Starry Stonewort Collaborative

08/30/2021

After four years of working to promote the research of starry stonewort, spread awareness, distribute resources, and bring like-minded people together, we regrettably announce that the Starry Stonewort Collaborative is coming to the end of its grant funding and will be wrapping up in September.

There are many people to thank outside of the Finger Lakes Institute that made the Collaborative a success. These include our Expert Panel and Collaborators from all across the Great Lakes basin representing researchers, resource managers and government agencies. These folks helped guide the Collaborative and are conducting much of the ongoing research that helps us all learn how to control (and someday eradicate) starry stonewort.

Many thanks as well to the ever growing “community” of citizen scientists! Through your rake tosses, we’ve collected important data and plotted a number of starry stonewort locations that were previously unrecorded. Your efforts have also continued to raise awareness for the need to control this invader, so keep up the good work with rake tosses and reporting every season!

Finally, thank you to the Environmental Protection Agency's Great Lakes Restoration Initiative for providing the funding that made this all possible.

As we move through this summer, we will continue with our planned activities and will make the following resources available for as long as possible after September:

The Starry Stonewort Collaborative Website (http://www.starrystonewort.org)
The Finger Lakes PRISM Website (http://www.fingerlakesinvasives.org)
A folder with numerous starry stonewort documents (https://tinyurl.com/SSWdocuments)
The Starry Stonewort Collaborative YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaBY5u3A_pG6YI0uVqO8p0g/featured)

Thank you for all your support and involvement – this was truly a collaborative program!

-The Starry Stonewort Collaborative

08/20/2021

Don't forget to do some rake tosses tomorrow for our Aquatic Invasive Species Blitz! It can be anywhere/anytime that you like, just go out and see what’s in the water! Make sure you report your findings so we can see how many surveys were done during this special, one day effort.

08/17/2021

If you missed this morning's webinar with Integrated Lake Management's Keith Gray, it can now be found on our YouTube channel! He discussed Diver Assisted Suction Harvesting, starry stonewort, and recent harvesting in Keuka Lake.

You can watch the webinar here:
https://youtu.be/HojhZzJ1Z0M

Additionally, we were able to meet with Keith and his team in person while they conducted their harvesting and see the process for ourselves. You can view some of the pictures of the harvesting below!

08/13/2021

On August 21st, Minnesota and Wisconsin will be running their annual invasive species sister events, Starry Trek and Snapshot Day, respectively. At sites across the two states, participants are educated about invasive species, trained on how to conduct rake tosses, and then sent out to nearby priority waterbodies to see what they can find. These are great programs that train hundreds of volunteers in a single day! You can learn more about them and register to attend with the links below:

Starry Trek: https://www.maisrc.umn.edu/ais-detectors/starrytrek

Snapshot Day: https://wateractionvolunteers.org/event-page/aquatic-invasive-species-snapshot-day-2021/

In conjunction with Starry Trek and Aquatic Invasive Species Snapshot Day, we encourage those of you partaking in our Starry Stonewort Survey program or the Finger Lakes PRISM Macrophyte Survey to go out and do some rake tosses as part of an Aquatic Invasive Species Blitz. It can be anywhere and anytime during August 21st that you like, just go out and find see what’s in the water near you!

Bring a friend and explain why it’s so important that we all keep fighting invasive species! Make sure you report your findings as you normally would so we can see how many surveys were done during this special, one day effort.

This is your chance to help raise awareness and participate in an AIS program spanning the entire Great Lakes basin!

Starry Trek returns this August, as a new crew of volunteers will set out to explore new lakes, seek out new AIS, and to boldly go where no volunteer has gone before (ok, maybe not that last one). On Saturday, August 21st, volunteers will rendezvous at local training sites across the state to receiv...

08/11/2021

Join us in just under a week for our final webinar of the year! On August 17th at 10am, Keith Gray from Integreated Lake Management, Inc. (ILM) will present on his organizations experience with Diver Assisted Suction Harvesting (DASH) and starry stonewort.

Additionally, after Keith's presentation we'll announce the winners for our giveaway of two copies of A North American Laurentian Great Lakes Region Water Resource and Lake Manager’s Guide to Understanding Exotic Invasive Nitellopsis obtusa.

Preregister to attend the webinar here: https://hws.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYrfuqvqj8iGtQwKtvGHe33K8QYVM6t79Xs

And sign up for the giveaway here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScHyakzX8OepFYdPyhUYrr-HPXLaACs1UWuxhvDnwthtsmGig/viewform?usp=sf_link

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: Keith Gray, ILM. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.

08/03/2021

Thanks to the generosity of William Scott Brown, we will be giving away two copies of his book: A North American Laurentian Great Lakes Region Water Resource and Lake Manager’s Guide to Understanding Exotic Invasive Nitellopsis obtusa!

These copies of this valuable, comprehensive resource have been donated by Mr. Brown, a researcher and strong advocate for controlling starry stonewort in the state of Michigan and beyond.

You can enter to receive a copy here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScHyakzX8OepFYdPyhUYrr-HPXLaACs1UWuxhvDnwthtsmGig/viewform?usp=sf_link

The drawing for the winners will be held at the end of our final webinar of the summer, on August 17th.

We hope to see you there!

Fill in your contact information below to enter in a raffle for a copy of the book: A North American Laurentian Great Lakes Region Water Resource and Lake Manager’s Guide to Understanding Exotic Invasive Nitellopsis obtusa. Two copies of this valuable, comprehensive resource have been donated by t...

07/28/2021

On Sunday, we had the pleasure of working with the Finger Lakes PRISM to give a training session for the Master Naturalist Program. Through preserved samples and time out on the water, participants learned how to identify numerous of the region's aquatic plant species, including priority invasive species. We had a great time and hope they enjoyed things as much as we did!

07/15/2021

In case you missed yesterday's webinar with Dr. Douglas Pullman from the Aquest Corporation, the recording can now be found on our YouTube channel!

Watch it here:

A July 14th webinar with Dr. Douglas Pullman from the Aquest Corporation. He discusses his insights into starry stonewort after two decades of managing it.

07/09/2021

In just a few days, on July 14th at 10:00am, we're hosting the third entry in our 2021 webinar series, with Dr. Douglas Pullman from the Aquest Corporation. Dr. Pullman is a limnologist and the president of the Aquest Corp., which has been consulting on lake management for 30 years.

His topic will be: Researching and applying control methods for starry stonewort.

Preregister to attend using the link below!

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: Webinar - Dr. Douglas Pullman. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.

07/06/2021

We are happy to announce that on August 17th at 10am EST, Keith Gray from Integrated Lakes Management, Inc.(ILM) will present as part our webinar series! Keith is president of ILM, which is a water resource management company seeking to restore and maintain natural water features utilizing methods that minimize collateral damage.

His topic will be his organization's experiences with Diver Assisted Suction Harvesting (DASH) and starry stonewort.

We'll announce more details as we get closer.

You can preregister to attend here:

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: Keith Gray, ILM. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.

06/17/2021

If you weren't able to attend our training yesterday, or just wanted to learn more about starry stonewort and how to detect it, you can now watch a recording on our YouTube channel!

Watch it here:

A June 16th, 2022 training session with multiple groups from Ontario, Canada. Training included how to conduct rake tosses, how to identify different invasiv...