Invasive Species

Chef Chad Wells of Alewife restaurant tossed chunks of raw snakehead fish with cilantro and citrus to make something more ambitious than an $8 ceviche appetizer. It was an invasive-species eradication plan in a martini glass. Wells wants the Asian interloper, which has settled with alarming ease into Chesapeake-area rivers, streams and perhaps the bay itself, to find a new home on restaurant menus. The chef is confident that once diners get a taste of snakehead, they can be counted on to do what they've always done with toothsome fish: wipe them out. "We've proved time and again, the best way to destroy something is get humans involved," Wells said.

I am compelled to respond to George Fenwick's commentary ("The destructive invasive species purring on your lap," Feb. 26). He cites recent studies suggesting very high bird and mammal deaths due to outdoor cats. He then goes on to propose a Draconian solution that could accurately be described as a cat witch hunt. I do acknowledge the problem, particularly with feral cats (free-roaming, unowned). But Dr. Fenwick's attempt to demonize cats by use of terms like "invasive species," "invaders," "introduced predator," and "slaughter" invests his thesis with a hysteria usually reserved for al-Qaida sightings.

I am compelled to respond to George Fenwick's commentary ("The destructive invasive species purring on your lap," Feb. 26). He cites recent studies suggesting very high bird and mammal deaths due to outdoor cats. He then goes on to propose a Draconian solution that could accurately be described as a cat witch hunt. I do acknowledge the problem, particularly with feral cats (free-roaming, unowned). But Dr. Fenwick's attempt to demonize cats by use of terms like "invasive species," "invaders," "introduced predator," and "slaughter" invests his thesis with a hysteria usually reserved for al-Qaida sightings.

George Fenwick's article on cats as an invasive species ("House cats: The destructive invasive species purring on your lap" Feb. 26) was filled with misinformation. It is easy to blame cats for environmental degradation; it is far more difficult to place the blame where it belongs. While cats kill birds, the threat they pose is in no way equal to the threat posed by human-caused habitat loss, climate change, or pollution. These are the threats to wildlife that we should be worrying about today.

The first step in stopping invasive species from hitching a ride into the Chesapeake Bay aboard cargo ships is determining how to make massive ballast tanks an inhospitable environment. Maryland scientists hope they will find the answer aboard a new $2.7 million floating laboratory that is able to test ballast-water treatment systems under real-time conditions. The 155-foot vessel is part of the research fleet operated by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.

The Carroll County Forestry Board will hold an Invasive Species Workshop from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 13 at Bear Branch Nature Center, 300 John Owings Road, Westminster. Invasive plants can alter the ecosystem and wildlife habitats. Participants can learn to identify and control non-native plants with experienced forestry volunteers. The cost is $10. Participants should take a lunch; drinks and snacks will be supplied. Dress for outdoor activities. Registration is required by Friday at 410-848-9290 or dbaker@dnr.

There is an invasive species in the United States responsible for the deaths of an estimated 14.7 billion birds and mammals each year. If that's not shocking enough, consider this: There's a good chance that one of these invaders is living in your house. Another in a long line of scientific studies documenting the impact of outdoor cats on our natural environment has just been released, bringing national attention again to the issue. This study was published in Nature Communications and authored by scientists from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

My mother's landscape is full of pachysandra and periwinkle ground cover, both of which are on invasive species lists. Do I need to pull all of it out this spring? These two are different from most non-native invasive plants. Yes, these popular groundcovers are invasive when they are planted adjacent to a natural or park area, where they'll expand indefinitely and crowd out native plants. However, in a typical yard, expansion can be controlled. And they do not produce berries that birds spread or seeds that blow or wash away.

- Judas 760 knew just where to swim last fall after federal trappers set him free: back to his home in the marshes of Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, where other nutria lived. But true to his name, Judas betrayed members of his colony by providing a virtual road map through dense cattails and inky inlets via a tiny GPS unit on his back. Trappers followed and, in a scene played out with other Judases, exterminated a handful of the destructive rodents that have been responsible for denuding thousands of acres on the Eastern Shore.

After a recent hike through Patapsco Valley State Park, Baltimore teacher Greg Schnitzlein's jaw dropped as he watched his two dogs emerge from the woods looking, as he says, like Chia Pets, every inch of their fur slathered in sproutlike seeds. Vanessa B. Beauchamp, a Towson University biology professor who happened to be in the parking lot, could hardly believe it. Those seed-covered dogs underscored the futility of the fight she has waged for years against an odd, sticky plant called wavyleaf basketgrass.

