Echo

Insect pest invades region; popcorn, cattle feed at risk

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By Allison Bush, bushalli@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
Aug. 12, 2009

Insects about an inch long are starting to eat their way through the Midwest’s corn and beans. The western bean cutworm, native to the central high plains and western corn belt, was found in Pennsylvania for the first time this year.  In 2006 it first appeared in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana. “We thought it might be here, but we didn’t expect to find the distribution we already found – it’s surprising how widespread it already is,” said John Tooker, assistant professor of entomology at Pennsylvania State University. In 2008, the cutworm was trapped in Wayne County, Ohio, about 90 miles from Pennsylvania.

Echo

Great Lakes scientists seek ways to kill invasives

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(MI) Booth Newspapers – The tiny worms, midges and water fleas growing in fish tanks at a university lab represent the invasive organisms that have spread throughout the Great Lakes, often by hitchhiking in the ballast tanks of giant cargo ships. A few miles down the road on the shores of Lake Superior, colorful pipes and several 50,000-gallon tanks can mimic a ship’s ballast water intake and discharge system. More

Echo

Big pigs, big problem: Feral swine spread to Great Lakes region

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By Chris Parks
parksch3@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
July 10, 2009

The wild pigs already troubling southern states are slowly becoming an issue in the Great Lakes region. In recent years these feral swine have been concentrated in California, Texas and southeastern states. But in Michigan alone there were 200 sightings of these animals in more than 60 counties as of late 2008. “Unfortunately, most statewide agencies don’t have individual numbers, but the pigs are now in at least 35 states,” said Seth Swafford, project manager for the United States Department of Agriculture’s feral swine management. And their numbers appear to be increasing in the Midwest, he said.

Echo

Quagga mussels overtaking zebra mussels in Great Lakes

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(WI) The Capital Times – Zebra mussels are being muscled out of the Great Lakes by cousin quagga. Research done by a University of Wisconsin-Madison doctoral candidate showed the quagga mussel to have become the dominant of the two species in the calm waters of the Great Lakes while the zebra mussel covers the bottoms of faster-moving waters in rivers and streams, UW-Madison announced in a news release. The reason? Grip. More

Echo

“Pandora’s Locks” creates route for invasive species that destroy Great Lakes ecosystem

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There are brief moments of gothic ghastliness in Jeff Alexander’s new book: Eel-like sea lampreys repeatedly strike and latch onto a teenage girl trying to swim across a choppy Lake Ontario at night. A 50-foot-wide band of dead fish lines a 40-mile stretch of Lake Michigan’s shore. Loons poisoned with botulism can’t hold their heads out of the water, and drown. But while those images might give readers the willies, the book’s larger tale of the federal government’s failure to keep invasive species out of the Great Lakes will make them downright sick. Michigan State University Press published Pandora’s Locks: The Opening of the Great Lakes-St.

Wildlife

Crews in St. Paul cut down trees infested with ash borers

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(MN) Minneapolis Star-Tribune – Chain saws and experts are converging in the Twin Cities in the fight against the emerald ash borer. In St. Paul, foresters identified eight more infested trees Tuesday as workers continued to remove dozens of others fatally damaged by the bug that, first found in St. Paul May 13, threatens the state’s 900 million ash trees. So far, 67 trees have been either taken down this week or targeted for removal in an effort officials hope will thwart the insect that has killed tens of millions of trees across the Midwest and southern Canada in the past seven years.

Echo

New York ballast decision may help control invasive species throughout the Great Lakes

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By Allison Bush, bushalli@msu.edu
Great Lakes Echo
June 2, 2009

Environmental groups praise a New York Supreme Court justice’s recent decision to uphold that state’s new ballast water treatment requirements, and the shippers say that the standard is just too high. But they both agree on one thing: There should be some federal action taken to regulate ballast water. Ballast water is carried in ships to provide stability. It is taken on when a ship unloads cargo and is discharged when it is loaded up again. It has been blamed for carrying from foreign ports many of the invasive plants and animals altering the Great Lakes ecosystem.

Echo

Shippers lose ballast ruling

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(WI) Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – The shipping industry has lost another round in its fight to keep states from passing their own ballast rules to protect the Great Lakes from invasive species. A New York State Supreme Court justice on Friday tossed out a shipping industry challenge of that state’s tough new ballast treatment requirements intended to keep freighters from dumping unwanted organisms into the world’s largest freshwater system. “This decision is a critical win for New York’s right and responsibility to protect our Great Lakes and resources,” New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said in a statement. “The court’s decision not only defends our state’s actions, but affirms our right to take necessary measures to fight the plague of invasive species.” More

Echo

Early prevention urged to defeat emerald ash borer’s new larvae

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(OH) The Toledo Blade – Now’s the time to apply insecticide to ash trees you might be trying to save from a new crop of emerald ash borers.  

The sooner, the better. If you fail to spray ash trees by the end of June, you should wait until fall or the spring of 2010, said Amy Stone, Ohio State University extension agent in Toledo. More

Echo

Mich. group targets invasive garlic mustard

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(MI) The Detroit News – Hockey fans may be focused on the Stanley Cup, but thousands of Michigan residents are vying for a more obscure prize: the Garlic Mustard Cluster Cup. Across the Great Lakes State, folks with an eye toward keeping garlic mustard — an invasive plant — out of backyards, forests and woodlands are pulling thousands of pounds of the herb from the ground one handful at a time. The Garlic Mustard Challenge, issued this spring to seven local conservation communities by the nonprofit Stewardship Network of Ann Arbor, has so far netted 45,406 pounds of the pesky little flower. More