Wild Boar Moving North

March 31, 2012

Wild boars caught on a camera trap in New York State.

Wily, Elusive Foragers Invade Upstate New York
By Lisa W. Foderaro
Feral pigs, known as eating machines in the South and West, are now troubling farms in New York’s Champlain Valley, devouring crops and prey.

“There’s a real sense of urgency. Once the pigs get established, they are very difficult to eradicate completely.”
– Ed Reed, wildlife biologist for New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation.

Read the full article in The New York Times here.

Read Eat the Invaders’ profile on wild boar here.

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Land

Wild Pig

Did the domestic ancestors of today’s feral pigs streak off De Soto’s ship into the Florida scrub of their own accord in 1539? Or did they have to be urged to go find something to eat? All you need to…

Garden Snail

Deliberately or accidentally, by the movement of plants and by hobbyists who collect snails, humans have spread the garden snail to temperate and subtropical zones around the world.

GarlicMustard1

Garlic Mustard

It’s spring and greens are popping up all over, not all of them welcome. Time to get busy and harvest some garlic mustard. Alliaria petiolata Native range: Europe, Asia, Northwest Africa Invasive range: Much of the Lower 48, Alaska, and Canada. (See map.) Habitat: Moist, shaded soil of floodplains, forests, roadsides, edges of woods, [...]

Prickly Pear

Fall is here, and the “cactus fig” is in season. Time to plate-up another widespread invader.

Sow Thistle

It’s spring and time to weed. Sow thistle is a delicious invader found throughout the continent.

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Sea

Asian Shore Crab

The first sighting of the Asian shore crab in the United States was at Townsend Inlet, Cape May County, New Jersey, in 1988. Though the source is unknown . . .

Periwinkle

The common periwinkle, which first appeared in New England in the 1860s, is now found along the coast wherever there’s hard substrate–rocks, riprap, broken concrete, or docks–from Labrador to . . .

Lionfish

Some say it started in 1992 in Miami when Hurricane Andrew smashed an aquarium tank. Don’t blame the weather, others say; in the mid-nineties, disappointed yet softhearted hobbyists…

Wakame

Undaria pinnatifida Native range: Japan Sea Invasive range: Southern California, San Francisco Bay, New Zealand, Australia, Europe, Argentina Habitat: Opportunistic seaweed, can be found on hard substrates including rocky reefs, pylons, buoys, boat hulls, and abalone and bivalve shells. Description: Golden brown seaweed, growing up to nine feet. Forms thick canopy. Reproductive sporophyll in [...]

Green Crab

Since the green crab was first recorded off southern Massachusetts in 1817, it has been hard to ignore. A few minutes of rock-flipping in Maine can turn up dozens of them, brandishing their claws as they retreat…

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Fresh

Armored Catfish

The armored catfish is abundant and destructive in Florida, Texas, and Mexico. Cast your nets for these flavorful natives of the Amazon. Scientific name: Two types have become established in North America: armadillo del rio, Hypostomus plecostomus, and sailfin catfishes in genus Pterygoplichthys Native range: Amazon River Basin Invasive range: Texas, Florida, and Hawaii; also [...]

Common Carp

For a bottom-feeder, what is the good life? The common carp isn’t very demanding: any body of water that’s sluggish and murky will do. If the water is clean, and you’ve got corn for bait, try one of these recipes.

Watercress

Nasturtium officianale Native Range: Northern Africa, Europe, temperate Asia, and India Invasive Range: In USA: all lower 48 states, except North Dakota. Found in Alaska, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Also southern Canada, Sub-Saharan Africa, South America, Australasia, and parts of tropical Asia. Habitat: Common along stream margins, ditches, and other areas with [...]

Crayfish

There are numerous invasive crayfish. We include details for the red swamp crayfish (Procambarus clarkii) and the rusty crayfish (Orenectes rusticus). The same recipes can be used for both species–and many other invasive crayfish. Red Swamp Crayfish Native range: Known as Louisiana crayfish, crawdad, and mudbug, Procambarus clarkii is native to the south central [...]

Nutria

Nutria, also known as coypu and river rat, is native to temperate and subtropical South America. It has been introduced to Europe, Asia, and Africa, mainly for fur farming. These voracious. . .

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Field Notes

If You Can’t Beat Them, Eat Them

Can appealing to our stomachs–and our sense of fun–help preserve an ecosystem? Off the Florida coast, the lionfish, an aquarium pet gone destructive, is promoted as food and in spearfishing contests. Check out the story in The Christian Science Monitor here.

Invasive Species Turned Into Sustainable Delicacies

“It is certainly a great idea to cook with invasive species, but a challenging one,” Andrew Esterson, a restoration ecologist, explains. “Education would go a long way. Perhaps if there was a demand for nutria it would start showing up at farmers markets or on the shelves at grocery stores.” Esterson’s first time cooking with [...]

The Alien Aesthetic

Patterson Clark turns invasive plants into art. As a volunteer for the National Park Service, he got an idea: “One day, when I was pulling a plant, I thought, how can I change my relationship with this plant so that it’s not just eradication, taking something’s life? Since then, I’ve been harvesting invasive plants, rather [...]

The Lionfish Market

In a sign that the eat-the-invaders movement continues to gain steam, the University of West Florida’s College of Business is offering a course on marketing the highly invasive lionfish to consumers. Read more about it here.

New Species Invade Campus Dining

Inspired by the work of the Eat the Invaders project, UVM Dining and the University of Vermont Real Food Working Group hosted a dinner featuring edible invasive species.

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“Most of us eat only what we know. It’s time to put on our boots (or our sneakers) and look around.”

—Jane Kramer in The New Yorker

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- Garlic Mustard
  It's spring and greens are popping up all over, not all of them welcome. Time to get busy and harvest ...
- The Lionfish Market
  In a sign that the eat-the-invaders movement continues to gain steam, the University of West Florida's College of Business is ...
- New Species Invade Campus Dining
  Students arrived at a UVM dining hall on a recent Tuesday evening, and, like any other night, they perused the ...
- Could invasive Asian carp work as lobster bait and replace declining herring and mackerel? https://t.co/DdemboUl6z https://t.co/mSefQolfgM 2019-06-18
- More updates...