Some past article topics are in need of updating, the result of recent events.

First off is the story of the five mute swans that took up residence on Lake Champlain. I was notified of their presence by Alice Connors, who photographed them outside her home. We put the photo in the Wildlife Photo Gallery and called them tundra swans, but later learned we were wrong. Apparently, someone had released mute swans or they escaped captivity.

However the swans got there, their presence on Lake Champlain was not a good thing. They are an invasive species, and even though they look beautiful, they are very territorial and aggressive in keeping out native species like ducks, geese and other water birds.

To make matters worse, these five did not have their wings snipped as most swan pets, so they could fly, making them harder to catch.

After I wrote the follow-up article on the problems the swans could cause, I got reports of them being seen at the Burlington Boat Dock and Port Kent areas in midwinter.

Then things began to change in the past month. A reader called and said the swans were next to his house in Coopersville. I contacted the Department of Environmental Conservation, and last Wednesday got an e-mail from wildlife biologist John O'Connor from Ray Brook: "We found them on state Wildlife Management Area land," he wrote, "and we were able to remove 4 of the 5. The 5th was last seen flying north."

O'Connor said that the support from the local people was tremendous, most knowing the problems these swans can cause. If there is a lesson to be learned from all this, it is no matter how attractive a non-native species may appear, releasing it can have a profound effect on the ecosystem.

Take the alewife situation, another topic I covered last winter. WCAX-TV reported last week on a high alewife die-off in the Port Henry area. Alewives, now firmly entrenched in Lake Champlain, are very sensitive to rapid water temperature changes, and when that happens, huge die-offs occur. It's not a pretty sight, nor is the smell of that many rotting fish very inviting.

Alewives are a non-native species, recent invaders that will be impossible to get rid of now that they have made their way to Lake Champlain. In a past article, I suggested introducing Chinook and Coho salmon, Pacific-originating fish that have also been stocked in the Great Lakes, to control the alewives we are stuck with, but it probably won't happen. Current U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service policy is to restore only native species.

You may now be asking if I'm suggesting bringing in two non-native species to control a third. Yes I am. However, the positive economic impact plus the possible control of the alewives would be worth it, I believe.

Chinook and Cohos, heavy predators of alewives, were introduced in the Great Lakes more than 50 years ago when such a program was acceptable to both American and Canadian politicians. Today, the only way such a program could occur is if local, influential politicians pushed it. Which means, if tens of thousands of dead alewives washed up in front of Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy's cottage, maybe we would see some action.

Finally, here is a short update on an article I did on the dispute between the Town of Black Brook and New York on the state's attempted takeover of lands in that town. The Town of Black Brook won in the courts in the opening round, Judge McGill ruling in favor of the town, agreeing the state side-stepped land procurement procedures. The deal was originally made by International Paper, with Lyme Timber now the owner of the land. The state will obviously appeal.