The large scale farm ditches shown here might successfully influence the design of smaller scale ditches.
http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/indiana/howwework/art30290.html
GardenLarge, the Brine Garden, Duncan and Julia Brine
The large scale farm ditches shown here might successfully influence the design of smaller scale ditches.
http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/indiana/howwework/art30290.html
Erik Kiviat’s Hudsonia is an important resource for environmental research and education in the Hudson Valley.
Get an eyeful of his perspective here.
Keeping it wild: an interagency strategy to monitor trends in wilderness character across the National Wilderness Preservation System
Author: Landres, Peter; Barns, Chris; Dennis, John G.; Devine, Tim; Geissler, Paul; McCasland, Curtis S.; Merigliano, Linda; Seastrand, Justin; Swain, Ralph
Firewood and Invasive Insects – NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation
New York’s forests are under attack from numerous invasive exotic insect pests. In years past, we have been hit with Chestnut blight, European gypsy moth, Dutch elm disease and Beech bark disease, all with devastating results.
One common way many of these insect pests are moved around the country – beyond their natural rate of spread based on biology and flight potential – is on firewood carried by campers, hunters and other users of our forests.
A casual observation of boaters and campers checking in at any campground will reveal trunk loads or boatloads of firewood being brought in, often from far distant states.Once transported to new locations, eggs may hatch, or larvae may mature and emerge to attack host trees in and around the camping areas.
Invasive insects transported on firewood are killing
trees in our favorite campgrounds
n the Lake States, the exotic, invasive Emerald ash borer (EAB) has caused great destruction of all native species of ash trees (which are also common across New York).
New York State is now less than 150 miles from the nearest EAB infestations.
Vehicle transporting firewood which may contain
tree-killing insects
The Asian longhorned beetle (ALB) was first confirmed in New York State in 1996. Areas of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and Nassau and Suffolk Counties are also under Federal quarantine which prohibits the movement of firewood and wood products of all hardwood species out of these regulated areas.
In addition, several other states and the province of Ontario, have bans or regulations in place concerning the importation or movement of firewood, of any species, as a means to prevent introduction or limit spread of any of the insect pests known to live in or on cut firewood. In addition, many States and Federal agencies, including United States Department of Agriculture Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA APHIS) and USDA Forest Service, have begun extensive outreach and public education campaigns to explain the dangers posed to forests from the movement of firewood, and encourage recreational users to “not move firewood.”
Invasive Snails Take a Toll on Native Ducks : NPR
by Sea Stachura
The number of lesser scaup ducks is dwindling, and it could be an invasive species that does them in. Invasive snails and parasites are attacking these and other ducks on the Upper Mississippi.
All Things Considered, May 26, 2008 ·
Nearly 150 invasive species live in the Mississippi River Basin, and while not all of them are destructive to native habitat, this snail has become a duck killer: The snail has helped kill nearly 50,000 ducks in the last few years in the Upper Mississippi Wildlife Refuge, which borders Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa.
The area is a rest stop of sorts for more than 450,000 migrating ducks every year, which snack on wild rice and snails.
Three types of invasive intestinal parasites are killing the birds.
“All three use an invasive snail, called the mud byfnia, or faucet snail, as an intermediate host,” said Jim Nissen, who works for the Fish and Wildlife Service.
Nissen says when the ducks eat these snails, the parasites they carry bore into the ducks’ intestinal walls.
“They gorge on blood and then lay eggs,” Nissen said. “The eggs are passed through the birds’ feces, and that’s how they reach the snails. That’s how the cycle is perpetuated.”
The lesser scaup duck is particularly susceptible to this parasite, killing them only in a few days. Their bodies litter the water like decoys. There were eight million lesser scaup in North America in the late 1970s now their numbers have dropped by half. Nissen worries that this snail-parasite duo could spell the end of the lesser scaup.