Posts Tagged ‘Invasive Species’

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

LCBP Launches 2016 Boat Launch Steward Program

APIPP Photo Steward Inspecting KayaksThe Lake Champlain Basin Program (LCBP) has announced that they are hiring up to ten seasonal Lake Champlain boat launch stewards to work at New York and Vermont public boat launch access areas this summer. This will be the tenth season of boat launch stewards on Lake Champlain.

In 2015, LCBP stewards surveyed 12,555 boats and offered courtesy boat inspection to remove and prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species. Stewards spoke to 26,306 visitors about steps they could take to ensure their boats and equipment were clean, drained, and dry. » Continue Reading.


Wednesday, December 2, 2015

A Return To The Pharaoh Lake Wilderness

Cathy Pedler's family on the summit of Pharoah Mountain around 1900Although I’ve been working in Albany with the Adirondack Mountain Club over the past two years, the Adirondack Park is relatively new to me.  It’s not new to my family. I am beginning to discover a long familial history with the Adirondacks.

My father recently found an old photo album documenting trips from Philadelphia in 1900 and 1903 when my great-grandmother visited Schroon Lake and hiked Pharaoh Mountain with her family. They traveled to NYC and then made their way north on the Hudson by riverboat.

This summer I traveled back to the area my family visited 115 years ago. I walked to the shore of Schroon Lake for the first time and paddled Lost and Berrymill Ponds in the Pharaoh Lake Wilderness. » Continue Reading.


Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Peter Bauer: In Lake George Election, The Lake Won

The election last night in Lake George was a referendum on protecting the lake and the lake won. Last night, the team that was swept into office in 2011 on a platform of real change in town government built around protection of Lake George was handily re-elected.

Dennis Dickinson won as Supervisor and Marisa Muratori and Dan Hurley won for the Town Board. Dickinson and Muratori narrowly lost the Republican primary in September, but were elected on the Reform Party line. This is the second time that Muratori has been elected on a third party line. Hurley was elected as a Democrat. » Continue Reading.


Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Invasives: Watercraft Inspection Webinar Series Set

DataMonikaLaPlanteLakeGeo3005New York Sea Grant, a cooperative program of Cornell University and the State University of New York, is hosting a webinar series on the logistics of starting and managing the boat inspection component of a water-based stewardship program.

The Fall 2015 Watercraft Inspection Steward Program Webinar Series schedule is as follows: » Continue Reading.


Monday, October 26, 2015

Gardeners, Growers, Landscapers and Invasive Species

Target-SpeciesThe Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program (APIPP) and the Adirondack Garden Club are co-sponsoring a workshop for nursery growers, landscapers and gardeners to learn about New York State’s recently enacted invasive plant regulations and how businesses and landowners can adapt.

The program, which is free and open to the public, will be held Thursday, October 29th from 9:30 am to 3 pm at Fort Ticonderoga.  Certified Nursery and Landscape Professionals will have the opportunity to obtain continuing education credits by attending.  » Continue Reading.


Wednesday, October 21, 2015

On The Search For Invasive Species At Limekiln Lake

Limekiln LakeHydrilla. Eurasian watermilfoil. Parrot feather. Yellow floating heart. I listened to the captivating and often funny Scott Kishbaugh of the Department Environmental Conservation go through 14 aquatic invasive plants at the Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program’s Aquatic Invasive Plant Identification and Survey Techniques training. This past June, the Speculator Pavilion was packed with eager volunteers excited to survey their lakes for invasive plants that cause economic, ecologic, and societal harm. The four-hour workshop gave us the education we need to scope out invaders in ponds, rivers, and lakes. » Continue Reading.


Monday, October 19, 2015

Asian Lady Bugs: Unwelcome Halloween Decorations

Asian lady bettleWhat’s round to oval-shaped, mostly orange, and is a common sight leading up to Halloween? Everyone knows the answer to that: Harmonia axyridis, obviously. Better known as the multicolored Asian lady beetle, this insect, while beneficial to gardens, is no treat when it masses by the hundreds on, and inside, homes in the fall.

Lady beetles, or lady bugs, are the darlings of small children everywhere. There are a number of native lady beetle species, which tend to be more reddish than orange, and they aren’t known to be nuisances in homes. Multicolored Asian lady beetles, however, are not as polite. » Continue Reading.


Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Understanding Zebra Mussel Impacts On Lake Champlain

TOS_Zebra_MusselInvasive species have earned their bad reputations. English sparrows compete with native birds from Newfoundland to South America. Australian brown tree snakes are well on their way to exterminating every last bird from the forests of Guam. And I don’t think anyone can fully predict how Columbia’s rivers will change in response to drug lord Pablo Escobar’s escaped hippopotamus population.

