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Topic: Invasive species

Overview April 24, 2014

Invasive species

Invasive species, also known as exotics, are plants, animals, insects, and aquatic species introduced into non-native habitats. Without natural predators or threats, these introduced species then multiply.

Often,invasive species travel to non-native areas by ship, either in ballast water released into harbors or attached to the sides of boats. From there, introduced species can then spread and significantly alter ecosystems and the natural food chain as they go. Another  example of non-native species introduction is the dumping of aquarium fish into waterways.

Invasive species also put water conveyance systems at risk. Water pumps and other infrastructure can potentially shut down due to large numbers of invasive species.

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Aquafornia news August 1, 2022 California WaterBlog

Blog: The Great Lakes and invasive species

This week’s CaliforniaWaterBlog post is an excerpt (Box 1) from a recent Delta Independent Science Board report on non-native species and the California Delta.  This excerpt summarizes the experience of the Great Lakes, and how its physical and ecological management has led to waves of profoundly disruptive species invasions, resulting in a sequence of “novel” ecosystems.  This sequence of invasions seems likely to continue to shape the Great Lakes.  This history is a wake-up and warning for policymakers and those working on California’s Delta. 

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Aquafornia news August 1, 2022 KCRA 3 - Sacramento

Tahoe ‘State of the Lake’ report highlights changes in the water

For over 50 years, researchers with the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center (TERC) have been carefully observing the waters of Lake Tahoe. This week, the annual “State of the Lake” report was released. According to UC Davis TERC director Geoffrey Schladow, 2021 data shows some major changes that hadn’t been observed to this point. One of the most notable is a drop in the Mysis shrimp population. This non-native plankton species was introduced into the lake in the 1960s.

Related articles: 

  • SF Gate: Developers destroyed this forgotten wetland in Tahoe. Can scientists save what’s left?
  • Nevada Appeal: Report - Algae hit all-time high at Lake Tahoe
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Aquafornia news July 25, 2022 Lake County News

High cyanotoxin levels raise concerns for individual private intakes that draw water from Clear Lake

Health and tribal officials are reporting that, due to persistent drought and heat, they are finding unprecedented levels of cyanotoxins in some areas of Clear Lake. For Lake County residents with individual water systems that draw water directly from the lake using a private intake, drinking water may become unsafe when high levels of toxins are present, Lake County Health Services reported. Of particular concern are those with individual water systems who live around the Sulphur Bank Mine, and along the shore of Clear Lake’s Lower and Oaks Arms.

Related article: 

  • Visalia Times-Delta: Potentially toxic algal mats discovered at Kaweah River
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Aquafornia news July 25, 2022 Los Angeles Times

Opinion: Climate change and drought can be felled by beavers

Millions of highly skilled environmental engineers stand ready to make our continent more resilient to climate change. They restore wetlands that absorb carbon, store water, filter pollution and clean and cool waters for salmon and trout. They are recognized around the world for helping to reduce wildfire risk. Scientists have valued their environmental services at close to $179,000 per square mile annually. And they work for free. Our ally in mitigating and adapting to climate change across the West could be a paddle-tailed rodent: the North American beaver.
-Written by Chris Jordan, mathematical biology and systems monitoring program manager at NOAA Fisheries’ Northwest Fisheries Science Center; and Emily Fairfax, an assistant professor of environmental science and resource management at Cal State Channel Islands.

Related article: 

  • Sacramento Bee: Opinion: Why murdering overgrown swamp rats is the environmental success California deserves
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Aquafornia news July 22, 2022 U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

News release: Bipartisan infrastructure law funds Lake Tahoe aquatic invasive species projects

The Biden-Harris administration today announced that the Department of the Interior’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has awarded $3.4 million in funding from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for cooperative agreements with the Washoe Tribe of California and Nevada and the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency to combat the spread of aquatic invasive species in Lake Tahoe. The funding represents a historic effort dedicated to restoring the Lake Tahoe Basin ecosystem and emphasizes the Administration’s commitment to inclusive engagement with Tribes, partners and stakeholders. 

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Aquafornia news July 20, 2022 Arizona Republic

Smallmouth bass: The newest threat to Grand Canyon’s endangered fish

The day’s first gillnet haul of nonnative fish on lower Lake Powell was already alarming: three striped bass, three gizzard shad and a channel catfish. Any one of them or their offspring would be unwelcome intruders were they to slip through the massive concrete dam’s hydropower tubes and turbines to swim a few dozen miles downstream into the heart of Grand Canyon. Above Glen Canyon Dam, state fisheries managers in decades past would introduce alien species to support recreational angling on the lake. But below the dam, the fish could drift downstream to eat or outcompete Grand Canyon’s threatened humpback chub population, swelling the ranks of nonnatives that biologists are already battling.

