Wildlife

Chemical carp control considered at Chicago

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By Shawntina Phillips
phill465@msu.edu
Oct. 13, 2009

State and federal officials are considering a fish poison as a way of pushing back a front of hungry carp that are advancing toward the Great Lakes. Recent DNA testing indicates that Asian carp are now within a mile of an electric barrier  designed to keep fish out of Lake Michigan. They already have reached the Des Plaines River, a body of water that runs parallel to the barrier. That’s worrisome said John Rogner, the assistant director of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

Echo

How should carp be prevented from entering the Great Lakes at Chicago?

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Vote

The artificial connection between the Mississippi River and Great Lakes watersheds at Chicago is a highway for spreading invasive species between the regions. An electric barrier is meant to discourage invaders such as the voracious Asian carp which are knocking on the Great Lakes’ door. Is it enough? Cast your vote on how best to slam this door on invasive species. Read this Echo story and also this one for background.

Echo

Coast Guard considers new rules to regulate ballast; takes up where Congress left off

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By Brian Laskowski
laskow26@gmail.com
Great Lakes Echo
Oct. 8, 2009
Editors note: This is part of a series about issues relevant to the biennial meeting of the International Joint Commission. Over the summer of 2008 environmental groups and Great Lakes shippers were on the edge of their seats. Congress was working on water quality standards to prevent invasive species from entering the lakes from the dumping of untreated ballast water on freighters. Then…nothing happened.

Echo

International Joint Commission examines Great Lakes water quality

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A binational group of Great Lakes scientists and policy experts advising the U.S. and Canadian governments about the Great Lakes met in Windsor in early October. This special report encompasses some of the issues they discussed

Oct. 8, 2009
The U.S. Coast Guard considers new rules to regulate ballast to slow the spread of invasive species in the Great Lakes. Oct. 7, 2009
Global warming could spur algae growth in Lake Superior.

Echo

VIDEO: Physical barrier, rapid response to fight Great Lakes invasive species may be years away

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Editors note: This story is part of a series relevant to the International Joint Commissions biennial meeting next Wednesday and Thursday in Windsor. Two approaches to keep ravenous carp and other invasive species out of Lake Michigan are gaining ground, but both could be years from completion. Electrical barriers in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal are the only obstacles keeping silver carp and other aquatic invasive species from entering the lake. The carp could harm native Great Lakes fish that use similar resources. And silver carp can injure boaters when they jump out of the water.

Echo

Great Lakes biologists brace for hydrilla, the next big invasive water weed

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By Jeff Gillies
jeffgillies@gmail.com
Great Lakes Echo
Oct. 1, 2009
Editors note: This story is part of a series relevant to the International Joint Commission’s Oct. 7 and 8 biennial meeting in Windsor. When Matt Preisser thought he saw a photo of a potential Great Lakes invasive species in a Michigan newspaper, he tracked it down and checked it out. “The plants in the photo were suspiciously similar to hydrilla,” said Preisser, who works for Michigan’s Aquatic Nuisance Control Program.

Land

‘Vine that ate the South’ has landed in the Great White North

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(ON) The Toronto Star – Growing by as much as a foot per day, it reaches up hydro poles and across transmission wires, eventually collapsing them under its weight. It overtakes and suffocates trees and crops, pollutes watersheds and costs the U.S. agriculture industry a reported $500-million per year. And now, the perennial and invasive kudzu vine has made it to Canada. The kudzu was discovered two months ago in a small patch, 110 metres wide and 30 metres deep, on a south-facing slope on the shore of Lake Erie near Leamington, Ont., about 50 kilometres east of Windsor. More

Wildlife

Emerald Ash Borer found in La Grange

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(IL) Chicago Tribune – They’re metallic green, can fit on a penny and are now a threat to the thousands of ash trees in the Village of La Grange. According to Ryan Gillingham, La Grange’s director of public works, multiple adult Emerald Ash Borers were found in one of the six traps the village has maintained for detecting the beetle. More

Echo

Group Proposes Measures to Stop Invasive Species

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(NY) Treehugger – A new report from the International Union for Conservation of Nature says ports and trade hotspots in the United States need to do more to detect and respond to foreign invaders like the quagga. Quaggas have transformed the Great Lakes ecosystem, outcompeting native species, harming fish populations, clogging up drinking water intake pipes and helping fuel toxic algal blooms. More

Echo

New federal funding proposal could help kill exotic organisms in the ballast of Great Lakes ships

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Editors note: This story is part of an occasional series of Echo reports on the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. By Allison Bush, bushalli@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
Aug. 20, 2009

Preventing shipborne organisms from damaging the Great Lakes ecosystem is one target of the Obama Administration’s $475 million Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. Ships carry ballast water to make them more stable as their cargo is offloaded. When they take on more cargo, they flush the ballast back into the lake or ocean.  That water can carry from foreign ports plants and animals that compete with native organisms for habitat and food.