Invasive Water Species Damaging Environment
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There is a long list of invasive species making New York State home. Cornell University says these species are damaging crops, infecting waterways, and causing disease in livestock and even humans.
But, researchers say we are part of the problem.
Chuck O'Neill of the Cornell Cooperative Extension is on a mission to inform people about the foreign plants and animals moving into and damaging our area.
New York's Attorney General Andrew Cuomo recently filed a brief in U.S. Supreme Court supporting an effort to halt the spread of Asian carp in the Great Lakes. The carp can grow to be 100 pounds and consume massive quantities of plankton – the base of the Great Lakes food chain.
New York and five other Great Lakes states won a court ruling preventing ships from discharging ballast water without a permit.
Environmentalists say untreated ballast water has led to the introduction of more than 180 invasive species into the Great Lakes, including zebra mussels.
The Executive Summary of the National Invasive Species Management Plan defines an invasive species as “a species that is non-native to the ecosystem under consideration and whose introduction causes or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health.”
Source: nyis.info
On land, a small bug, the emerald ash borer, is endangering the state's ash trees. Plants like the poisonous giant hogweed damage native habitat.
"They outcompete the native species. They push species that are abundant aside to the point that they become smaller populations. Smaller populations can be pushed to the point where they can be exterminated," said O'Neill.
O'Neill added that too frequently, people are to blame for the spread of invasive species.
"Pets that are being set free, tropical fish that are being dumped out, water garden plants that are being flushed out of the water gardens and are not native..."
But O'Neill said people are also the solution. He hopes by educating people at seminars about what does and does not belong, they will notice invasive species and report where they are.
"If you can get somebody who's seen something and reports it right away and the population hasn't started to grow, that's the time to take action," O'Neill said.
New York Invasive Species Information