With this drought season being a rough one, the Columbia Irrigation District tried their best to do everything they could to make sure they can get all their customers the water they need. A lot of weeds are clogging up the Yakima River preventing it from flowing into a canal near the Wanawish Dam. The
The Harvesters (weed cutters) are Yellow. They are cutting on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Typically “as a rule of thumb” the harvesters do not cut on Fridays. The Shore Barges (weed pick up – floaters and shorelines) are Orange. They are out every weekday, weather permitting, picking up floating weeds and weeds along the
An aquatic harvester has been working at the Rotorua Lakefront in New Zealand, removing mammoth amounts of lake weed from the shore. The large influx washed up around Sulphur Point and Ohinemutu after strong winds and heavy rain battered the region. An influx like this was not uncommon as storm conditions could break off weed
A group of military and government leaders has endorsed an initiative to protect the one million acres of salt marsh that stretches from North Carolina down to northeast Florida. Salt marshes are sinewy channels of coastal grasslands known for their ability to protect coasts from flooding and storm surge during heavy rain events and hurricanes.
Surrounded by some of the world’s richest soil and home to two major grain processing plants, Decatur has long been a hub for agribusiness in the United States. One major trade-off comes in the form of excess nutrients, specifically nitrogen and phosphorus, that runoff from fertilizers used on local farm fields and from discharges from
While invasive zebra mussels consume small plant-like organisms called phytoplankton, Michigan State University researchers discovered during a long-term study that zebra mussels can actually increase Microcystis, a type of phytoplankton known as “blue-green algae” or cyanobacteria, that forms harmful floating blooms. Zebra mussels can filter out the Microcystis with other particles, but then they spit
A national environmental organization labeled the Raccoon River one of the country’s most endangered because of toxic algae and nitrates. Des Moines Water Works called it a “catastrophe,” as the Raccoon is the major source for drinking water for a half-million Iowans. Des Moines Water Works, after dumping as much as $250,000 a year into
All the things that go down the drain and end up at the waste water treatment plant are not removed there. Some of the industrial byproducts that end up in sewers, the agricultural chemicals that runoff farmland, and pharmaceuticals that pass through our bodies all can end up in our streams and lakes. Water treatment
Trapa natans is native to Western Europe and Africa and northeast Asia, including eastern Russia, China, and southeast Asia to Indonesia. Trapa natans was first introduced to North America in the mid- to late-1870s, when it is known to have been introduced into the Cambridge botanical garden at Harvard University around 1877. A decade later
What is Harvesting? Operational Considerations for your lake. Expected Results from a Weed Harvesting Program. Most aquatic plant harvesting systems will cut and remove submersed plants to a depth of five or six feet. As this biomass is removed from the lake, the water is immediately ready for use and there are no restrictions on