Related article: 

  • Navajo-Hopi Observer: Low Lake Powell water levels could unravel years of native fish restoration work at Grand Canyon 
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Aquafornia news July 19, 2022 Pasadena Now

Drought doesn’t mean fewer mosquitoes

Southern California is experiencing a drought of historic proportions. In fact, some scientists are now referring to this uber-drought as “aridification.”  While droughts are thought of as somewhat temporary, aridification signals a whole new condition, one that Matthew Kirby, a paleoclimatologist and professor at California State University Fullerton, says, could mean living “under a permanent state of water conservation.” Meanwhile, while the summer months can mean mosquitos, a drought doesn’t necessarily mean that their threat is diminished. 

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Aquafornia news July 19, 2022 The Sacramento Bee

Nutria numbers are declining with California killing program

California may be winning its five-year, $13 million battle with nutria — the 20-pound, orange-toothed swamp rodents that biologists once feared would play hell with wetlands, flood-control levees and the state’s water-delivery system. … [Valerie Cook, who runs the Department of Fish and Wildlife’s nutria eradication program] said her team is seeing nutria numbers declining, and they’ve managed to keep them out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, California’s most important waterway. Scientists who deal with invasive pests were first alarmed when nutria — a beagle-sized rodent native to the wetlands of South America — were spotted in a private duck-hunting marsh in the spring of 2017 near the farming community of Gustine in Merced County.

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Aquafornia news July 8, 2022 The Hill

Predator fish penetrate last precarious preserve

A virulent and voracious species of invasive fish has penetrated the ecologically delicate waterways of the lower Colorado River, The Associated Press reported.  The presence of smallmouth bass below the critical barrier of the Glen Canyon dam means an existential threat to chub, an ancient native fish, according to the AP.  Wildlife biologists have long dreaded the day when the bass — a sport fish introduced into the freshwater lakes of the West — would make it through the dam to attack the threatened chub, as we reported in June. 

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Aquafornia news July 7, 2022 The Associated Press

Biologists’ fears confirmed on the lower Colorado River

For National Park Service fisheries biologist Jeff Arnold, it was a moment he’d been dreading. Bare-legged in sandals, he was pulling in a net in a shallow backwater of the lower Colorado River last week, when he spotted three young fish that didn’t belong there. “Give me a call when you get this!” he messaged a colleague, snapping photos. Minutes later, the park service confirmed their worst fear: smallmouth bass had in fact been found and were likely reproducing in the Colorado River below Glen Canyon Dam. They may be a beloved sport fish, but smallmouth bass feast on humpback chub, an ancient, threatened fish that’s native to the river, and that biologists like Arnold have been working hard to recover.

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Western Water February 25, 2022 Alastair Bland Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Map Layperson's Guide to the Delta WESTERN WATER-With Delta Smelt Virtually Gone in the Wild, A "Hatch-and-Release" Program Aims to Save Them From Extinction By Alastair Bland

With Delta Smelt All But Gone in the Wild, A First-Ever “Hatch-and-Release” Effort Aims to Save Them From Extinction
WESTERN WATER NOTEBOOK: Experimental releases of finger-size fish into Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta inspires hope, but also skepticism, about the smelt's future

Crew releases hatchery-raised Delta smelt into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. In the vast labyrinth of the West Coast’s largest freshwater tidal estuary, one native fish species has never been so rare. Once uncountably numerous, the Delta smelt was placed on state and federal endangered species lists in 1993, stopped appearing in most annual sampling surveys in 2016, and is now, for all practical purposes, extinct in the wild. At least, it was.

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Tour September 9, 2021 - 2:30pm - 5:30pm Nick Gray Jenn Bowles Layperson's Guide to the Delta

Bay-Delta Tour 2021
A Virtual Journey - September 9

This tour guided participants on a virtual journey deep into California’s most crucial water and ecological resource – the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The 720,000-acre network of islands and canals support the state’s two major water systems – the State Water Project and the Central Valley Project. The Delta and the connecting San Francisco Bay form the largest freshwater tidal estuary of its kind on the West coast.

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Aquapedia background May 21, 2020

Nutria

Large rodents native to South America, nutria began causing alarm along rivers and other waterways after being rediscovered in California in 2017.

