Non-target Impacts to Eelgrass from Treatments to Control Spartina in Willapa Bay, Washington

Four methods to control the smooth cordgrass Spartina (Spartina alterniflora) and the footwear worn by treatment personnelat several sites in Willapa Bay, Washington were evaluatedto determine the non-target impacts to eelgrass (Zostera japonica). Clone-sized infestations of Spartina were treated bymowing or a single hand-spray application of Rodeo® formulatedat 480 g L-1acid equivalence (ae) of the isopropylaminesalt of glyphosate (Monsanto Agricultural Co., St. Louis, MO;currently Dow AgroSciences, Indianapolis, IN) with the nonionic surfactant LI 700® (2% v/v) or a combination of mowing and hand spraying. An aerial application of Rodeo® with X-77 Spreader® (0.13% v/v) to a 2-ha meadow was also investigated. Monitoring consisted of measuring eelgrass shoot densities and percent cover pre-treatment and 1-yr post-treatment. Impacts to eelgrass adjacent to treated clones were determined 1 m from the clones and compared to a control 5-m away. Impacts from footwear were assessed at 5 equidistant intervals along a 10-m transect on mudflat and an untreated control transect at each of the three clone treatment sites. Impacts from the aerial application were determined by comparing shoot densities and percent cover 1, 3 and 10 m from the edge of the treated Spartina meadow to that at comparable distances from an untreated meadow. Methods utilized to control Spartina clones did not impact surrounding eelgrass at two of three sites. Decreases in shoot densities observed at the third site were consistent across treatments. Most impacts to eelgrass from the footwear worn by treatment personnel were negligible and those that were significant were limited to soft mud substrate. The aerial application of the herbicide was associated with reductions in eelgrass (shoot density and percent cover) at two of the three sampling distances, but reductions on the control plot were greater. We conclude that the unchecked spread of Spartina is a far greater threat to the survival and health of eelgrass than that from any of the control measures we studied. The basis for evaluating control measures for Spartina should be efficacy and logistical constraints and not impacts to eelgrass. PDF is 7 pages.

Charles H. Gilbert, Pioneer Ichthyologist and Fishery Biologist

Charles Henry Gilbert (Fig. 1) was a pioneer ichthyologist and, later, fishery biologist of particular significance to natural history of the western United States. Born in Rockford, Illinois on 5 December 1859, he spent his early years in Indianapolis, Indiana, where, in 1874, he came under the influence of his high school teacher, David Starr Jordan (1851-1931). Gilbert graduated from high school in 1875, and when Jordan became a professor of natural history at Butler University in Irvington, Indiana, Gilbert followed, and received his B.A. degree in 1879. Jordan moved to Indiana University, in Bloomington, in the fall of 1879, and Gilbert again followed, earning his M.S. degree in 1882 and his Ph.D. in 1883 in zoology. His doctorate was the first ever awarded by Indiana University.

The 'Baird Memorial"

In mid 1903, during the annual meeting of the American Fisheries Society, AFS members, U.S. Fish Commission (USFC) staff, and other interested persons gathered at Woods Hole, Mass., to dedicate a permanent memorial to Spencer F. Baird, founder of the U.S. Fish Commission. President of the AFS that year was the USFC Commissioner George M. Bowers. Speakers were Chicago attorney E. W. Blatchford; W. K. Brooks, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md., who had conducted research at the Commission's Beaufort Laboratory; and, very briefly, the noted fish culturists Frank N. Clark of Michigan and Livingston Stone of Vermont. The following record of the dedication ceremony appeared as a twopart article in The Fishing Gazette, 22 and 29 August 1903.

Mine-waste pollution of Bear Butte Creek, Black Hills, South Dakota

Effluents leaving the Gilt Edge Mining properties in the Black Hills near Deadwood, South Dakota, were collected during April 1940. Field studies of these effluents and of the streams receiving them were made at the time and subsequently laboratory assays and analyses have been completed. ... Data from this particular case of mine waste pollution are presented here.