PUBLIC MEETING: DEC's Proposed State Wildlife Action Plan -- TUESDAY at 3PM

 10-Year Plan to Target Conservation Actions for 

Species of Greatest Need and Their Habitats

The proposed State Wildlife Action Plan (SWAP) to protect rare and declining wildlife species is now available for public comment, state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Joe Martens announced today. The deadline for written comment is Friday, July 17.

A PUBLIC MEETING will be held on Tuesday, June 16, 3:00pm at Reinstein Woods Nature Preserve,  93 Honorine Drive (off Como Park Blvd.), Cheektowaga [Map].

"The State Wildlife Action Plan will help guide DEC's work to protect and restore wildlife, and ensure that these precious natural resources are conserved for future generations," said Commissioner Martens. "The SWAP is a ten-year plan to protect rare and declining wildlife species that is being developed to update the 2005 Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy. At the upcoming meetings, DEC staff and conservation partners will present projects carried out through the Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy to conserve species of conservation need and propose actions that all of us can do to help protect these species."

The draft ten-year plan identifies 366 Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN) in New York that need conservation actions to thrive. Such species include moose, least tern, northern diamond-backed terrapin, eastern spadefoot toad, lake sturgeon, barndoor skate, humpback whale, brook snaketail and barrens buckmoth. Of those 366, there are 167 species that are identified as high priority SGCN, including little brown bats, spruce grouse, Blanding's turtle, queen snake, American eel, sauger, winter flounder, horseshoe crab, dwarf wedgemussel and American bumblebee. An additional 113 species are seen as possibly needing conservation actions, including least weasel, mink frog, tiger shark, Scotia sallfly, and monarch butterfly. Surveys will help determine their current population status.

To update the draft SWAP, DEC staff and conservation partners assessed the current status of 597 rare and declining species in New York. The assessment included the location and condition of habitats where the species live, threats to the populations and conservation actions to help maintain healthy populations. The most common threats to these species are loss of habitat, pollution, invasive species and climate change. Recommended conservation actions include protection and restoration of habitat, management of SGCN populations and monitoring to maintain current data on SGCN.

DEC will hold public information sessions throughout the state in June to present the draft plan and accept public comment.

Forum: The STATUS of LAKE ERIE - Reserve Seats Now

[Click Image to Enlarge]

WHEN: Saturday, April 5, 2014 at 9:00 AM

WHERE: Frank Lloyd Wright's Fontana Boathouse, Buffalo, NY

The STATUS of LAKE ERIE is the topic of the forum to be held on the Buffalo waterfront at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fontana Boathouse with its magnificent view of Lake Erie. An expert panel of speakers will address a variety of Lake Erie issues including toxic algae, dead zones, invasive species, CAFOs and water quality. There will also be a brief talk on the Boathouse’s history and a tour of the nearby Great Lakes Laboratory Field Station. The program is below:

[Click Image to Enlarge]

Advance Registration is required due to limited seating.

RESERVE your seat for the STATUS of LAKE ERIE forum:

•  write a check for $5 per person made out to ADK

•  mail it to Cheryl Peluso, 3618 Howard Rd, Hamburg NY 14075

•  any questions, leave a message at 648-9027 or email cherylp17@verizon.net

Once the check is received your name will be added to the reserved seat list and Cheryl will email an acknowledgement of receipt . Upon arrival at the event, give your name at the door and you'll be admitted.

Click here to check out the flyer

Sponsored by the Niagara Frontier Chapter of the Adirondack Mountain Club.

Advocating in DC for Great Lakes Protection

By Roger Germann
Executive Vice President, John G. Shedd Aquarium

Our lakes may still be frozen but last week there was a wave of Great Lakes activity in Washington, D.C. More than 100 Great Lakes advocates from all over North America gathered together in one place for the Great Lakes Day meeting hosted by the Great Lakes Commission (GLC). I joined several of my fellow Great Lakes champions who headed east to represent Shedd Aquarium, an official Observer for GLC, at the annual event.

It's a pivotal time for the lakes. Resources are strained, but Great Lakes issues remain. Leaders including John Goss, Asian carp director for the Obama Administration, and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy led important discussions about the future of our region. Representatives from Canada to Chicago came together to celebrate recent successes while also advocating for crucial funding support from federal, state and provincial governments. But, most importantly, we publicly strengthened our unified resolve to create solutions for the serious issues affecting the Great Lakes.

