Willamette Week recently published an informative article about invasive species in Oregon. The article, written by Matthew Korfhage, focuses on 10 species that “could destroy Oregon as we know it”. Go pick up the latest issue or click here to read it online.
Interview with Liz Galli-Noble, Cyndi Park, and Alexis Brickner from the Coos Watershed Association | July, 25 2017
The Coos Watershed Association is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to restoration, monitoring, and education to improve the health of the Coos Watershed. The mission of the Coos Watershed Association is to support environmental integrity and economic stability within the Coos Watershed by increasing community capacity to develop, test, promote, and implement management practices in the interests of watershed health.
The Coos Watershed Association was established in 1993, has a 16-21 member Board of Directors, and currently employees: 10 full-time staff, several part-time staff, and summer interns and field crews.
Our work is rooted in science and driven by the belief that balance between economic and environmental interests is possible.
The CoosWA has many invasive species on our radar. However, the invasive plants of most concern are:
The knotweeds
Reed canary grass
English ivy
Himalayan blackberry
Gorse
Purple loosestrife
Yellow flag iris
English holly
Morning glory/field bindweed
Butterfly bush
Policeman’s helmet
Biddy biddy
Invasive plants threaten the ecological processes that preserve the water quality and functions of wetland and riparian areas. Invasive riparian species can disrupt the food chain, which in turn affects local salmonid populations.
Over the past decade, the Coos Watershed Association has significantly decreased the knotweed infestation on the South Coos River, as well as in and around the cities of Coos Bay and North Bend.
CoosWA staff have been very involved in many of the key weed management collaborations in Coos County for several years now, including: the Coos County Weed Advisory Board, the Gorse Action Group, and the Oregon Solutions Gorse Action Team.
The main challenge in working with invasive species in the Coos Watershed is gaining access to private property. While there are many landowners who are happy to have their weeds controlled by the CoosWA, there are some who won’t permit access or won’t respond to our letters and phone calls.
The public can help the Coos Watershed Association by helping find and control noxious weed infestations. They can take measures to reduce the spread of noxious weeds on their own properties and work with their neighbors to control larger infestations.
We just launched EDDMapS West as our invasive species reporting and management tool for the Coos Watershed. We will be training our staff, partners and the public to use it over the next few months; after which time, we hope that their reporting will streamline our EDRR efforts in the watershed and possibly county-wide.
To learn more about the Coos Watershed Association, visit their website at www.cooswatershed.org
or send an email to cooswa@cooswatershed.org.
After our Information Forum in Hermiston, where J.D. gave a talk about feral swine in Oregon, we sent him some follow-up questions to get more information about Oregon's feral swine issue, including Oregon's next steps and what the public can do to help.
Aggressive removal of all feral swine where they are known
Increased public outreach
Creating and fostering strong relationships between state/federal/local agencies, land owners and conservation groups.
Oregon is a level 3 funding state within the National Feral Swine Damage Management program. Level 3 funding acknowledges that eradication is possible, but not immediately possible. Other states within this funding level are: Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and Missouri. With cooperation among landowners and all agencies involved, Oregon can be successful in complete eradication within the near future.
It should be known that no matter how enjoyable feral swine can be to hunt, they are not an animal that you want present on the landscape. Oregon has had feral swine on the landscape for some time now and has seen relatively low impact on the landscape; This will not continue if they are allowed to persist in Oregon.
They pose a significant threat to native wildlife (diseases), livestock (diseases), water resources and agriculture. They are also a threat to health and human safety; simply look at the case in California where an E. coli outbreak occurred that was directly linked to feral swine. To this point, the relative low negative impact on the landscape in my opinion is pure luck. Again, I cannot stress it enough, if feral swine are allowed to persist they will cause significant negative impacts to the Oregon landscape.
I believe that is of the utmost importance that people immediately report sightings of feral swine. Be vigilant and educate yourselves on the damages of feral swine.
J.D. McComas is a Wildlife Biologist and Feral Swine expert with USDA APHIS Wildlife Services
Contact J.D. at: John.d.mccomas@aphis.usda.gov
Report all possible feral swine sightings by calling 1-888-268-9219
To learn more about OISC's Feral Swine campaign, visit our Squeal on Pigs webpage.
