And NO NEED TO WORRY!
The STATE ASSURES YOU that EVERYTHING is FINE!
"Environmental officials voiced optimism that the infestation is isolated. But....
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I have total confidence in government ever since they have helped lie, obscure, and obfuscate the Gulf Gusher.
"Finding of invasive beetle in Boston sets off alarms; 6 maples near arboretum cut down but no sign of spread" by Carolyn Y. Johnson, Globe Staff | July 7, 2010
Asian longhorned beetles, a much-feared invasive pest with the potential to devastate New England’s forests, have been discovered in Boston, across the street from the country’s oldest public arboretum....
Teams of tree climbers and spotters, sent in by federal officials, have begun laboriously examining every tree vulnerable to the beetle within 1.5 miles.
The sighting of the beetles fanned worries that trees would have to be chopped down in treasured open spaces including the nearby Arnold Arboretum, Franklin Park, and Jamaica Pond. The beetle, which thrives on New England’s signature maples, has no known predators in the United States, and infested trees must be destroyed to prevent the insect’s spread.
The insect has “the ability to be the beetle that ate New England,’’ said Frank Lowenstein, director of forest health for the Nature Conservancy....
That is your government and its yo-yo jerk MSM, AmeriKa!
Everything is DANGEROUS and URGENT -- but remain calm and believe we tell you.
Ian Bowles, state energy and environmental affairs secretary, and federal officials said the infestation appears less widespread than one discovered two years ago in Worcester, which led to the destruction of 25,000 trees at a cost of $50 million in federal and state money.
Workers up in the tree canopy and on the ground have not found signs of the beetle in other trees around the hospital. While the insects can fly up to a mile and a half after they emerge from a tree, they are often “lackadaisical’’ and will lay eggs nearby or on the same tree they emerged from, according to Clint McFarland, director of the US Department of Agriculture’s Asian longhorned beetle eradication program.
The early positive news did not diminish environmental officials’ sense of urgency.
I think I'm getting sick, readers, and it ain't the heat.
They imposed a ban on transporting firewood or woody material outside of a zone within 1.5 miles of the epicenter and asked Boston and Brookline residents in the target area to search their yards and neighborhoods for signs of the inch-and-a-half-long, shiny, spotted beetles with curving black and white antennae.
Related: Around New England: Maine Makes MSM Monitor See Red
The USDA, which is coordinating with state and city officials, had 13 workers combing trees yesterday and plans to hire more to inspect tens of thousands of trees in the coming weeks.
The long-waited-for jobs?
Since the beetles were found in Worcester in August 2008, arborists around New England have been vigilant. Just two weeks ago, volunteers inspected trees on Boston Common and found no beetles.
The new beetles were discovered during routine groundskeeping, according to Deb LaScaleia, grounds supervisor at Faulkner Hospital. She saw signs of some kind of insect infestation, sawdust created when beetles bore holes, and sent samples to be tested by a private contractor.
The presence of the beetles was confirmed, and around 5 a.m. yesterday the trees were removed. About 10 adult beetles were found, and about 40 beetles in earlier stages of development.
It is not known how the beetles reached Boston. One theory is that they arrived in wood products such as firewood.
Gee, I don't know, Globe.
Smells like a CONSPIRACY THEORY to me.
Related: Battling the Asian Beetle in New England
Yeah, ain't globalization grand?
And you have to CUT DOWN UNINFECTED TREES, too, huh?
Say GOODBYE to the ARBORETUM, Boston!
McFarland said scientists will use genetics to try to determine the origins of these beetles.
The beetle, which is native to Asia, is an invasive species of much concern in the United States. First detected in 1996 in Brooklyn, N.Y., it also has caused infestations in Chicago and New Jersey, where thousands of trees were removed. While it is not known how the beetles first got to this country, one potential source is wooden shipping pallets.