Of course, the hottest topic both in sessions and in hallway discussions remained how to prevent Asian carp from entering the Great Lakes. Progress has been made. Recently, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released the Great Lakes and Mississippi River Interbasin Study (GLMRIS). However, the study is a starting point and there is more to be done to address the Asian carp issue, along with preventing the spread of other aquatic invasive species in and out of the Great Lakes basin.
In a show of solidarity, something not often seen in Washington D.C., the Great Lakes Commission passed four resolutions, with Asian carp at the top of the list:

1. Asian carp solutions Resolution: Taking immediate action on a suite of near-term measures to reduce the risk of interbasin transfer of Asian carp and other invasive species at the Chicago Area Waterways System (CAWS).
   There's an urgent need to implement short-term risk reduction options to protect the Great Lakes from Asian carp, and Congress is looking to the Commission for next steps. The Commission recommended several near-term measures, including continuing the Asian Carp Control Strategy Framework, such as electric barriers, and implementing additional control measures outlines in the GLMRIS report such as habitat alteration and controlled harvesting. Read more about the proposed near-term measures. 

Forum: The STATUS of LAKE ERIE - Reserve Seats Now

The Niagara Frontier Chapter of the Adirondack Mountain Club presents a

Conservation Conversation on the 

STATUS of LAKE ERIE

WHEN: Saturday, April 5, 2014 at 9:00 AM

WHERE: Frank Lloyd Wright's Fontana Boathouse, Buffalo, NY

The STATUS of LAKE ERIE is the topic of the forum to be held on the Buffalo waterfront at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fontana Boathouse with its magnificent view of Lake Erie. An expert panel of speakers will address a variety of Lake Erie issues including algae, dead zones, water quality and invasive species. There will also be a brief talk on the Boathouse’s history and a tour of the nearby Great Lakes Laboratory Field Station. Click here for more information.

Advance Registration is required due to limited seating.

RESERVE your seat for the STATUS of LAKE ERIE forum:

•  write a check for $5 per person made out to ADK

•  mail it to Cheryl Peluso, 3618 Howard Rd, Hamburg NY 14075

•  any questions, leave a message at 648-9027 or email cherylp17@verizon.net

Once the check is received your name will be added to the reserved seat list and Cheryl will email an acknowledgement of receipt.

When you arrive for the event, just give your name at the door and you will be admitted.

Click here to check out the flyer

[Click image to enlarge]
 
Landsat-5 satellite image of the western Lake Erie taken in October 2011, the worst algal bloom in decades. Excess nutrients, in particular phosphorus enrich Lake Erie, which results in frequent seasonal algal blooms. 
Image source: NASA Earth Observatory

Restore the Greatness of our Great Lakes

Fouling our own waters
Government, individual effort needed to keep sewage, pollutants out of lakes
EDITORIAL - The Buffalo News

When it goes down the drain -- or down the toilet -- it is because we don't want it in our houses or in our streets.

Nor should we want it on our beaches. But, according to a new report from the National Resources Defense Council, that is where a lot of our runoff and sewage goes, all too often without the benefit of being run through a proper treatment process first.

The fact that recreational beaches along the Great Lakes and elsewhere are being closed to swimmers more often than in the past is an indication that something is wrong. But, says the council, those alerts are only the tip of a very dirty iceberg.

A study released early this week reported that five cities, including Buffalo, dumped 41 billion gallons of storm water runoff and untreated sewage into the Great Lakes last year, through what are known as combined sewer overflows. That may get diluted in the more than 6 quadrillion gallons in the lakes, but it's still as much water as goes over Niagara Falls in 15 hours -- and it's a health risk. Read more here.

Great Lakes Restoration Conference in Buffalo
Wednesday, September 22 – Friday, September 24
Adams Mark Hotel, Buffalo, NY


NY bans phosphorus in detergent, lawn fertilizer
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - A new law to improve water quality makes it illegal for stores in New York to stock fresh supplies of household dishwasher detergents that contain phosphorus.

Stores have 60 days to sell old inventories. Sales for commercial use are to end July 1, 2013. Starting in 2012, a similar ban will apply to lawn fertilizers.

