See it: Invasive species of crab spotted for first time in Pacific Northwest
The agency reported that an alert fisherman discovered a Chinese mitten crab along the Columbia River, which forms the border between Washington and Oregon.
Biologists warn that this crustacean, typically found in freshwater habitats near saltwater environments, poses a threat to native species.
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Chinese mitten crabs are known for their distinctive hairy, mitten-like claws and a notch between their eyes, although they are often misidentified as native species.
Using their claws, the crabs are known to feed on a wide range of organisms, including fish eggs, small invertebrates and aquatic plants.
Wildlife experts are particularly concerned about the crab's potential impact on the region's critical salmon population.
Additionally, large groups of crabs can damage aquatic infrastructure such as levees, dams and bulkheads.
The ODFW stated that it is unclear how the crab arrived in the Columbia River, but it may have been introduced by humans or inadvertently transported by a passing ship.
A similar discovery occurred in 1997, when what was believed to be a Japanese mitten crab was found in the region, but the discovery did not lead to the establishment of a local population.
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The recent sighting is not the first sighting of the Chinese mitten crab in the Lower 48.
The species was first reported in San Francisco Bay in 1992 and has since been found in the Gulf Coast, Great Lakes and along the East Coast.
The ODFW said it is working closely with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and NOAA to determine whether additional Chinese mitten crabs are present in the river, but, so far, has found no evidence of a large-scale invasion.
The agency encourages anyone who spots the crab along the Columbia River or nearby waterways to report the sighting to the Oregon Invasive Species Council.Original article source: See it: Invasive species of crab spotted for first time in Pacific Northwest
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Associated Press
a day ago
- Associated Press
The 10th Kubuqi International Desert Forum to Open: Ordos Becomes a Beacon of Green Hope for the World
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An oasis in Kubuqi Desert, Hangjin Banner, Ordos From 'Sea of Death' to 'Economic Oasis": Kubuqi's Remarkable Ecological Turnaround As China's seventh-largest desert, Kubuqi was once branded as the 'Sea of Death'. However, after decades of scientific desertification control, this area has undergone a fundamental ecological transformation. According to statistics, Kubuqi's desertification control rate surged from 7% to 40% in 2024, with ambitious targets of 50% by 2025 and 70% by 2030. Central to this success is a 420-kilometer northern shelterbelt integrated with a 'four-pillar desertification prevention' system, combining photovoltaic arrays, silt dams and other measures. These interventions have reduced soil erosion by 5.7 million mu (380,000 hectares) since 1995, raised soil-water conservation efficiency to 61.4%, and prevented 300 million tons of sediment from entering the Yellow River over the past decade. This transformation is driven by the pioneering 'PV + Desertification Control' model. Within the Kubuqi Desert, 10.02 gigawatts of solar capacity now doubles as an ecological restoration engine across approximately 46,700 hectares of rehabilitated desert land. The integrated system delivers three-dimensional benefits, namely clean energy generation atop panels, sustainable agriculture beneath them, and livestock grazing between arrays. This approach has simultaneously increased green energy production and ecological recovery while lifting average incomes by over 30,000 RMB through 'work-relief programs'. Landmark projects like Dalad Banner's 'Steed Solar Park', where 196,000 photovoltaic panels form a galloping horse design, have become a Chinese landmark in the global fight against desertification. How Ordos Tamed the Desert: Systematic Approach and Tech-Powered Solutions Ordos's success in desertification control stems from its holistic 'ecosystem integration' philosophy applied through 'four strategic measures' in the campaign to address the ecological challenges at the Yellow River's 'Great Bend": Financial Integration: Strategic allocation of 14.9 billion RMB to priority projects including desert-marginal forests and PV-controlled rehabilitation zones. Technological Integration: Accelerated iteration and upgrading of desertification control models and technologies, achieving a 60% field application rate of forestry and grassland technologies. Benefit Integration: Balancing desert control with increasing the income of farmers and herdsmen by allocating 16% of key project funds to 'work-relief programs' and issuing Inner Mongolia's first forest carbon credit certificate. Collaborative Integration: Unprecedented mobilization of resources including over 30 state-owned enterprises such as China Three Gorges Corporation, CHN Energy, and Inner Mongolia Energy Investment Group, over 100 private enterprises and non-profit organizations such as Yitai Group, Mengtai Group, and Ant Foundation, over 500 engineering teams and cooperatives, and 25,000 farmers and herdsmen. Shuofang New Energy Mega-Base in Kubuqi Desert, Hangjin Banner, Ordos Furthermore, the Kubuqi model now crosses borders through technical exchanges with Mongolia, Saudi Arabia, and other nations. The Kubuqi model, as remarked on