Besides its lack of predators, the beetle is especially pernicious because it threatens so many types of trees, including maple, elm, willow, birch, horse chestnut, poplar, and mimosa. In the spring, a pesticide can be used to treat at-risk trees to try to prevent future infestation, but once a tree is infested, the only option is to cut it down and turn it into chips or burn it.
I guess that will make BIOMA$$ happy, huh?
Related: Earth Day: Biomass Mess in Massachusetts
Earth Day: Taking a Chainsaw to the Environmental Movement
Slow Saturday Special: Coming to Take the Trees Away
Don't think of it as destruction; think of it as de$truction, tree-huggers.
The beetles chew an oval-shaped pit in the bark of a tree in the summer, and females lay one egg in each pit. When those eggs hatch, larvae tunnel into the heart of the tree, where they eat the wood and spend the winter. When the larvae are grown, they emerge as adult beetles the following summer by boring their way to the surface of the tree....
I'm not going to worry about it anymore, Globe.
Government says it's isolated.
Related:
"Haste urged to halt invasive carp’s advance" by Associated Press | July 1, 2010
DETROIT — A group of lawmakers yesterday said that the idea to stop the spread of the invasive Asian carp by permanently separating waterways linking the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes should be looked at with increased urgency.
Combine this with the Gulf Gusher and SOON America's WATERWAYS will be DEAD ZONES!!!
Related: Can't Beat Them? Eat Them
Actually, I don't like eating fish:
Heavy Metal Contamination Makes Eating Fish a Crap Shoot
Also see: The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
Whatever you do, don't toss them back.
US Senators Debbie Stabenow of Michigan and Dick Durbin of Illinois, both Democrats, introduced the Permanent Prevention of Asian Carp Act in the Senate to speed up research. Representative Dave Camp, Republican of Michigan, introduced it in the House.
Here the horses are running out of the barn (or the fish jumping the fences, if you prefer) and Congress is talking research.
But if it is the GLOBAL-WARMING CARBON TAX.... NO FURTHER RESEARCH NEEDED despite the LIES!!!!!!
The lawmakers’ action comes after officials announced last week that an Asian carp had been found for the first time beyond electric barriers meant to keep them out of the Great Lakes. Commercial fishermen landed the 3-foot-long, 20-pound bighead carp in Lake Calumet on Chicago’s South Side, about 6 miles from Lake Michigan.
It is just ONE FAILURE AFTER ANOTHER with THIS GOVERNMENT!
The legislation would require the US Army Corps of Engineers to complete research on so-called hydrological separation within 18 months. The Army Corps has said research could take up to five years.
By then the Great Lakes are DEAD except for CARP!
“While this method would require a complex feat of engineering, we need to understand the costs and benefits and whether this method offers the best hope for . . .containing not only the carp, but other invasive species,’’ Durbin.
Which is really NO HOPE at all.
Why am I feeling all Gulf Gushy?
BP's Relief Well Is Not a Slam Dunk
Turns out it MAY NOT WORK AT ALL because the WELL CASING in the SEA FLOOR has deteriorated.
But it's our BEST HOPE!
Jim Farrell, executive director of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce’s Infrastructure Council, said there are other options that should be explored to keep the carp out, such as expanding electric barriers or conducting fish kills.
Even thought those HAVE NOT WORKED all this time.
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So when does the Asian carp become AmeriKa's national fish?
"US weighs costs of fighting invasive species" by Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post | February 1, 2010
WASHINGTON - Invasive species - long the cause of environmental hand-wringing - have been raising more unwelcome questions recently, as the expense of eliminating them is weighed against the mounting liability of leaving them be.
Which is worse? Closing two locks on a critical waterway that is used to ship millions of dollars’ worth of goods from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi basin? Or allowing a voracious Asian carp to chow down on the native fish sustaining a Midwestern fishing industry that nets $7 billion a year?
And how do you put a price tag on the damage caused by the Burmese python and other constrictor snakes that are strangling the precious ecology of the Everglades? Questions like those became more urgent last week, when a team of scientists led by the University of Notre Dame disclosed that silver carp dominating stretches of the Mississippi River and its tributaries had infiltrated Lake Michigan.