Regarding your article on how many birds are killed each year by ordinary house cats, when our cat was alive we put a tiny bell on her collar so she could explore the outdoors while giving birds plenty of warning that she was close by ("The destructive invasive species purring on your lap," Feb. 26). It was extremely effective at preventing her from killing birds. While I'm sure a leash would have been more effective, the practice seems unlikely to take hold any time soon. Bells are easy to use and are found at local pet stores.

There is an invasive species in the United States responsible for the deaths of an estimated 14.7 billion birds and mammals each year. If that's not shocking enough, consider this: There's a good chance that one of these invaders is living in your house. Another in a long line of scientific studies documenting the impact of outdoor cats on our natural environment has just been released, bringing national attention again to the issue. This study was published in Nature Communications and authored by scientists from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Zebra mussels have finally made their way down the Susquehanna River to the Chesapeake Bay, though it's unclear what if any harm the invasive aquatic species might do there. This month, state biologists found 20 of the non-native shellfish attached to three channel marker buoys off Havre de Grace as they were removing the buoys from the water for the winter, the Department of Natural Resources reported. Native to the Caspian and other seas in eastern Europe, zebra mussels were first discovered in the United States in the Great Lakes region in the 1980s, likely transported there in the ballast water of ships.

Chad Wells is leaving Alewife. His last day at the downtown tavern is Saturday. Wells is headed to Annapolis, where he will be "re-concepting" an existing restaurant - he wouldn't say which one. But the chef, probably best known for his culinary experiments with snakehead and other invasive species, was excited about shaking up the conservative Annapolis dining scene. "I want to a be a front runner in establishing local and invasive food in Annapolis," Wells said. "I want to put my heart out there with food.

If we're serious about getting the invasive snakeheads under control before they eat all the other fish in the Chesapeake watershed, then let me suggest that we get serious about the bounty. Those $200 gift certificates from a major outdoors retailer are nice, but there are only three of them, and those who catch a snakehead have to enter a drawing to win them, and the drawing isn't until November. That's not much of an incentive. Let's engage in some bigger thinking about this.

My mother's landscape is full of pachysandra and periwinkle ground cover, both of which are on invasive species lists. Do I need to pull all of it out this spring? These two are different from most non-native invasive plants. Yes, these popular groundcovers are invasive when they are planted adjacent to a natural or park area, where they'll expand indefinitely and crowd out native plants. However, in a typical yard, expansion can be controlled. And they do not produce berries that birds spread or seeds that blow or wash away.

Hardy, adaptable and prolific. We should all be so lucky. Instead, we are left to curse those traits in northern snakeheads, the toothy aliens that appeared by the hundreds in a tiny Crofton pond in 2002, touched off a national media frenzy and now have made themselves comfortable in the Potomac River. "Thousands and thousands of them" call the Nation's River home, from Georgetown to Mount Vernon to where it empties into the Chesapeake Bay, says Steve Minkkinen, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist.

Events for 2012 are starting to pop up in the inbox. This one got our attention. The National Aquarium's ongoing series of Fresh Thoughts dinners resumes on Jan. 24 with Chad Wells, who will be presenting a menu of invasive species from Maryland waters, including crab, blue catfish and snakehead. Wells has honchoed a few of these invasive-species dinners already -- at his own Alewife , at the Creative Alliance and at an all-star October benefit for the Oyster Recovery Partnership at Rockfish in Annapolis Tickets for the Fresh Thoughts dinner with Chad Wells at the National Aquarium are $89. The evening begins with a cocktail reception and cooking demonstration, followed by a four-course dinner featuring a Maryland blue crab appetizer , a "Frankenfish Taco," and a deconstructed paella with smoked Chesapeake gold oyster and seared blue catfish.

- Judas 760 knew just where to swim last fall after federal trappers set him free: back to his home in the marshes of Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, where other nutria lived. But true to his name, Judas betrayed members of his colony by providing a virtual road map through dense cattails and inky inlets via a tiny GPS unit on his back. Trappers followed and, in a scene played out with other Judases, exterminated a handful of the destructive rodents that have been responsible for denuding thousands of acres on the Eastern Shore.