by the UNEP, is a replicable template for global desertification control. Green Transformation and Livelihood Improvement: A Win-Win Path of Desertification Control and Development Ordos's desertification control efforts have not only reshaped its ecology but also invigorated its economy. Annually, Ordos establishes over approximately 66,667 hectares of new plantations of caragana shrubs, drought-resistant species crucial for stabilizing sandy soils. This brings the total conserved caragana grassland to over approximately 933,333 hectares. Local processing facilities convert caragana shrubs into 35,000 tons of livestock feed and 10,000 tons of biofuel annually, creating economic value from ecological restoration. In former coal-mining subsidence zones, 'New Energy and Ecological Regeneration' integrated demonstration bases now operate where solar arrays power adjacent sustainable farms. In 2024, the city achieved a total output value of 7.5 billion RMB from forestry and grassland, and established 190,000 hectares of carbon-sequestering forests, equivalent to 2.6 times the land area of Singapore, standing as tangible proof that clear waters and green mountains are invaluable assets. Where deserts once advanced, greenery now prevails. Where land lay wounded, sustainable economies now thrive. Ordos proves by action that desertification prevention and control and high-quality development can resonate in harmony. The 10th Kubuqi International Desert Forum convenes amid escalating global desertification challenges. According to the UNCCD Secretariat's latest data, 40% of the land around the world is now degraded, impacting nearly half of humanity. The practice of Ordos delivers a compelling case for achieving the UNCCD's goals. From Kubuqi to Riyadh, from the Yellow River to the Sahara Desert, China's scientific solutions are promoting global ecological recovery. The 10th Kubuqi International Desert Forum will open a new chapter in global desertification prevention and control. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
Chicago Tribune
2 days ago
- Chicago Tribune
Column: On an August anniversary, memories of the atomic bomb from a crew member who dropped it on Nagasaki
I was sitting with an old soldier named Ray Gallagher. He held in his hands a small doll. The doll's name was Marianne and it was the doll that he took with him to war. It had been given to him by his niece, Margaret Gillund, and on Aug. 9, 1945, Marianne and Gallagher, an assistant flight engineer, boarded a plane named Bockscar along with 12 other men and a bomb called Fat Man and headed for the skies over the Japanese city of Nagasaki. They dropped the atomic bomb. In an instant, tens of thousands of people were reduced to ash. This was three days after another plane, the Enola Gay, and its crew dropped an atomic bomb named Little Boy on Hiroshima and, in an instant, tens of thousands more were ash. Accounting for those who died from the effects of radiation, it's estimated that as many as 70,000 died in Nagasaki and 140,000 in Hiroshima. T.S. Eliot famously called April the 'cruelest month,' but for me and many others, August grabbed that title in 1945 when the world was changed. Or, as Kurt Vonnegut put it in his 1963 novel 'Cat's Cradle,' 'The day the world ended.' Those who fought in World War II, or who worried for their loved ones who were fighting in WWII, are a diminishing crowd. And soon there will be none. But there were plenty in 1995 when I met Gallagher. He had come to the Union League Club to talk to some kids about the war. They were from local schools, gathered on a frigid Saturday morning to hear Gallagher say, 'War is awful, oh God. There's so much to be lost. When you go to war, you're not a hero. Everybody who goes to war would like to be brave. But you can be a coward. The whole idea of war is to get in and get out. Even now, when I enter a room, I'm looking at the windows and the doors … looking for the way to get out.' He came home from the war late in 1945, married his wife Mary, had two children, and settled into a quiet life in the Gage Park neighborhood and a long career with General Electric. (My father, a Marine, came home from fighting in the Pacific, too). There was a documentary film crew in the library. 'This is living history,' whispered a teacher in the room. It was the 50th anniversary year, memories from white-haired soldiers filled the pages of newspapers and TV screens. But by 1995 it was becoming increasingly controversial to mark the bombings with celebratory flag-waving. The dropping of those atomic bombs ushered in the chilling concept of doomsday, and in the ensuing decades, the dropping of the bombs ceased to be what Winston Churchill called 'a miracle of deliverance.' The film being made was called 'The Men Who Brought the Dawn.' Its director and producer, Jon Felt, said, '(We work to) put the viewer into the context of the times surrounding World War II and its final days, and hope to inform the public about the attitudes and personalities of the men who flew these missions. We do not get involved with ethics or moralities, politics or judgments. It is focused on the deeds of men.' Gallagher is in the film. He died in 1999, but is in my memory every August. He was 73 when I met him. Not a trained public speaker, he told what was essentially a series of anecdotes, random but potent. Eventually, it came time for questions, and a forest of tiny hands rose. 'Did the doll give you any luck?' asked a girl. 'It gave me the feeling of home,' Gallagher said, the doll cradled in his gnarled hands. 