KEENE VALLEY - The Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program has received a private foundation grant of $170,000 for invasive species prevention and control in 2011, it announced Monday.
"I have been impressed with APIPP's leadership on the problem of invasive species and with the effectiveness of the program since its inception," said Alexander Gilchrist, one of the Wallace Research Foundation board of directors. The Wallace Research Foundation does not accept unsolicited funding requests.
One of the primary uses of funds will be to pilot a "terrestrial regional response team," a four-person seasonal crew that will manage invasive plants in priority areas.
APIPP is also directing funds to aid to three other projects: the town of Inlet's Regional Inlet Invasive Plant Program to control Japanese knotweed, the Paul Smith's College Watershed Stewardship Program to intercept aquatic invasive species at boat launches and the Lake George Asian Clam Rapid Response Task Force.
One of the Watership Stewardship Program initiatives will be to use its new source of funding to put boat stewards in locations throughout north-central Adirondacks, including Saranac Lake.
"We have had ongoing concern about the Saranac Lake chain serving as a source of aquatic invasive species to other lakes in the region," said Eric Holmlund, director of Paul Smith's College Watershed Stewardship Program who lives in Saranac Lake. "This funding allows us to reach out to the public at new locations and to perform critical boat inspections at ramps that access infested waterways."
APIPP is a partnership initiated more than a decade ago to bridge jurisdictional boundaries and coordinate groups to implement a Parkwide program to prevent the further introduction, spread and negative impact of invasives.
At least 80 waters in the Adirondack Park have one or more aquatic invasive species, but more than 220 waters surveyed by APIPP volunteers remain free of invasives.
A recent wave of local aquatic species transport laws, passed or under consideration by at least seven village and town boards, has given attention to the proactive cause of prevention. Once invasives are introduced, controls are costly and sometimes not even an option. For instance, no control methods exist for the spiny waterflea, an invasive zooplankton that degrades fisheries.
The foundation funding adds to other grant funding received from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.
APIPP and Paul Smith's College collaborated on a proposal to expand the Adirondack Watershed Stewardship Program and initiate an aquatic regional response team in the western Adirondacks this year.