United States Invasive/Alien Species

[SurvivalKid]

Round Goby (Neogobius melanstomus)



Identification:
http://www.protectyourwaters.net/hitchhikers/images/round-goby-diagram.gif
http://www.naturewatch.ca/Mixedwood/fish/images/ff-2.jpg


Impacts: Feed off of native fish eggs (lake trout) and competes with similer species such as sculpin and logperch.


Further Info:
http://www.protectyourwaters.net/hitchhikers/fish_round_goby.php
http://www.glsc.usgs.gov/main.php?content=research_invasive_goby&title=Invasive%20Fish0&menu=research_invasive_fish




Sea Lamprey (Petromyzon marinus)

http://www.iisgcp.org/EXOTICSP/images/pe_marin.gif

Identification:
http://www.gma.org/fogm/images/lamprey.gif

Impacts:Parasitic, feeds off of other fishes, particularly ciscos, walleye and lake trout. Hosts normally don't survive.

Further Information:
http://www.issg.org/database/species/ecology.asp?si=542&fr=1&sts=
http://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/greatlakesfish/fsealamprey1.html

Seeing as I can edit my post, I will add more shortly!
**NOTE**Just because your state is not shaded on one of these maps, does not mean these species are not on in your area. Check your local DNR.

[Rick]

Good post! There is so much crap invading our waters. It's a good idea to run your boat through the car wash and hose it down with hot soapy water before heading to the next body of water. That will kill any hitchhikers that tagged on to your boat or trailer.

[SurvivalKid]

Thanks Rick, there are about 4-5 more I will be adding shortly. We truly do need to stop the invasive species to prevent further damage to our fishing waters. These sea lampreys have affected us a little bit lately but they have a wonderful program started towards killing these.

[Justin Case]

Good starter Thread,, sending rep ;) California has its share of problems too,, I just took a look and was real surprised to learn that brown trout (shut up 2dumb) were not native to America ,,, http://www.defenders.org/resources/publications/invasives/california.pdf

[SurvivalKid]

Good starter Thread,, sending rep ;) California has its share of problems too,, I just took a look and was real surprised to lean that brown trout (shut up 2dumb) were not native to America ,,, http://www.defenders.org/resources/publications/invasives/california.pdfThat is correct, it was native to Europe.

[LowKey]

Running your boat through the car wash won't do it.
Here are the current disinfection procedures for Zebra Mussels.
http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/dfw/nhesp/conservation/invasives/mussels_table_disinfectants.htm

[OhioGrizzLapp]

Yeah, the great lakes region were totally invaded by Zebra shells...... ruined a friends boat and he had to gut the engine and replace everything.

[OhioGrizzLapp]

Actually NO trout are native, salmon yes, but no trout. The first trouts to come to America's were brought here by Germans, Russians and UK in the early 1700's. This includes Rainbow, Brooke and Browns.....and now Yellow trout have broke the breeding gap that the lovely folks that invented them said they could never do that and are now breeding like freakin carp.

There is a ring worm causing "whirling disease" recently (last 15 years) that was tracked from stream to stream by fly fisherman on their waders, boots and float tubes and it dang near desimated the trout population in the USA. It is still an ongoing problem for places like Montana, Utah, Colorado and a few other USED to be Trout fishing resorts. It attacks the small fry of the trout and makes them swim in a circle and not able to grow. The trout dissappeared because of no new fish and the ones there were over fished out.

http://wildlife.state.co.us/Fishing/Management/WhirlingDisease.htm

[rwc1969]

The zebra mussels are really cleaning up the water, but that has a negative effect on the waters and their inhabitants, not to mention taking up spawning gorounds and such. Here in Michigan i have a new motto; if it weren't for invasive species we'd have no species at all.

if it weren't for invasive species I'd never have made a bow drill fire. White pine is our state tree and in the area I live it's considered an invasive species and is being eradicated by the DNR.

Nearly all of our game fish are non-natives.

[LowKey]

White pine has some problems right now. Are you sure it is the tree that's the problem and not the Blister Rust?
http://www.plantmanagementnetwork.org/pub/php/management/whitepine/

Right now I'm just outside the quarantine area for the Asian Longhorn Beetle.
http://www.uvm.edu/albeetle/biology/index.html
People have been spreading it by transporting log wood to campsites all over the northeast. It will kill a tree in a season. The city of Worcester had to cut down and burn thousands of infested trees.

And we just got added to the infestation area for the Woolly adelgid that is killing Hemlock trees here now.
http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/woollyadelgid/index.aspx

Every state has a list of invasive species, usually on their Dept of Natural Resources or Dept of Agricultural Resources website. Not all species are aliens. Some are just plants from other parts of the country that turn aggressive in a new location. The mail-order plant companies aren't helping the matter at all. Most people don't know that even though they can buy it and the company will ship it, you aren't supposed to have it.
This is our list:
http://www.mass.gov/agr/farmproducts/prohibitedplantlist.htm

[Rick]

Here's a nice interactive map on zebra muscles. Overlay your cursor on the year to see them spread. Notice, too, the gold stars are locations where the muscles have been found on trailered boats.

http://fl.biology.usgs.gov/Nonindigenous_Species/ZM_Progression/zm_progression.html

[SurvivalKid]

White pine has some problems right now. Are you sure it is the tree that's the problem and not the Blister Rust?
http://www.plantmanagementnetwork.org/pub/php/management/whitepine/

Right now I'm just outside the quarantine area for the Asian Longhorn Beetle.
http://www.uvm.edu/albeetle/biology/index.html
People have been spreading it by transporting log wood to campsites all over the northeast. It will kill a tree in a season. The city of Worcester had to cut down and burn thousands of infested trees.

