Advocates are warning the Finger Lakes and other upstate water bodies lakes could be overrun by a hyper-aggressive invasive plant unless more money is found for a major eradication effort.
The plant, hydrilla, was found late last summer in two creeks at the south end of Cayuga Lake at Ithaca. An initial effort last fall to control it failed to beat it back.
New York state officials have said they can promise only $50,000 in state money this year. Another $380,000 in federal money is being discussed, but a Department of Environmental Conservation spokeswoman couldn’t confirm that it would come through.
Even if it does, the advocates say it’s not enough.
“An effective eradication strategy will take upward of $1 million a year for the next five to eight years,” said Joe Mareane, the Tompkins County administrator. “Without that strategy and funding to DEC to implement it, hydrilla will spread rapidly, causing incalculable environmental and economic damage to waterways that are critical to the upstate economy and quality of life.”
The rest here:The plant roots on the bottom of lakes and creeks in water up to 30 feet deep and forms mats at or just below the surface so thick they crowd out all other aquatic plants, consume oxygen in the water, stress or kill fish, clog water intakes and foul anything trying to move through them.
“Motor and paddle boating will be impossible, as would swimming,” said Roxanna Johnston, watershed coordinator and lab director at the Ithaca water treatment plant.
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... from WikipediaHydrilla is naturalised and invasive in the United States following release in the 1960s from aquariums into waterways in Florida. It is now established in the southeast from Connecticut to Texas, and also in California.[8] By the 1990s control and management were costing millions of dollars each year.
Hydrilla can be controlled by the application of aquatic herbicides and it is also eaten by grass carp, itself an invasive species in North America. Insects used as biological pest control for this plant include weevils of genus Bagous and the Asian hydrilla leaf-mining fly (Hydrellia pakistanae). Tubers pose a problem to control as they can lay dormant for a number of years. This has made it even more difficult to remove from waterways and estuaries.
As an invasive species in Florida, Hydrilla has become the most serious aquatic weed problem for Florida and most of the U.S. Because it was such a threat as an invasive species, restrictions were placed, only allowing a single type of chemical, fluridone, to be used as an herbicide. This was done to prevent the evolution of multiple mutants. The result is fluridone resistant Hyrdilla. “As hydrilla spread rapidly to lakes across the southern United States in the past, the expansion of resistant biotypes is likely to pose significant environmental challenges in the future.” [9]
What a crop of hydrilla looks like:
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[imghttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/Hydrilla_USGS.jpg[/img]