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Western Water January 4, 2019 Douglas E. Beeman Douglas E. Beeman

Women Leading in Water, Colorado River Drought and Promising Solutions — Western Water Year in Review

Dear Western Water readers:

Women named in the last year to water leadership roles (clockwise, from top left): Karla Nemeth, director, California Department of Water Resources; Gloria Gray,  chair, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California; Brenda Burman, Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner; Jayne Harkins,  commissioner, International Boundary and Water Commission, U.S. and Mexico; Amy Haas, executive director, Upper Colorado River Commission.The growing leadership of women in water. The Colorado River’s persistent drought and efforts to sign off on a plan to avert worse shortfalls of water from the river. And in California’s Central Valley, promising solutions to vexing water resource challenges.

These were among the topics that Western Water news explored in 2018.

We’re already planning a full slate of stories for 2019. You can sign up here to be alerted when new stories are published. In the meantime, take a look at what we dove into in 2018:

  • Read more
Tour June 28, 2018 - June 29, 2018 Headwaters Tour Looks at Tree Mortality, Bark Beetle Epidemic & Visits Forest Lab Stantec California Department of Water Resources Association of California Water Agencies California Forest Watershed Alliance Placer County Water Agency

Headwaters Tour 2018

Sixty percent of California’s developed water supply originates high in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Our water supply is largely dependent on the health of our Sierra forests, which are suffering from ecosystem degradation, drought, wildfires and widespread tree mortality.

Headwaters tour participants on a hike in the Sierra Nevada.

We headed into the foothills and the mountains to examine water issues that happen upstream but have dramatic impacts downstream and throughout the state. 

GEI (Tour Starting Point)
2868 Prospect Park Dr.
Rancho Cordova, CA 95670.
View map
  • Tim Quinn
  • John Andrew
  • Tom Smith
  • Dan Segan
  • Jacques Landy
  • Heather Segale
  • Read more
Western Water June 1, 2018 Space Invaders Gary Pitzer

It’s Not Just Nutria — Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta has 185 Invasive Species, But Tracking Them is Uneven
WESTERN WATER NOTEBOOK: Delta science panel urges greater coordination, funding of invasive species monitoring

Water hyacinth choke a channel in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.For more than 100 years, invasive species have made the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta their home, disrupting the ecosystem and costing millions of dollars annually in remediation.

The latest invader is the nutria, a large rodent native to South America that causes concern because of its propensity to devour every bit of vegetation in sight and destabilize levees by burrowing into them. Wildlife officials are trapping the animal and trying to learn the extent of its infestation.

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Aquapedia background August 7, 2017 Layperson's Guide to the Delta

Estuary

Suisun Marsh, part of the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary, is the largest contiguous brackish water marsh on the West Coast of North America.Estuaries are places where fresh and salt water mix, usually at the point where a river enters the ocean. They are the meeting point between riverine environments and the sea, with a combination of tides, waves, salinity, fresh water flow and sediment. The constant churning means there are elevated levels of nutrients, making estuaries highly productive natural habitats.

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Aquapedia background December 29, 2016

Quagga mussel

Quagga musselsA troublesome invasive species is the quagga mussel, a tiny freshwater mollusk that attaches itself to water utility infrastructure and reproduces at a rapid rate, causing damage to pipes and pumps.

First found in the Great Lakes in 1988 (dumped with ballast water from overseas ships), the quagga mussel along with the zebra mussel are native to the rivers and lakes of eastern Europe and western Asia, including the Black, Caspian and Azov Seas and the Dneiper River drainage of Ukraine and Ponto-Caspian Sea.  

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Aquapedia background September 1, 2016

Meadows

While less a scientific term than a colloquial one, meadows are defined by their aquatic, soil and vegetative properties.

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Maps & Posters May 20, 2014

Invasive Species Poster Set

One copy of the Space Invaders and one copy of the Unwelcome Visitors poster for a special price.

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Maps & Posters May 20, 2014

Unwelcome Visitors

This 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, explains how non-native invasive animals can alter the natural ecosystem, leading to the demise of native animals. “Unwelcome Visitors” features photos and information on four such species – including the zerbra mussel – and explains the environmental and economic threats posed by these species.

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Maps & Posters May 20, 2014

Space Invaders

This 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, explains how non-native invasive plants can alter the natural ecosystem, leading to the demise of native plants and animals. “Space Invaders” features photos and information on six non-native plants that have caused widespread problems in the Bay-Delta Estuary and elsewhere.

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Publication April 17, 2014

Layperson’s Guide to the Delta
Updated 2020

The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the Delta explores the competing uses and demands on California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Included in the guide are sections on the history of the Delta, its role in the state’s water system, and its many complex issues with sections on water quality, levees, salinity and agricultural drainage, fish and wildlife, and water distribution.

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Western Water Magazine September 1, 2013

Two States, One Lake: Keeping Lake Tahoe Blue
September/October 2013

This printed issue of Western Water discusses some of the issues associated with the effort to preserve and restore the clarity of Lake Tahoe.

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