And we just got added to the infestation area for the Woolly adelgid that is killing Hemlock trees here now.
http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/woollyadelgid/index.aspx

Every state has a list of invasive species, usually on their Dept of Natural Resources or Dept of Agricultural Resources website. Not all species are aliens. Some are just plants from other parts of the country that turn aggressive in a new location. The mail-order plant companies aren't helping the matter at all. Most people don't know that even though they can buy it and the company will ship it, you aren't supposed to have it.
This is our list:
http://www.mass.gov/agr/farmproducts/prohibitedplantlist.htmWe have the emerald ash borer which is pretty nasty. Ruins a bunch of tree's everyday and it doesn't help that people keep taking wood in and out of our state.

[LowKey]

All of our ash trees died here about 5 years ago. Some kind of fungus.

[rwc1969]

I'm not aware of any white pine diseases locally LowKey, but the DNR told me they were doing prescribed burns of white pine south of Flint, MI. because the trees simply aren't native to this region.

I wasn't aware that all trout were non-native. I thought brooks, lakes, splakes which are a hybrid lake/ brook, and grayling were all native to MI.

[NY_Backpacker]

What about these Asian Carp in the Illinois River? They are very destructive to the river's ecosystem. They are threatening to push their way into the Mississippi. At the 2min mark in Part 2 they jolt the water with some electricity and they start flying around, as much as it is a problem, it is still pretty incredible.


Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS7zkTnQVaM

Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ChwJiKKBdA&feature=related

[Rick]

They are not only in the Mississippi but the Missouri and Ohio rivers. They've made it as far north as the James River in S. Dakota. Just wait until the Snakehead spreads that far.

[LowKey]

I've seen instructions that if you catch a snakehead you should nail it to a tree to keep it from going back to the water.
Apparently they can live quite a while out of the water.

[Rick]

Then you have the whole problem of trees dying because of nails in them. It's a vicious circle. Actually, some of the snakeheads can walk on land (shake, shimmy, crawl, whatever they do).

[LowKey]

Or a lot of dead chainsaw blades...
We could nail em to telephone poles. Those are already dead.

[Rick]

No, no, no, no, no. Sheeeeesh. Haven't I taught you guys anything? You have no idea how much fun it is to be coming down off a pole and step into a nail head. You're hook will generally catch several inches down but it's the thrill of, "OH MY DOG!", that keeps your heart pumping. Some guys have been known to step right on down to the ground. No nails in poles, please.

[LowKey]

Quite honestly can't say I've seen anyone "climb" a pole without a ladder or a bucket truck in ages.
But I hear ya.

[Rick]

Ah for the days when men were men and women were glad of it.

[hunter63]

Buck thorn and wild parsnip are the two that keep me mowing, cutting, pruning and trimming and using agent orangey stuff...straight on the stump.

Article in our Wisconsin Conservation magazine....How to get rid of this stuff, and it was a call for volunteers to help clean out wild life areas....using the same methods as I use.
So I called the number, and they asked if I wanted to volunteer, told them ..."No, how's about y'all come over here and give ME a hand"....she hung up.

Oh yeah, all my elms died here,starting about 5 years ago....most all dead and gone,now.
About 200 trees, all about the same size......called the country extension office, and they told me that they do this every 25 years or so....and I could have them come out for $150 bucks to check?????
PITA

[Rick]

That was rich. A good chuckle, thank you. I could actually hear that phone conversation in my head.

We have few elms left down here. My neighbor has a couple of 20 year old trees but you sure don't find any large ones. Dutch Elm got most of them. I understand there are some disease resistant cultivars now available but the darn things grow so slow it would be my grand kids that would shade under them.

[hunter63]

Then there is the Asian beetles, kinda like big lady bugs....imported to eat aphids, now they swarm by the scoop shovel fulls...... And they stink!
I spray when I leave the cabin, as I don't want the dogs to get into it.....go back and see a pile an inch thick all around the perimeter of the walls.

Lots of stuff that was never here before, and now becomes 'Normal"?

[Rick]

We're doing the same thing to other countries. Stuff we export has our residents on board and winds up in some other country. The problem, of course, is native plants have competed with native bugs for thousands of years and the plants have developed a genetic tolerance. These introduced species wipe out a given plant in a few years or decades. Long before it can develop any resistance to it. Sort of like us bringing small pox to the new world.

[SARKY]

Well out here large mouth bass was introduced by some dumd assed bubbas. They eat all the salmon fry and other small fish. Them our stupid fish and game decides that it is such a popular game fish that they start stocking it in our waters and wonder why the salmon runs are so small. To add to this a couple of years back, water from the delta was cut off from irrigating the central valley because it was claimed that some tiny fish was endangered because it was being sucked into the pumps and killed. In reality the fish was endangered because the damm bass were eating it.

[pete lynch]

That'd be the snail darter, would'nt it?