Will invasive organisms remake the North Country?

It’s like something out of a science fiction movie. Alien invaders. Ferocious, all-consuming fish. Deadly fungi. Light-hogging plants.

David Sommerstein reported yesterday that 180 organisms have crept into the St. Lawrence Seaway, most as stow-aways in tanker ballast.

This morning, I talk with Jeremy Coleman, the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s national coordinator for responding to ‘white nose syndrome,’ the fungal ailment that’s wiping out bat colonies.

“We are in early December, kind of on the precipice looking into the future,” Coleman says. “We’re about to find out where this is spreading int he coming winter season. We’re right on the edge of what is anticipated to be another very rapid cascade of infected sites.”

Scientists have reached broad consensus that global warming is the big ticking time bomb that could reshape whole ecosystems over the next century.

But I wonder if the swarm of human-introduced critters (yes, we’re the vector for most of these bio-carpetbaggers) will unravel the natural web of North Woods life long before temperatures creep up.

What do you think? Do you flinch every time you see one of those purple beetle traps hanging from a tree on the roadside?

Do you worry that your favorite trout stream will be overwhelmed by ‘creek snot’?