Lake Hood in Alaska, known as the world’s busiest floatplane base, is exploding with greenery fueled by this year’s warm summer. But the lush underwater vegetation now includes recently discovered elodea, a leafy green aquarium plant invading Alaska’s slow-moving waterways and crowding out native species.

Along with fouling planes, dense mats of elodea also snag boats, reduce property values, and can threaten salmon by sheltering predatory pike. Floatplanes in summer make hundreds of daily trips on and off Lake Hood, leading to concern elodea will spread to remote water bodies with the planes unless it’s stopped.

The safety risks are significant enough that the Alaska Department of Natural Resources applied to the state Department of Environmental Conservation for an emergency exemption that slashes the time it would take to get a permit to apply herbicides to kill the weeds.

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Ecologists warn that the plant, known for its dense growth and high cold tolerance, threatens boating, float plane and commercial and sport fishing enterprises and could eventually affect fish species in water bodies across Alaska.

While the invasion is still contained to a relatively small number of waterways, members of the ecological research community are urging a quick response.

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