The federal government had spent $22 million on electric barriers in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal to keep carp out, but it clearly was not enough. An additional $33 million is going into the effort next year.
Yeah, let's keep doing what hasn't worked!
And isn't GLOBALIZATION GRAND?
A coalition of six Great Lakes states and the Canadian province of Ontario have sought a preliminary injunction from the Supreme Court to shut down two major locks immediately on the grounds that an Asian carp invasion would cause “irreparable harm.’’
The court declined to grant the injunction last month, but it will accept briefs soon on the broader question of whether to close them at all.
Army Corps of Engineers officials say it is too early to shut down the locks. They are focused on building a third electrical barrier to provide yet another obstacle to Asian carp infiltrating Lake Michigan.
“It’s not a silver bullet, but it’s a good tool to impede the movement of the silver and bighead carp,’’ said Colonel Vincent Quarles, commander of the Army Corps’ Chicago District.
But if it DOESN'T STOP THEM!!??
But the barriers are not surefire, and specialists say it is difficult to say how many Asian carp would have to make it through to establish a viable population.
How about 2, one male, one female?
US officials have been fighting invasive species for many years, but efforts have intensified in recent years as the impact has become clear. For instance, zebra and quagga mussels that were once restricted to the Great Lakes have moved west, clogging systems at critical dams.
Related: The Day Boston Went Dry
Yup, they've made it out here.
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And about those carp:
"Michigan sues to protect lake from carp" by Washington Post | December 28, 2009
Asian carp jumped out of the Illinois River early this month after being disturbed by sounds of watercraft. Many fear that the carp will starve native fish by gobbling up plankton. (Illinois River Biological Station via The Detroit Free Press And AP)
They going to be able to jump the electric fences, too.
WASHINGTON - The reversal of the Chicago River a century ago, to send the city’s sewage to the Mississippi River instead of into Lake Michigan, was hailed as an engineering marvel. Now Michigan is suing Illinois to potentially reverse the river again to prevent the movement of voracious, invasive Asian carp into the lake.
The suit, which is going to the Supreme Court, also challenges Chicago’s withdrawal of up to 2 billion gallons of water a day from Lake Michigan.
Environmental groups have long called for the ecological separation of the Great Lakes from the Mississippi River basin to curb the spread of invasive species and to retain Great Lakes water in the Great Lakes basin.
The Chicago River was reversed by connecting it through a system of canals to rivers whose waters flow into the Mississippi.
Since 2002, the US Army Corps of Engineers has run an electric barrier in the canal to block Asian carp. But tests by the University of Notre Dame and the Nature Conservancy in the fall found Asian carp DNA beyond the barrier near Lake Michigan, indicating that it might have failed to keep the voracious fish at bay.
If Asian carp make it into the Great Lakes, environmentalists and policy makers say, they could wipe out plankton that makes up the base of the food chain.But globalization is great.
--more--"
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. - The Obama administration has developed a five-year blueprint for rescuing the Great Lakes, a sprawling ecosystem plagued by toxic contamination, shrinking wildlife habitat, and invasive species.
The plan envisions spending more than $2.2 billion for long-awaited repairs after a century of damage to the lakes....
Yeah, we spent all our tax loot on wars and bank bonuses, 'er, bailouts.
Among the goals is a “zero tolerance policy’’ toward future invasions by foreign species, including the Asian carp, a huge, ravenous fish that has overrun portions of the Mississippi River system and is threatening to enter Lake Michigan.
Others include cleanup of the region’s most heavily polluted sites, restoring wetlands and other crucial habitat, and improving water quality in shallow areas, where runoff from cities and farms has led to unsightly algae blooms and beach closings.
(And oddly, that is why the Asian carp was imported in the first place)
Also promised is a strategy for monitoring the ecosystem’s health and holding federal agencies accountable for the plan....
Forgive me if I do not hold my breath on that one.
Time for lunch yet?
