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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. ...

Updated 3/20 -------------------------------------------------------- Vitex eradication effort gains traction Group tallies past year's accomplishments By Gareth McGrath, StarNewsOnline.com Fort Fisher, North Carolina - The invasive plant has been discovered in Virginia and in places in North Carolina thought to be vitex-free. But that's not necessarily a bad thing, since it shows that the educational and outreach efforts of the Carolinas Beach Vitex Task Force about the menace posed by the foreign invader are working. It also shows, however, that there's a lot of work to do to eradicate the shrub. It is native to the Pacific Rim and was once viewed as the savior of the coast, but it's turned out to be a huge biological menace. On Friday members of the task force gathered at the N.C. Aquarium at Fort Fisher to celebrate the past year's successes and discuss the remaining challenges facing the multi-state effort to eradicate beach vitex. Among the 2008 accomplishment...

Updated 3/5 Open Letter to The Nature Conservancy #1 By Steve Young, invasives volunteer Arlington County Posted at http://plantwhacker.blogspot.com Attacks on invasives efforts are going on at every level from the global and national down to the local, as here in Arlington. I can't find a public announcement directly from The Nature Conservancy (TNC), but email traffic shows that they have made the internal decision to disband their Global Invasive Species Team effort and fire all those folks in a few months. Arg. Here is the letter I have just finished and will post tomorrow. February 27, 2009 Mark Tercek, President and CEO The Nature Conservancy 4245 North Fairfax Drive, Suite 100 Arlington, VA 22203-1606 Dear Mr. Tercek: I have been a member of The Nature Conservancy since 1981. No, certainly I am not one of your biggest donors, but I have been a faithful member and I have believed in TNC’s work and given what I can. For all this time I have been of the impression that the miss...

Updated 1/23 Help on way for New England cottontail By DAVID BROOKS Staff Writer, Nashua Telegraph The cutest endangered species in New Hampshire is getting some federal help – which is good, because the New England cottontail needs all the help it can get." This is one of our top priorities," John Kanter, the state's endangered-wildlife program coordinator, said of the elusive bunny. As recently as the 1960s, the New England cottontail was found from the Hudson River through southern Maine and also thrived in New Hampshire. Today, officials know of only 10 places where the species is found at all, mostly in a few flooded areas along the Merrimack River south of Concord and in the Seacoast. The New England cottontail, like many species, has suffered from changes in habitat. It likes brushy land in transition between field and forest, with lots of brambles and low bushes where it can hide and find food. That sort of thicket was common when New Hampshire was filled with far...