pests black swallow-wort and pale swallow-wort in non-crop areas. The FIFRA 2(ee) recommendation labeling must be in posession of the user at the time of application. -------------------------------------------------------- Stewards help stem spread of invasive water fleas By Jason Subik , DailyGazette.com GREAT SACANDAGA LAKE, NY — Many college undergraduates spend their summers working at part-time jobs or internships. Broadalbin native Kleigh Orzolek is spending her summer fighting the spread of the invasive spiny water flea on the Great Sacandaga Lake. For 30 hours a week at $11.50 an hour, Orzolek, an undergraduate at Paul Smith’s College majoring in forestry recreation and management, is informing la...

Updated June 27 -------------------------------------------------------- Program on alien plants to be held at Five Rivers Center, NY A program on the natural history of the common reed, or phragmites, will be conducted Tuesday, July 14, 7 PM, at Five Rivers Center, 56 Game Farm Road, Delmar, NY. Phragmites is an invasive species that is threatening Five Rivers' wetlands. Join Center naturalists in a "plant posse" as we try to eradicate these plants near our pond by clipping them back. Bring gloves and clippers and dress for the outdoors. This program is open to the public free of charge. Participants are urged to dress for outdoor activity. Water-friendly footgear is suggested. In the event of inclement weather this program may be canceled. For more information, call the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation's Five Rivers Environmental Education Center at (518) 475-0291. Laurel Remus Director of Public Affairs and Education -------------------------...

An Unsightly Algae Extends Its Grip to a Crucial New York Stream By ANTHONY DEPALMA , The New York Times SHANDAKEN, N.Y. — The Esopus Creek, a legendary Catskill Mountain fly fishing stream that is an integral part of New York City’s vast upstate drinking water system, is one of the latest bodies of water to be infected with Didymosphenia geminata, a fast-spreading single-cell algae that is better known to fishermen and biologists around the world as rock snot. Although officials had been on the lookout for spreading Didymo, as it is also called, since it was first confirmed in New York two years ago, they had not found it in the Esopus when they canvassed the area last fall. A fly fisherman told state biologists a few weeks ago that he thought he had seen the telltale gray tendrils of Didymo clinging to rocks on the bed of the Esopus here, about 120 miles northwest of Manhattan. Investigators later confirmed that Didymo had spread along 12 miles of the Esopus from Shandaken to the Ash...

Updated June 14 -------------------------------------------------------- N.Y. setting traps for invasive beetles Dave Henderson, Ithaca Journal New York is targeting another potential invasive species, a tree-eating beetle named the Emerald Ash Borer. The Department of Environmental Conservation will be deploying the purple prism traps in treelines throughout the state in an attempt to trap the beetles. There will also be a concentration in areas adjacent to neighboring states and Canadian provinces that have already detected this potentially devastating invasive species. The main route that enables this insect, as well as other invasive species, to spread is from moving firewood from one place to another. That is why in 2008, New York adopted regulations that ban untreated firewood from entering the state and restricts intrastate movement of untreated firewood to no more than a 50-mile radius from its source ( http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/28722.html ). New York has more than 900 mill...