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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...

Invasive plant species threatens shore plants, animals, dunes By TODD B. BATES Gannett New Jersey November 10, 2009 An invasive foreign plant is rapidly making inroads in New Jersey's critical dune systems, and Louise Wootton wants to stop it in its tracks. Asiatic sand sedge ( Carex kobomugi ) — a "scruffy little plant" — threatens to take over the habitat of endangered and threatened species, such as the piping plover, according to Wootton, a biology professor at Georgian Court University in Lakewood. The sedge also can result in lower dunes, lessening their ability to protect communities from flooding, Wootton said. "It changes the ecosystem completely," she said. The Brick resident has enlisted about 25 students from Georgian Court, Marine Academy of Science and Technology on Sandy Hook and Brookdale Community College in Middletown to help study the sedge, map its extent and study ways to get rid of it. She wants government permission to begin eradicating th...

Two New York communities take very different approaches to tackling invasive milfoil By John Stith / The Post Standard Cazenovia and Skaneateles face the same problem -- an infestation of Eurasian milfoil, an invasive species that roots in shallow water and causes problems for boaters and swimmers. Like many communities across the state, Cazenovia and Skaneateles had to decide how to get rid of the weedy plant. They could pull it out by hand, zap it with chemicals, bring in bugs or fish that eat it or put down mats that keep it from growing. Cazenovia hit it with a herbicide. Skaneateles is pulling it out, one plant at a time. Why the different approaches? Cazenovia Lake is one-eighth the size of Skaneateles Lake, but the extent of its milfoil infestation is eight times larger. Hand-pulling would have cost an estimated $17 million. The herbicide treatment started this summer will cost about $450,000. Skaneateles' effort to yank the weeds by hand is labor-intensive -- six boats and ...

Renewed concerns over invasive beetle in Vermont and New Hampshire Summer brings renewed concerns about the Asian longhorned beetle. The invasive pest has an appetite for maple trees, and has devastated entire forests in Massachusetts. So far, Vermont and New Hampshire have escaped the invasion. But the concern is that the bugs will be transported here in firewood carried by campers. As a precaution, New Hampshire next month will ban out-of-state firewood at federal and state-owned campgrounds. From WCAX News. Link -------------------------------------------------------- Madison High School students control invasives at Wildlife Refuge MADISON, NJ -- It was almost lunchtime on the Madison High School Day of Service and Mark DeBiasse, History Department Chairperson and Service Learning Coordinator, said that his cell phone had not rung once yet to report a problem from any of the more than 40 work sites he was supervising. Sawing, drilling, measuring, mulching, planting, drawing, painti...

Updated May 8 --------------------------------------------------------- H.R. 669: Nonnative Wildlife Invasion Prevention Act H.R. 669 was introduced in January 2009 by Madeleine Bordallo (U.S. Delegate, Guam). The purpose of the bill is to prevent the introduction and establishment of nonnative wildlife species that negatively impact the economy, environment, or other animal species' or human health, and for other purposes. A subcomittee hearing was held on Apr 23. You can watch a video of the hearing here. The bill would require the Secretary of the Interior to promulgate regulations establishing a process for assessing the risk of all nonnative wildlife species proposed for importation into the United States, other than those included in a list of approved species issued under the Act. The bill would establish prohibitions on: (1) importation or transportation between states of nonnative species that are not included in the list of approved species; (2) permit violations; and (3)...