RATopic1_95 - Geosystems Research Institute - Mississippi State ...

issues regarding the recent discovery of cactus moth in southern Louisiana
and potential future strategies. The meeting was by invitation only,
and attendees participating represented Barataria Terrebonne National Estuary
Program, MSU-GRI, National Park Service (Arizona), SAGARPA
(Mexico), Southeastern Louisiana University, Texas A&M University,
The Nature Conservancy, USDA-APHIS, USDA-ARS, and USDA-PPQ.
The first day included an on-site inspection of the infested area in the Louisiana
marsh (Figure 2). The remainder of the meeting was a facilitated,
roundtable meeting, where after two intense days of discussion the group
generated 5 strategic plans. Each plan represented a different level of activity
intensity and addressed the positive and negative sides of each plan.
These plans will be utilized by USDA for near-future decision-making in
regard to cactus moth.
John Madsen participated in the National Biological Information Infrastructure
conference on content, the first such conference since 2005. The
Conference was held 3-5 February 2009 in Baltimore, MD.
John Madsen attended the 10 th National Invasive Weeds Awareness
Week (NIWAW 10), February 22-27, 2009, in Washington, DC, and presented
a poster on the MSU/USGS/NBII collaboration.
Figure 3. John Madsen sampling posttreatment
biomass on the Noxon Reservoir,
Montana, in September 2009. Photo
by Celestine Duncan.
John Madsen represented the Weed Science Society of America on the
National Invasive Species Awareness Week organizing committee. The
first NISAW meeting was held January 11-14 2010, but the organizing
committee met monthly by teleconference from February 2009 to January
2010.
John Madsen, Victor Maddox, and Richard Brown cooperated with the Mississippi Department of Agriculture on
invasive species issues as part of the Cooperative Agricultural Pest Survey, a program of USDA APHIS.
John Madsen, Victor Maddox, and Gary Ervin have participated in the new Mississippi Cooperative Weed Management
Area program. Victor has been selected to be the new coordinator, on a part-time contract with MSU GRI.
John Madsen, Ryan Wersal and Michael
Cox have been working with the Pearl River
Valley Water Supply District to monitor
invasive plants and assess management on
the Ross Barnett Reservoir near Jackson,
MS.
John Madsen and Ryan Wersal worked
with Kurt Getsinger of the US Army Engineer
Research and Development Center on a
demonstration project to control Eurasian
watermilfoil in the Noxon Reservoir, Montana
(Figure 3).
John Madsen and Ryan Wersal participated
with Angela Poovey of the US Army Engineer
Research and Development Center on a
ring test for macrophyte aquatic toxicology,
under the Aquatic Macrophyte Ecotoxicology
Group of the Society for Environmental
Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC).
Figure 4. Laura Varone (left) and Guillermo Logarzo (right), both of USDA
ARS, Buenos Aires, checking out Mississippi pitcher plants (Sarracenia
alata) at Sandhill Crane NWR.
2009 USGS Annual Report 33 Mississippi State University’s Geosystems Research Institute