DNA Barcode Chosen for Identifying the World's Plants (Jul 28, 2009)
Imperial College London.
An international team of 52 scientists have concluded a four-year effort to agree on a standard 'plant DNA barcode', which will provide the foundation for the widespread use of DNA technologies to identify plants, making it quicker and easier to identify poisonous, endangered or illegal species.

Standard DNA Barcodes for Plants? (Jul 29, 2009)
ScienceDaily.

Fungus Tapped to Take on Kudzu (Jul 16, 2009)
USDA. Agricultural Research Service.
Kudzu, "the vine that ate the south," which spreads at the rate of 150,000 acres annually, could meet its match in a naturally occurring fungus that ARS scientists have formulated as a biologically based herbicide.

Managing the Invasive Risk of Biofuels – IUCN Draft Guidelines Available for Comment (Jul 15, 2009)
International Union for Conservation of Nature.
IUCN Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office of Nairobi hosted a workshop exploring invasive risks linked to biofuel developments, in April 2009. An outcome of the workshop was a draft of guidelines which are available for comment: Guidelines on Biofuels and Invasive Species: Draft for comment (Jul 6, 2009; PDF | 584 KB). The deadline for the comments is Aug 31, 2009.

EPA to Host Meetings about Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (Jul 17, 2009)
Environmental Protection Agency.
The Environmental Protection Agency will host public meetings in each of the Great Lakes states to discuss the federal government's draft action plan for restoring the Great Lakes with the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. Invasive species is one of the five principal focus areas.

Ship Captain and Chief Officer Plead Guilty to Crimes Related to Pollution from Cargo Ship Traveling to New Orleans: Charges Include First for Violation of Anti-invasive Species Law (Jul 15, 2009)
U.S. Department of Justice.
This is the first time an individual is charged under the anti-invasive species law, a law designed to mitigate the introduction of marine invasive species into waters of the U.S.

Silent Invaders Spread Through Neglect of Treaty (Jul 13, 2009)
World Wildlife Fund international.
The World Wildlife Fund has issued the report Silent Invasion: The spread of marine invasive species via ships' ballast water (2009; PDF | 482 KB). The report details 24 cases where significant marine pests were most likely introduced or spread through discharges of ships ballast water during the five years in which the Convention on the Control and Management of Ship’s Ballast Water and Sediments was ratified by only one of the world’s top ten shipping states.

Species Profile -- Late Blight
USDA. NAL. National Invasive Species Information Center.
Late blight is a very destructive disease and is the same disease responsible for causing the Irish Potato Famine in the 1840s. Uncontrolled it will kill plants faster than any other disease and effects both potato and tomato crops. The disease spreads very easily from one garden or field to others, because the spores are easily carried in wind currents to infect susceptible plants.

Wildlife Crisis Worse than Economic Crisis - IUCN (Jul 2, 2009)
International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.
A detailed analysis of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, "Wildlife in a Changing World: An Analysis of the 2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species" has just been published. Results from the report shows nearly one third of amphibians, more than one in eight birds and nearly a quarter of mammals are threatened with extinction. Overall, a minimum of 16,928 species are threatened with extinction. Invasive species are one of the hreats leading to extinctions.

Goats Against Invasive Weeds, Vines (Jul 1, 2009)
USA Today.
More homeowners, governments and businesses are using grazing to harness the eating power of animals and control invasive weeds, maintain lawns and clear fire-prone grasses. The animals are an alternative to using machinery or herbicides.

Invasives! Coming Soon to a Neighborhood Near You!
USDA. ARS. Agricultural Research Magazine.
(Jul 2009 – Vol. 57, No. 6)
Entire issue focus on invasive species; science-based strategies to control invasive species.

Wildlife Crisis Worse than Economic Crisis – IUCN (Jul 2, 2009)
International Union for Conservation of Nature.
The IUCN has issued the report Wildlife in a Changing World: An analysis of the 2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species ™ (2009; PDF | 4.1 MB). The report, which is published every four years, analyses 44,838 species on the IUCN Red List and presents results by groups of species, geographical regions, and different habitats, such as marine, freshwater and terrestrial, and includes the impact of invasive species.