H2ONCoast

Happy Earth Day! As I have discussed on H2ONCoast many times before, biological invasions constitute one of the most important threats to watershed health and human economy. Next to habitat loss, biological invasions are the second most serious threat to biological diversity. To boot, they cost Americans alone $138 billion a year in clean up, [...]

No, this is not just another cheesy science fiction movie of the week. Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB), along with a host of partners including Oregon Sea Grant, are launching a major public education campaign highlighting invasive species on Tuesday, April 22nd. The Silent Invasion presents several stories about the growing impact of invasive species [...]

Here’s a new twist on an new problem: climate change (or increased warmth and carbon dioxide associated with climate change) may increase weed growth too. One of the chief arguments that climate change isn’t such a bad thing after all–the Green Earth argument–is the logic that greenhouse conditions and CO2 will assist humans with greater [...]

European imports, Zebra mussels have become a huge invasive species problem throughout the Great Lakes region where they proliferate in freshwater lakes, forming monocultures of the critters on beaches, boats, docs, power plant intakes, and other natural or human-made surfaces. Right now, all eyes in the West are on the zebra’s close cousin, the quagga [...]

For those of us concerned with invasive species in the PNW, examples of impacts, management and prevention abound. The following story is a striking example of why invasive species are such an urgent issue locally and globally: they very often generate serious but completely unforeseen consequences for the ecosystems in which they become established. [...]

Japanese Knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum) and its close cousin, Himalayan Knotweed (P. polystachyum) are all abloom this time year, leading the curious to ask, “what is that flossy flower along the streams of the North Coast?” Some call it lovely, as did the gardeners and nursery owners who imported it at the turn of the 20th [...]

The North Coast of Oregon is blessed with some beautiful rivers, lakes, wetlands and estuaries. And like anything beautiful, these places are coveted by many–including invasive plants and animals which have been introduced to our area in the century and a half since the first European settlers made their way through the Coast Range passes [...]