We are wrapping up our statewide Council meeting that took place in Hermiston, OR on June 20 & 21. There was a wide range of invasive species topics covered during the 2-day event. In case you were unable to join us, here are some of the important topics discussed during the Council meeting:
Mark Sytsma, Oregon Lake Watch Update
Program goal: early detection
Description of various aquatic invasive species sampling methods
Time and money requirements to run volunteer program
List of common aquatic invasive species: plants & animals
Limitations to program: equipment costs and time requirements
Rick Boatner, AIS Boat Inspection Updates | PDF
Goal of inspection program: protect state's waters & educate those about aquatic invasive species
Last year: conducted almost 17,000 inspections
2 new watercraft inspection stations proposed in Burns & Umatilla
J.D. McComas, Feral Swine Elimination Efforts
Feral swine in US: reported in 35 states- population estimated at 6 million
National Feral Swine Damage Management Program: $20 million appropriated by congress to USDA APHIS
Issues caused by feral swine: damage to agriculture and natural resources, risk of diseases
Oregon's feral swine action plan: 3 eradication areas in the state
Working Lunch, Local Issues of Concern | Photo of Notes
Pete Baki, Sage Grouse & Impacts of Invasive Species | Link to ODFW Sage Grouse webpage
Greater Sage Grouse: broadly distributed, landscape species – requires large populations in groups in multiple habitat types
Sage brush ecosystems: one of the most imperiled in the US- primary threat is invasive annual grasses and the resulting increased fire frequency and intensity
Oregon Sage Grouse mitigation program: science-based, transparent, defensible
Calculating "functional acres" as a planning tool: can measure changes over time
Tim Bailey, Controlling Yellow Perch Using Tiger Muskies
Tiger Muskies: sterile hybrid
Determined a low-risk biocontrol
Implementation plan: release 1,100 - 25,000 fry/fingerlings- evaluate after 5 years
Approach has been successful in western reservoirs- no evident cases on unintended consequences
Following the Information Forum, several attendees took an impromptu field trip out to a nearby location that has been invaded by garlic mustard and other invasive weeds. Pictured: Michelle Delepine, Council member & Theodore Orr, Umatilla Co. Weed Supervisor. Photo Credit: Wyatt Williams, Council member.
The statewide strategic plan and statewide action plan for invasive species set forth long-term and short-term strategies for invasive species control. The recommendations in the plan are the robust and feasible products of 15 months of collaborative planning among Council members, the Council's Advisory Group, stakeholders, and other entities engaged in invasive species issues. These plans are organized around the following five Objectives:
I. Prevention
II. Early Detection & Rapid Response
III. Control & Management
IV. Education & Outreach
V. Coordination & Leadership
If you are interested in participating in the network to support the actions laid out in the plan, check out the Strategic Plan and Action Plan documents for more information.
Photo Credit: Jalene Littlejohn, OISC Coordinator
OWEB 101: OWEB is a state agency that helps Oregonians to protect and restore healthy watersheds. Measure 76 gave 15% of lottery revenue to split between PP&R and OWEB. OWEB is led by 17 member oversight board. OWEB has many grant types- not trying for a “one size fits all” approach.
OWEB’s Connection to Invasive Species: OWEB funds a lot of weed grants and watershed restoration efforts, which resists invasive weed establishment.
Examples of Small Grants that OWEB has funded: instream projects, upland projects, juniper cutting, in-valley manure management, agricultural water projects, and culvert replacements.
Wyatt Williams: Sudden Oak Death
Early detection of the EU1 lineage has made it possible for rapid response and Oregon Department of Forestry is hoping for eradication. It is important to focus on conserving diversity of tanoak.
Tim Butler: Japanese Beetle
EDRR project in Beaverton, OR has been successful so far. Only a couple of holdouts out of 2,388 households. See annual report from ODA (link to PDF).
After an engaged discussion and evaluation of Oregon’s invasive species efforts over the last two years, Council members voted on a grade for the state. Stay tuned for the published 2015-2017 report card soon!
The popular OISC publication “100 Worst List” will be updated soon with a fresh look at the top list of species we need to prevent from taking hold in the state, and the top regional priority management species that should be contained (and hopefully eradicated). This effort will include removing “100” from the title, creating regional lists and developing an online searchable tool that will serve as a resource for and information hub. This topic will be discussed again at the September meeting.
Here’s to another successful Council Meeting! We hope to see you at our next meeting in September.
*Note: The views and opinions expressed in the attached file(s) or link(s) above are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Oregon Invasive Species Council. Please contact the author directly if you have any questions regarding the content.
