Gillibrand announces lake program

    PENN YAN—Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) announced a new plan to stop the spread of invasive species throughout New York State waterways at Indian Pines Park Thursday, Aug. 9. The plan specifically targets species that threaten the Great Lakes region like zebra mussels, Asian clams and blue-green algae, while also addressing concerns to the Great Lakes, like Asian carp.
    “When we have a threat, a threat to one lake is a threat to all of them,” Gillibrand said. “Our waterways and lakes are part of our community, livelihood and economy. We need to work hard to protect them.”
    Gillibrand said she is pushing for this bipartisan legislation to set new procedures for combating and preventing New York’s waterways from being overrun. She outlined the different health issues blue-green algae can cause to humans and animals, saying how this bill would create a national harmful algal bloom and hypoxia program to properly detect threats and prevent future ones.
    Gillibrand also addressed the threat of Asian carp, saying how once they reach the Great Lakes, they could very easily spread to surrounding bodies of water, including the Finger Lakes region. Gillibrand’s bill includes a plan to blockade the waterways that feed into the Great Lakes to physically prevent them from entering the ecosystem.
    Gillibrand said she is asking senate leadership to bring this piece of legislation to the senate floor so they can vote on it. She said the current invasive species regulation, the Lacey Act,  is 112 years old and has not been updated in a very long time. If passed, Gillibrand said her Invasive Fish and Wildlife Act would allow the fish and wildlife service to act quickly on potentially invasive species and create a risk assessment process to determine if a species is injurious before its import into the U.S.
    “There is a lot more we should be doing to make sure these invasive species are not coming in,” Gillibrand said.
    Lynn Thurston, chairperson of the Finger Lakes Watershed Alliance spoke after the senator, saying how each of the Finger Lakes has been dealing with different invasive species and how Gillibrand’s bill would greatly help the region.
    “Most invasive species have no predators, which is why they run wild in the first place,” Thurston said.
Thurston outlined how different lakes have been combating different species, including Cayuga Lake’s full eradication program concerning hydrilla and Skaneateles Lake’s slight success in combating the growth of Eurasian milfoil. She said these measures were expensive, but they met with some success.
    “Invasive species are part of every environmental system, and some are more aggressive than others,” Thurston said. “We need to be on high alert.”
    Chuck O’Neill, coordinator of the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County spoke after Thurston to address the impact of invasive species on agriculture. O’Neill said agriculture nationwide is affected by invasive species, costing $140 billion worth of damage each year. He said he supports Gillibrand’s legislation wholeheartedly, saying it will be a major benefit to all sectors dealing with these threats.
    “Invasive species are affecting not just the environment, but the health and safety of our food supply,” O’Neill said. “We need an educated public to help keep them out.”