Free Republic

MONKTON, Md. (AP) -- As an algae with a gross nickname invades pristine trout streams across the U.S., Maryland is about to become the first state to enforce a ban on a type of footgear the organism uses to hitchhike from stream to stream: felt-soled fishing boots. The state Department of Natural Resources plans to prohibit wading with felt soles starting March 21 to curb the spread of invasive organisms that can get trapped in the damp fibers and carried from one body of water to another. Similar bans will take effect April 1 in Vermont and next year in...

Icky algae alarms New England fishermen By LISA RATHKE, Associated Press Writer Aug 26, 2007 STOCKBRIDGE, Vt. - It looks like a clump of soiled sheep's wool, a cottony green or white mass that's turning up on rocks and river bottoms, snarling waterways. Already a scourge in New Zealand and parts of the American South and West, the aquatic algae called "rock snot" is creeping into New England, where it is turning up in pristine rivers and alarming fishermen and wildlife biologists. "It scares me," said Lawton Weber, a fly fishing guide, who first spotted it on the Connecticut River...