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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 July 11 -------------------------------------------------------- Plant Conservation Alliance general meeting announcement Wednesday, July 8, 2009 9:30 - 11:30 AM LOCATION: Conference Room at NatureServe 1101 Wilson Boulevard, 15th Floor Arlington, VA 22209 The Plant Conservation Alliance (PCA) Bi-Monthly Meeting is an open forum for anyone interested or working in plant conservation. The meeting is held every other month in the Washington DC metropolitan area. There is roundtable for attendees to share relevant events, as well as updates from each of the PCA working groups and committees, including the Alien Plant Working Group. Regular attendees include representatives from the PCA Federal agencies and from cooperating organizations; however anyone is welcome to attend this meeting. Past meeting summaries and selected presentations are available at http://www.nps.gov/plants/meetings/bimonthly/index.htm . ----------------------------------------------------------- Suffolk Count...

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...

Opinion: After five years, government rules out Asian oyster gamble From HomeTownAnnapolis.com It's now official, or at least as official as it's likely to get. There won't be any shortcut on the winding road that may lead to some restoration of the Chesapeake Bay's embattled oyster population. Federal, Maryland and Virginia officials announced Monday that their plans for restoring the oysters do not include introducing the so-called Asian oysters ( Crassostrea ariakensis ) to bay waters. The Asian oysters grow faster, are hardier, and are supposedly resistant to diseases - MSX and Dermo - that devastated the native oysters ( Crassostrea virginica ), whose population is now languishing at perhaps 1 percent of historic highs. Watermen and seafood processors were excited by the idea of importing ariakensis, and the enthusiasm spread to the administration of Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. Of course, with federal and state money involved, the idea had to be studied. An...

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...