New York borders Lake Ontario and Lake Erie to the west. "The levels of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario are expected to drop due to increased evaporation and lower recharge rates caused by climate change. Lake Erie levels are expected to decrease by as much as five feet by 2100, threatening wildlife and reducing waters supplies for electricity generation." Warmer temperatures cause algae blooms, "which can be unsightly, harm fish, and degrade water quality." Reduced ice cover on the Great Lakes extends the shipping season, as ice prevents navigation in the Great Lakes. Buffalo and its metropolitan area are described as climate change havens for their weather pattern in Western New York. According to a 2011 report, if warming trends continue, "none of the varieties of apples currently grown in New York orchards would be viable. Dairy farms would be less productive as cows faced heat stress. And the state’s forests would be transformed; spruce-fir forests and alpine tundra would disappear as invasive species like kudzu, an aggressive weed, gained more ground." The EPA notes that "increasingly hot summers are likely to reduce yields of corn, the state's most important crop. Higher temperatures cause cows to eat less and produce less milk, so a warming climate could reduce the output of milk and beef, which together account for more than half the state's farm revenues". "Wetlands threatened by rising sea level currently support clapper rail, sharp-tailed sparrow, marsh wren, and the northern harrier, a threatened species." "Striped bass is expected to experience a major loss in habitat as ocean tempera- tures rise, especially in the southern part of its range"  Climate change has also been asserted to be the cause of growing rat infestations in the state, as "[m]ilder winters — the result of climate change — make it easier for rats to survive and reproduce". The Community Risk and Resiliency Act (CRRA), signed into law in September 2014 by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, requires that applicants to certain state permitting and funding programs "demonstrate that they have taken into account future physical climate risks from storm surges, sea-level rise or flooding." It also "requires the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to adopt science-based sea-level rise projections into regulation" and "adds mitigation of risk due to sea-level rise, storm surge and flooding to the list of smart-growth criteria to be considered by state public-infrastructure agencies."