WASHINGTON -  John Goss, the Council on Environmental Quality’s Asian Carp Director, has invited all Great Lakes states to join the Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee (ACRCC).  The ACRCC is charged with establishing a unified response to Asian carp across all levels of government to prevent environmental and economic damage to the Great Lakes.  Coordination among Federal, state and local governments will ensure the most effective strategy and actions necessary to combat the spread of Asian carp.

Currently, each Great Lakes state is in the process of selecting two natural resource or environmental staff members.  Identified individuals will ensure that the concerns of each state are represented within the ACRCC.

Please check their website in the coming weeks to learn who will be serving as state representatives! - www.asiancarp.org

• THE ASIAN CARP THREAT TO THE GREAT LAKES - Dr. Michael J. Hansen, Chair, Great Lakes Fishery Commission
  Written Testimony to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Water Resources & Environment
• Asian Carp Action Plan Act of 2010 - as introduced by Michigan Representative Peter Hoekstra
• House Bill 4472 - as introduced by Michigan Representative David Camp
• Senate Bill 2946 - as introduced by Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow
• Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee - Public Meeting Announcement on Asian Carp control efforts Feb. 17 in Ypsilanti, Mich.
• Michigan Conservation Coalition - testimony for the Asian Carp Congressional Hearing
• Biology of Asian Carps - Duane C. Chapman, USGS Columbia Enviromental Research Center
• Dividing the waters: The case for hydrologic separation of the North American Great Lakes and Mississippi River Basins - from Journal of Great Lakes Research

The president and GL governor’s meeting was this afternoon. The President announced an action plan – of which the details are currently unavailable. However, it appears that the plan will not take all necessary and prudent precautions. This meeting was on Monday afternoon – so little news about the outcomes are yet available. I’m pasting one message below – which was from Gov. Granholm’s press office at http://bit.ly/ctjfNH

Another news source available was at http://bit.ly/b1NIuY

No doubt many papers will release stories on this by morning – just thought I’d share what is available immediately (nothing was available on the White House website yet).

Bryan

I wanted to take a quick minute, prior to the weekend, to provide you with some new information on the Asian Carp issue. We don’t always take the time to communicate it – but we are spending time trying to affect positive results on it.

This week the MI Attorney General’s office filed a new motion to the Supreme Court, with the new and pertinent information concerning eDNA samples discovered in Lake Michigan (which was not provided by the Army Corp in a timely manner when the Supreme Court was making their original determination). Information on this new motion can be found at the AG’s website, and can be reached as well – through their website www.stopasiancarp.com which is linked to on our website www.michigantu.org. This represents a continued attempt to do everything within MI’s power to help stop the colonization of these fishes into the Great Lakes.

On Monday there will be a congressional meeting on this subject (remember Rep Camp and Senator Stabenow from MI have concurrent bills introduced, referred to as “the Carp Act”, that would force the US Army Corp of Engineers to take appropriate actions – which they have failed to do so far). There will be lots of great testimony given at the meeting – including MDNRE Director Humphries. TU Governmental Affairs staff will provide written testimony in support of the bills – and will be in attendance at these meetings. An action alert is being prepared as we speak, by TU Nat’l to be emailed to all members of TU – asking for them to voice their support for the Carp Act. This should be ready by early next week.