While our climate protects us from rampaging hippos, the Northeast has plenty of exotic species in its waterways, including some that cause serious damage. Zebra mussels are possibly the most familiar of these. » Continue Reading.


Friday, October 2, 2015

Cuomo Nominates Basil Seggos To Head DEC

seggosGovernor Andrew Cuomo has nominated one his top advisers, Basil Seggos, to serve as commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation.

Seggos joined Cuomo’s administration in 2012. He has served as the governor’s deputy secretary for the environment since 2013.

If approved by the legislature, Seggos will replace Joe Martens, who resigned the post this summer. Marc Gerstman, who has been filling in as acting commissioner, will continue as executive deputy commissioner.

John Sheehan, a spokesman for the Adirondack Council, said his organization is pleased with Cuomo’s choice. “He cares about the environment, and he cares about communities,” he said.

» Continue Reading.


Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Imagine The Adirondacks Without Hemlocks

Hemlock CathySometime after four am I woke up and left the tent. Stepping into the beams of the full moon, I walked to the shore of Polliwog Pond. Dawn was just breaking above an old hemlock stand, mist swirled above still water, and the loons began to call their old, melancholic song. In those few moments in the light of the moon and the dawn and sound of the loons I was transported to an ancient place.

The day before, I had walked from the site where I was camped with colleagues and friends on a week-long Leave No Trace course, to an an old growth forest on a height of land. Most of the trees there, and at our campsite on the shore below, were hemlock. » Continue Reading.


Tuesday, July 28, 2015

State of Lake Champlain Report Released

Fig8_BeachClosure_largeThe Lake Champlain Basin Program’s 2015 State of the Lake and Ecosystem Indicators Report has been released.

The report, produced about every three years, is published to inform the public and resource managers about Lake Champlain’s condition and seeks to provide a better understanding of threats to its health and opportunities to meet the challenges the lake faces. » Continue Reading.


Friday, July 24, 2015

20th Adirondack Waterfest in Speculator July 31

RonnyAdirondack Waterfest will be held in Speculator on Friday, July 31 at the Village Park, from 10 am to 4 pm. The event features activities, exhibits, and demonstrations in a daylong celebration of water. Admission is free.

Twenty years ago, Hamilton County Soil and Water Conservation District’s first Adirondack Waterfest was held in Speculator on July 19, 1996. Each year, the event is hosted at different locations around the Adirondack Park. » Continue Reading.


Thursday, July 9, 2015

Are American Elm Trees On The Rebound?

TOS_American_ElmOn a recent damp May morning I walked around Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, with arborist Brian Beaty. While he is responsible for all of the trees in the center of the campus, our visit focused on a small number of trees that require an inordinate amount of his attention. These were the college’s mature American elms – tall, elegant, and, most importantly, healthy.

Beaty wants to keep them that way, which is why he checks on the elms almost daily from early spring to late summer, and has his crew look them over every time they drive by one. “We don’t have a lot big elms left,” he explained. Of the hundreds of mature elms that once adorned the college, only twenty remain. » Continue Reading.


Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Adirondack Events Planned For Invasive Species Week

800px-Lythrum_salicaria_-_harilik_kukesabaI like to think I have a pretty nice garden. It’s not too large and not too small. If you were to hear about it from my children you would think I had them weed a farm sized lot. Instead my ½-acre produces the perfect amount of greens and salad stuff, berries, nectar flowers and even a monarch milkweed patch. Weeding is a necessity, but if an invasive plant finds its way onto my property, my family takes an “all hands on deck” approach to getting rid of the perpetrator in a proper fashion.

According to Jane Raffaldi, Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program (APIPP) Seasonal Invasive Species Educator, this is the second year that Invasive Species Week has been held statewide, July 12-18, 2015. Though APIPP has year-round programming to educate people on invasive plants and animals, this intensive week-long educational outreach allows people to learn why the proper control of invasive species is a necessity. » Continue Reading.


Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Regional Efforts To Combat Invasive Species Advance

APIPP Photo Steward Inspecting KayaksRegional efforts to control the spread of invasive species in the Adirondacks are making advances recently. The Adirondack Park Agency (APA) has approved two general permits relating to invasive species. At the same time, Warren County has approved a Framework Agreement for a region-wide aquatic invasive species plan that could mean expanded voluntary boat inspections.

APA General Permits 2015G-1 and 2014G-1A authorize a rapid response to both aquatic and terrestrial invasive species throughout the Adirondack Park by qualified and trained persons. These general permits approve eradication efforts both on a park-wide scale as well as for individual waterbodies or specific locations.

» Continue Reading.



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