Felt Sole Ban Lifted in Vermont

Dave_W

Dave_W

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jan 24, 2016
Messages
5,040
Location
Gettysburg
Will this become a trend?

Maryland still has the ban but expectations that felt soles would be gradually banned in more states or phased out may have been premature(?).

Felt
 
They were banned due to didymo.

Ongoing studies are finding didymo spores in virtually every waterway in the northeast. It is apparently, native. We just didn't know it until blooms starting showing up in places we hadn't seen blooms.

But that's due to water chemistry changes, which, yes, are due to human activity. But have nothing to do with felt soles.

Now, how far south didymo is "native", and where it's "invasive", is still somewhat in question. Vermont, for sure, it's native. They tested a bunch of streams and found spores in ALL of them. Maryland? Nobody knows yet. But at this point it wouldn't at all be surprising to find out it's native to basically all of the U.S. and present in nearly all waterways.

Further, while yes, felt soles are capable of spreading it. So are birds which fly from place to place. And fish and frogs and raccoons. And even wind. Yes, just wind.

So regarding the felt sole ban. It was put in place to prevent the spread of didymo. Didymo is perhaps native, and even if not, it's already present in nearly every waterway. Hence, the felt sole ban isn't needed.

At least for this purpose. There are other invasives that may be spread by felt, but the fear factor on those hasn't escalated to the point where the public would demand a ban on felt.
 
Interesting for sure.

I've talked to several old timers on the Delaware River, who have stated that didymo has been in that river for as long as they can remember.
And was just officially "discovered" rather recently.
 
what I read was that it is the improvement in water that brought didymo back - they found a fossil of it somewhere odd like NZ or Australia I think.

the theory was that it is falling nitrogen levels in the water.
 
Back
Top