Fishy Freefall

Are you ready for tonight's Dropping of the Carp? Oh, to be in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin on this New Year's Eve!

Bleached Pond

Wisconsin is preparing to bleach their Louisiana crayfish (crawfish? crawdads? :-)) out of existence. The invasive crustacean in question is the red swamp crayfish (Procambarus clarkii), in case you're wondering.

EAB in WI

Add Wisconsin to the list of states the emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis) calls home...for now anyway. The Wisconsin Ag Connection, KARE 11 News, and others are reporting that EAB trapping surveys revealed the beetle's presence in Ozaukee County, which is north of Milwaukee.

Just last week, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency confirmed the presence of the emerald ash borer in Ottawa, Ontario...and a few weeks before that, we had the sightings in Virginia, and Quebec. It's no wonder that Minnesota is so worried.

For a whole slew of ISW posts about the emerald ash borer, just click on the tag below...

(Thanks to David S. for sending in a link to the Ottawa story!)

Hoofin' It

Sounds like hooved beasts are causing trouble in the invasive species world this week. Newswise recently posted this report about new research suggesting that horses are in part responsible for spreading non-native plants along trails in Colorado. Scientists picked through road apples and discovered that the horses were carrying a lot of alien seed in their feces. While there was no particular species that the horses are being blamed for spreading, the research does remind us that horses are potential vectors of invasive plants and should not be overlooked. Kudos to the journal Rangeland Ecology & Management for making the full paper available online for free.

Over in Wisconsin, deer hunting season is about to start, and this year hunters will be helping collect data on invasive plants. Every deer brought in to the Department of Natural Resources for registration will have its hooves checked for invasive plants. Students from Luther College in Iowa will be assisting the Wisconsin DNR in collecting the data. Here's hoping we hear back from them on their findings - they say this is the first study of its kind for white-tail deer (Odocoileus virginianus, native to the US), and the results should be interesting. WKBT.com has the full story.

Thanks to budak for sending in a link to the horse tale. If you have an interesting invasive species story that you would like to share, send it in by clicking on the "Suggest a Post" link in the top right corner.

One Lake At A Time

In an attempt to slow the spread of VHS (Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia) in their state, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has enacted emergency regulations stating that anyone exiting a body of water must now make sure to drain his/her boat and fishing equipment. VHS, first discovered in the Great Lakes Region in 2005, infects mostly salmonid types of fishes (salmon, trout, etc.) and remains viable in water for up to two weeks, meaning that it could be spread easily by angling activities. Perhaps more frustrating for anglers is the additional rule that any fish taken away from a body of water in Wisconsin must be dead, even bait fish. As a fishing guide says in this story from WJFW, that could be a pain for anyone wanting to visit multiple bodies of water in a single day.

Containment Feel

Now that the fish virus Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia (VHS) has been discovered in Lake Winnebago, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has enacted further emergency rulings aimed at curbing its spread. Since April 7th of this year, rulings have been in effect in Wisconsin that banned the transport of live fish from the Great Lakes, the Mississippi River and any of their tributaries. As of May 17th the ban has been expanded to the entire Lake Winnebago watershed (pdf map), but more importantly, as the press release from the DNR notes: "...if VHS is found outside of the Lake Winnebago system the rules will automatically go into effect statewide."

Wisconsin has also increased monitoring of bait dealers and has suspended the stocking of fish within the watershed, and this editorial from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel points out the role that anglers and boaters will have to play in preventing the spread of VHS. The seriousness with which everyone is taking this situation brings up two important questions: 1) Can Wisconsin realistically keep VHS from spreading and 2) What are neighboring states doing to prepare for the possibility of a fish epidemic like VHS? Michigan is one state that seems concerned, as is New York.

Adopt-A-Swan

The Wisconsin Journal-Sentinel is reporting that the state's Natural Resources Board has decided to employ an experimental adoption program in their efforts to control invasive mute swans (Cygnus olor). Residents that are interested in sponsoring a swan must be willing to pay to neuter and band the bird. The move comes in response to the staunch opposition to current mute swan control programs, which include culling and addling eggs to prevent them from hatching.

I am not aware of the details of the program, but I wonder if it will be possible for enough of the swans to get "adopted" such that reproduction virtually ceases. As soon as I can locate more information (including the cost of adoption), I'll post it here. In the meantime, if there's a Wisconsin mute swan you've had your eye on, be sure to register with the state by June 1st 2007.

Update: bootstrap analysis has weighed in on the mute swan adoption plan, definitely worth a read.

Purple Rage

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has this story about a several county effort to document populations of the invasive wetland plant Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) in Wisconsin. Researchers hope to take the survey statewide by next year; the last state survey for Purple Loosestrife was done back in 1987. Be sure to check out the link to a nice graphic showing the current mapped distribution.