Grab your bear can or camp chair, kick your feet up and chew the fat about anything Sierra Nevada related that doesn't quite fit in any of the other forums. Within reason, (and the HST rules and guidelines) this is also an anything goes forum. Tell stories, discuss wilderness issues, music, or whatever else the High Sierra stirs up in your mind.
California Invasive Species Action Week to Put the Spotlight on Habitat Invader
JUNE 2, 2016
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) will kick off the third annual California Invasive Species Action Week on Saturday, June 4. The goal of Action Week is to promote public awareness of invasive species issues and to encourage public participation in the fight against California’s invasive species and their impacts on our natural resources.
CDFW will be partnering with other departments, agencies, organizations and volunteer programs across California to host more than 45 educational and “action” events including invasive species removals, habitat restoration projects, quagga mussel surveys, field outings, public presentations and youth activities. All events are open to the public, although some require registration. A calendar of events planned for around the state can be found at http://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/filehandler.ashx? ... 891&inline.
The California Invasive Species Action Week webpage (http://www.wildlife.ca.gov/conservation ... ction-week) provides information for individuals wishing to participate independently. For example, people can locate recipes for preparing invasive plants or animals, find out where they can purchase certified “weed-free” project materials or livestock forage, find desirable, native alternatives to certain invasive ornamental plants or learn how to monitor plants and trees for symptoms of infestations or diseases. People can also volunteer to “inspect” local waterbodies for quagga and zebra mussels and submit their findings to CDFW on its website.
The winners of the 2016 Invasive Species Youth Art Contest will also be announced the week of June 5. This year’s theme, “The Invader Files,” generated 49 entries from students in second through 12th grade. Entries will be on display throughout California Invasive Species Action Week at the Nimbus Fish Hatchery Visitor’s Center, 2001 Nimbus Rd., Gold River (95670).
As a kid roaming creeks near Sacramento, was a champion at sticking my hands into their holes and pulling them out without getting grabbed by their pincers. Also would catch a great many incidentally while fishing as much like crabs in the ocean, even after being hoisted out of the water, most showing their tiny brain size haha, refuse to let go of what they are eating on. Also sometimes during summer waded into shallows and hand grabbed them. They were abundant. We mostly used their tails for bait fishing for sunfish.
Also hand caught a lot of bullfrogs that are indeed not native to The West. To catch a big one was rare and a big deal as they are very quick to jump. But traveling down creeks would hear the deep bellowing of the large ones then try and sneak up getting as one could was an art in stealthiness. And upon catching one would bring it out on the land and have a lot of fun letting them hop around with all of us running after it. The big ones have a distinctive foul smell that stays on one's hands much like some garter snakes.
As for invasive species, a horrible ages long problem accelerating in the modern era. The plant ecology of the whole state was radically changed by the Spanish then American grazing pioneers bringing in a large number of alien European and Asian species in seeds of feed. Today the booming pet store industry brings in a long list of exotic animals that pea-brained pet owners too often eventually let loose into our environments. In our natural areas feral hogs have been running destructively wild while hunting enthusiasts wield power monkeywrenching attempts to really get rid of them that would require eradicating them on not just public lands but also on private lands. And then there are other pinheads emigrants that dump destructive fish species into our waters like pike and Asian carp.
Fresno, Livermore and Sacramento Valley Students Take Top Honors in 2016 Invasive Species Youth Art Contest
The winners of “The Invader Files” Youth Art Contest have been announced by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s (CDFW) Invasive Species Program.
As part of the California Invasive Species Action Week, 49 youths from across California submitted their original artwork. Participants were asked to pick an invasive species that causes harm to native species or the environment in California and submit their illustration of that invader and the harm it causes. The top three posters for each grade division were selected by members of the California Invasive Species Advisory Committee and the poster which best exemplified the contest theme was selected as the CDFW Invasive Species Program Choice Award.
Amelie Ingram, 10, a student at Fred T. Korematsu Elementary School in Davis, was named the winner of the Invasive Species Program Choice Award. Ingram created a comic depicting the common coqui (frog) displacing native species.
“What happens in real life is invasive species take resources like water, food and space/home from native animals,” Ingram wrote. “As they overpopulate, less native animals have homes. They are small, but scary.”
Great work, kids!!
The full post has all the artwork that i didn't want to repost here:
