clair084

Updated 1/15. New articles are at the bottom of this week's blog. --------------------------------------------------------- New Hampshire Lakes launches a new exotic weed control grant program Thanks to Senator Judd Gregg, NH LAKES has secured federal funding to help lake associations and municipalities manage their exotic infestations in 2010. Matching grant awards of up to $5,000 will be available to assist local groups in their efforts to purchase or construct Diver Assisted Suction Harvesting systems, hire Certified Weed Control divers to harvest infestations, and implement other forms of non-chemical control. For more information and to download a grant application, visit our website, email info@nhlakes.org, or call (603) 226-0299. Grant applications will be due in mid-February. --------------------------------------------------------- Reptile restrictions to be voted on by Senate by Laura Mandanas Reporter Online “All those snakes except for a boa constrictor can get huge. ...

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 10/29/09. Latest news is at the bottom of the post. -------------------------------------------------------- Brazilian water-weed success story from Washington State CHRISTIAN HILL; The Olympian The NewsTribune.com Officials hope they've finally eradicated a noxious plant choking a stretch of the Chehalis River in south Thurston County, WA more than 10 years after it was discovered there. The Thurston County Noxious Weed Control Board completed the annual removal of Brazilian elodea ( Egeria densa ) from the salmon-bearing river at the end of September and could find no remaining trace of the plant. It will continue to monitor the river, and the plant will be deemed eradicated if there’s no evidence of its return in the next three years, said Rick Johnson, Thurston County’s noxious weed coordinator. “We’re thrilled we’re in front of it instead of playing catch-up,” he said. Brazilian elodea is a pesky plant. Rooting in waters up to 20 feet deep, the dark-green, fast-growin...

Updated 10/17. Newest articles are at the bottom of the post. -------------------------------------------------------- Goats help planned rec center take a bite toward progress Animals clear the weeds for planned recreation, environmental center in city's Druid Hill Park By Meredith Cohn, BaltimoreSun.com The decrepit mansion once served as home to the president of the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore, but two decades of brush has grown and, along with vandals, has made it uninhabitable. Cue the goats. In what's the first step to a $10 million project to transform this piece of Druid Hill Park into an environmental and recreational center for the city, the four-legged weed whackers have cleared a half-acre ring of ivy and other invasive species. The herd of 40 will be brought back to clear the rest of the 9-acre parcel that few have used, legally anyway, for years. "It's been an eyesore and has all sorts of unsavory activity going on," said Jean DuBose, director of deve...