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Updated May 1 --------------------------------------------------------- NYSDEC confirms presence of didymo in Esopus Creek Aquatic Algae Discovered in Popular Recreational Waterway New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Pete Grannis today announced that didymo, an invasive species, has been confirmed in the Esopus Creek in Ulster County. This is the first known presence of this aquatic algae, also called “rock snot,” in the Esopus and the third confirmed location in New York State. The Esopus is a popular recreational waterway for fishing, kayaking and tubing, and is a drinking water source for New York City. DEC collected samples and confirmed the presence of didymo in the vicinity of several public access sites along a 12-mile stretch of the Esopus from the “Shandaken Portal” (which transfers water to the Esopus from Schoharie Reservoir) to New York City’s Ashokan Reservoir. Didymo Impact Unlike many other aquatic invasive plants, didymo (Didymosph...

Updated 2/24 TNC's Global Invasive Species Team closing shop due to budget cuts From: Barry Rice, TNC [Reprinted from the GIST listserv] As a result of budget cutbacks announced last week, The Nature Conservancy's Global Invasive Species Team (GIST) is being disbanded and will close down much of its work over the next few weeks and months. Ramifications of this closure are the following: A)The GIST ilistserve will be closing in early March. B)The GIST web site ( http://tncinvasives.org/ ) will no longer be supported as of March 6: after that date it will merely coast without updates. It may disappear entirely after August. C)We hope that portions of the site can be relocated to other web sites--see messages 3-5 below if you can support the content. D)Our new wiki ( http://invasipedia.org/ ) will no longer be monitored or supported, and so will be removed unless another organization offers to house and manage it (see message 5, below). If you are interested in supporting some of...