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Happy New Year! -------------------------------------------------------- Invasive species cause $1.4 trillion of losses a year globally FUZHOU, Nov. 6 (Xinhua, China) -- Scientists should intensify international collaboration to fight invasive species that are causing 1.4 trillion U.S. dollars of losses a year globally, said experts and officials who concluded an international congress on biological invasions here Friday. The first-ever International Congress on Biological Invasions, held in Fuzhou, east China's Fujian Province, from Nov. 2 to 6, called on policymakers worldwide to pay closer attention to the threat. A declaration adopted Friday also said they should be more aware of the links between biological invasions, biodiversity loss and the degradation of ecosystem services. The Fuzhou Declaration on Biological Invasions also urged policymakers and scientists to focus on the interactions between climate change and biological invasions, and the threats of invasive s...

Merry Christmas! -------------------------------------------------------- Special Report: The Exotic Menace (Florida) News-JournalOnline.com Link -------------------------------------------------------- Bat Deaths: Some Species At Risk Of Becoming Endangered By RINKER BUCK The Hartford Courant December 21, 2009 The die-off of bats in Connecticut and other Northeastern states is now so severe that federal wildlife officials consider it "the most precipitous decline of North American wildlife caused by infectious disease in recorded history." Since 2006, when hibernating bats in a cave west of Albany were found coated with a chalky fungus, the so-called white-nose syndrome has hopscotched from New Hampshire to West Virginia, sometimes decimating entire caves in a single winter. Finding a remedy for the condition before the die-off reaches the huge bat habitats of Tennessee and Kentucky is considered vital because individual bats eat thousands of insects a night, providing a cri...

Updated 12/17 -------------------------------------------------------- Moreau, NY tackles threat posed by invasive plant species By PAUL POST, The Saratogian MOREAU, NY — A local environmental group is taking steps to control invasive plant species that it says threaten habitat for birds and other wildlife. The Moreau Conservation Advisory Council hopes to employ strategies ranging from education to eradication. For example, the town Planning Board could urge developers not to landscape with harmful plants, while the town Highway Department could remove invasive plants found along local roads. “It’s a huge problem not only locally, but statewide and nationwide,” council Secretary Ramona Bearor said. “It affects everything — birds, insects and animals that depend on native plants in some way.” Specifically, she cited three types of invasive species that are causing problems. One is Japanese knotweed, sometimes called “American bamboo.” Found in the wild, it spreads rapidly. One place it...

Vermont receives $497,000 to control invasive species, fund 'park interpreter' program VermontBiz.com Governor Jim Douglas today announced that the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation was awarded nearly a half-million dollars of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds from the U.S. Forest Service to control invasive insects and plants and provide conservation education programs in state parks and recreation areas within the Green Mountain National Forest. The 16-month project will allow state officials to control the spread of invasive plants and insects on state and National Forest Service lands, by conducting pest surveys, limiting firewood movement and enhancing native species recovery for ash, butternut and chestnut. “Vermont’s forests are valuable economically, ecologically and socially,” said Commissioner Jason Gibbs. “A major thrust of maintaining forest health in Vermont is detecting, eliminating or managing newly introduced pests.” The funds will a...

Group: don't wait on ballast rule SAVE THE RIVER PLEA: Proposal would protect St. Lawrence, may take too long to implement By MATTHEW CURATOLO JOHNSON NEWSPAPERS An environmental group is concerned that a new rule proposed by the U.S. Coast Guard requiring ships to clean up ballast tanks to prevent any new invasive species from entering the St. Lawrence River may take too long to implement. The Coast Guard has a proposal that would require ships transiting any waters of the United States, including the St. Lawrence Seaway, to clean up their ballast tanks. According to the legislation, the proposal would establish new procedures for approving onboard equipment to clean ballast water before discharge. For the first time, the regulation sets upper limits for the number of organisms per unit of ballast water. The current rules require vessels only to make mid-ocean ballast exchanges, a control technique that frequently has been attacked as inadequate to prevent the introduction of alie...