invasive species

One of the greatest threats to cotton and soybean producers is Palmer amaranth, an invasive and aggressively growing weed. The weed has developed resistance to the widely used weedkiller glyphosate and now Palmer amaranth populations in Arkansas are resistant to a class of herbicides known as PPO inhibitors, compounding the challenge of weed control, says a University of Illinois researcher.

The aptly named snakehead, a fish native to China, was already starring in horror films when it was discovered in the Potomac River in 2004, says Bay Journal. Now the snakehead is firmly established in more than 60 miles of the river, but "their fearsome reputation has softened some, at least among recreational anglers who've found they're fun to catch and not bad-tasting either.

Businessman Jim Peters has turned dogs' highly sensitive sense of smell to the problem of invasive weeds, says Farm Journal. "Dogs can find the much smaller weeds before they pollinate and spread," Peters told the magazine.

What do the renegade militia members in Oregon have in common with carp? They both have a habit of invading. Ever since the Bundy boys and their crew came into the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge on January 2, well-armed and calling for the takedown of public lands, refuge staff have been forced to abandon a critical invasive carp removal program, reports High Country News.

An invasive plant, Old World bluestem grasses, is spreading in the Flint Hills of eastern Kansas, jeopardizing grassland for cattle and overwhelming the plants that provide seeds, fruits and insects that are the diet of birds such as prairie chickens, said the Wichita Eagle.

"Four of the world's most destructive agricultural pests are actually one and the same fruit fly," says the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

Once hunted as nuisances, beavers "are being welcomed into the landscape as a defense against the withering effects of a warmer and drier climate" in the U.S. West, says the New York Times.

There are few federal or state safeguards against the introduction of an invasive species as a biofuel crop, say researchers at the University of Illinois in two newly published papers.

"Tempting Europe with Ugly Fruit" is headline of New York Times story about a cooperative in Portugal that buys fruit and vegetables rejected under EU food marketing law and sells the goods to customers by circumvention of labeling requirements.

The most popular way to eradicate wild hogs is to shoot them, whether on gaming ranches, in the wild or from the door of a helicopter. But hunting has done little to stem the estimated 6-9 million hogs running wild across at least 42 states and three territories, as Stephen R. Miller writes in FERN's latest story, produced in collaboration with National Geographic.<strong>(No paywall)</strong>