'If I wasn't thinking of home at the time all I had to do was look at Marianne. She always told me, 'You still have a home.'' Marianne went with him to an air base in Utah. He carried the doll with him on every training mission and to the island of Tinian in the Marianas, base of operations for the 509th Composite Bomb Group. Marianne was there in the sky over Nagasaki. After the bomb was dropped, after the war was over, Gallagher came home. Marianne came too and when Margaret Gillund grew up and became a school teacher, and when her history classes got around to World War II, Marianne went to school and was used as a powerful show-and-tell. Gillund was there at the Union League Club, along with Gallagher's wife. They heard him answer the question, 'Do you have regrets? Do you feel guilty?' Answer: 'I'd be lyin' if I didn't say I did. My wife Mary and myself have been invited back to Japan many times. I wouldn't go. I think we done a lot of good but we done a lot of bad … But we done what we were supposed to do.' Felt, the filmmaker, whispered to me, 'Ray is the most human gentleman I know.' Another question: 'Fifty years later, is it appropriate to reassess the decision to drop the bombs?' Gallagher answered: 'If someone hit you with a steel pipe would you shoot them with a gun? You had to live those years and walk those miles.' At the program's outset, Felt tried to help the kids' understanding by offering some musty statistics. He told of a Gallup Poll taken in late August 1945, weeks after the bombings. The poll asked people whether they approved or disapproved of the decision to drop the bombs. 'Eighty-five percent approved,' said Felt. He called an end to the question-and-answer session and asked that the kids remain in place so the crew could film a few more shots. Gallagher took a sip of water and received a loving pat on the back from his wife. One boy shouted, not a question but a statement: 'You were a killer.' Gallagher said, 'We had to drop 'em. There was a monster loose and that monster was war and we had to kill the monster.' With that, he removed himself from the wooden chair in which he had been sitting for three hours. He started to walk toward his wife and niece but stopped, turned around and walked back to a table on which the doll Marianne had been lying. He picked up the doll and asked, 'Was it OK? Did I do good?'
Hamilton Spectator
3 days ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Managing Japanese beetles, invasive plants in P.E.I. gardens
The summer weather is here and so are the many pests that loiter and invade the natural environment in P.E.I. Chase Guindon, co-ordinating operator for P.E.I. Invasive Species Council, told The Guardian in a phone interview on July 17 about the common insects and plants found around Islanders' home and how to deal with them. These beetles are known to cause annoyance and problems to people's yards in the summer, Guindon said. 'A few years ago, we thought Charlottetown was the nucleus for it, but it's fairly common across P.E.I. now. Especially in gardens and things like that,' he said. The beetles are known to feed on the foliage of plants and damage them, which can sometimes lead to killing the entire plant, Guindon added. To mitigate these beetles around people's backyards, residents have been hanging liquid-sprayed bags around their gardens to trap them, he said. But Guindon said it's a catch-22 situation. While the traps can be effective against keeping those beetles off of people's plants, they can also act as a beacon to those bugs, he said. 'If people are going to use them, we recommend putting them far away from people's plants because it will attract more to their yard,' Guindon said. Effective use of beneficial nematodes can mitigate these Japanese beetles by parasitizing them, he said. 'It can be purchased online, and it kills the larvae itself. Which is ideal because traps are just capturing the beetles likely after they've already laid eggs,' Guindon said. This ground cover invasive plant is one very common to P.E.I., said Guindon. 'But once it gets into woodlands, it just causes serious damage to the understory of a forest, prevents forest regeneration, limits biodiversity and creates an unhealthy forest,' he said. Along with periwinkle, goutweed is also a common invasive plant that is found on P.E.I., Guindon added. 'It's got green leaves with white edges that make it stand out and likely a popular plant for people to buy and purchase as well,' he said. In dealing with these common invasive plants, they are similar because both are ground cover plants, Guindon said. As both plants are known to convey a dense, deep underground root network, simply pulling on them will not get rid of them, he said. To mitigate the further spread and growth of these invasive species, Guindon said homeowners should first gather as much above-ground material as possible. As the roots still remain underground, covering the ground with a tarp after the picking process is effective for wearing down those nutrients yet stored in the root system, he added. It is the best practice for people to not let invasive species reproduce, Guindon said. 'If it is going to seed, clip those seeds and put them in the trash so they're not spread by either wind or wildlife, where it is going to cause those ecological issues,' he said. Yutaro Sasaki is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter, a position funded by the federal government. He can be reached at ysasaki@ and followed on X @PEyutarosasaki . Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