Environmental officials say phosphorus drains into New York lakes and rivers, which turn green with algae, degrading drinking water and reducing oxygen that fish need. More than 100 bodies of water in the state are considered impaired, including Cayuga Lake and Lake Champlain. Read more at BuffaloNews.com.
Senator Antoine Thompson sponsored this bill.

Invasive Water Plants Removed from Tonawanda Creek
Tonawanda Creek flows into the Niagara River upstream from Lake Ontario. Invasive water chestnut plants that covered a 6 acre region of Tonawanda Creek including parts of the Erie Canal have been removed recently to curtail their spread. Buffalo Niagara RIVERKEEPER mobilized volunteers who worked in conjunction with U.S. Fish and Wildlife's Great Lakes Fish and Conservation Office which operated a mechanical harvester and with Erie County Parks personnel who loaded the plants into dump trucks and hauled them away.

See the WIVB TV News report below:



Woodlawn hides some varied and valuable wetlands
By Gerry Rising
It is sad to see Woodlawn Beach, one of this area’s prime bathing areas, closed to swimming this summer. That one of the Great Lakes has areas so polluted [is a] testament to our abuse of the resources with which we have been blessed. Read more at BuffaloNews.com.

Water Plants gone Wild! Volunteers Needed

Water Chestnut plants have covered the surface of Tonawanda Creek near Ellicott Island Park and parts of the Erie Canal (see photo). This invasive plant eliminates native plants by forming a dense layer on the surface that blocks sun from reaching the native plants underwater. Water chestnut invasions also limit boating and fishing.

[Buffalo News photo - Click to enlarge]

Buffalo Niagara RIVERKEEPER's new habitat restoration program, RestoreCorps, is to aiming to remove the water chestnut by mobilizing VOLUNTEERS in conjunction with U.S. Fish and Wildlife's Great Lakes Fish and Conservation Office which will use a mechanical harvester to remove plants for six days starting August 2nd. About 200 metric TONS of plants will be removed from a 6 acre area.

VOLUNTEERS are needed in two ways:

1. From Monday, August 2 through Friday, August 6, between 8am to 6pm daily, volunteers are needed to off-load plants from the harvester onto a conveyor system escalating up the bankside to the parking lot, where plants will be loaded into dump trucks and transported to a compost facility.

2. On Saturday, August 7 from 8:30 am-12:30 pm, volunteers are needed to hand pull any remaining plants from the shoreline and from the water by canoe, kayak, and boat. Volunteers will be trained in proper removal techniques.

To VOLUNTEER, please contact Bryan LoVullo by calling 852-7483, extension 23, or by E-mail at blovullo@bnriverkeeper.org.

For more information, see an article in The Buffalo News and additional photos at Invasive.org

A video from WIVB News is below:

State of Lake Erie Meeting - May 6

New York Sea Grant's

Annual State of Lake Erie Meeting

Free and open to the public

• Thursday, May 6, 7:00 - 9:00 pm

• ARMOR FIRE HALL, 4932 Clark St., Hamburg, NY [ MAP ]
  

FEATURED PRESENTATIONS

• NY Power Authority - Offshore Wind Generation - Sharon Laudisi, Lou Paonessa

• NYS DEC's Lake Erie Coldwater Program Update - Jim Markham, Senior Fishery Biologist, NYS DEC

• NYS DEC's Lake Erie Warmwater Program Update - Don Einhouse, NYS DEC, Lake Erie Unit Leader

• A Response to the Asian Carp Situation - Thomas Marks, NY Director, Great Lakes Sport Fishing Council

Sponsored by: NYS Assemblyman Jack Quinn, In Cooperation With Southtowns Walleye Association of WNY

For more information or directions, contact: Helen Domske, NY Sea Grant (716) 645-3610 or email sgbuffal@cornell.edu

===========================================

Editorial Opinion:
Those interested in offshore wind power as a source of clean, renewable energy should definitely attend this meeting.

There will be significant opposition to offshore wind at this public meeting from fishing enthusiasts, as indicated in this document.

If you have been following the news on the oil spill in the Gulf, you know what offshore oil drilling can do to harm the fish, sport fishing and the fishing industry.

Consider an alternative energy source: what would happen if there was a wind spill from an offshore wind farm? No harm, no foul...enjoy the breeze while clean energy powers your home, electric car, trolling motor battery, and just keep on fishing!