A Message from Our Leader: Turning Over a New Leaf

Are Misconceptions Making Our Lakes Sicker?

Managing Hydrilla Without Harming the Lake

Muskrats and Aquatic Habitat Balance

Upcoming Conferences

• Florida Lake Management Society 36th Annual Technical Symposium
• Washington State Lake Protection Association 38th Annual Conference
• Oregon Lake Association Conference
• North American Lake Management Society 45th International Symposium

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Fluridone is a PFAS chemical—a class of compounds known for their persistence in the environment and growing links to serious health issues. Despite being banned from use in food packaging and other consumer products in New York, it’s being deliberately applied to drinking water sources at concentrations vastly exceeding current PFAS safety thresholds. Native aquatic plant populations have sharply declined, and no monitoring has been conducted on the impacts to fish, birds, or invertebrates. With millions of New Yorkers at potential risk, experts are calling for more transparency, scientific scrutiny, and a halt to unnecessary herbicide use in critical water supplies.

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A Message from our Leader: Small Change Can Yield Significant Problem

Hundreds of Thousands of Dead Fish

Northern Hydrilla Subspecies Invading New Waterways

Voracious Eaters: Consume Very Little or Everything

Upcoming Conferences:

• Association for the Sciences of Limnology & Oceanography Meeting
• Society for Freshwater Science Annual Meeting
• Federation of Vermont Lakes & Ponds Seminar
• American Littoral Society Sunset on the Bay 2024
• Northwest Wisconsin Lakes Conference

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A Message from our Leader: Invasive Plant Species

Plan for Successful Milfoil Eradication Foiled

Eelgrass Taking Over Waterways

New Species of Hydrilla Found in Connecticut

Upcoming Conferences:

• Midwest Aquatic Plant Management Society 44th Annual Conference
• Pennsylvania Lake Management Society 33rd Annual Conference
• Virginia Lakes & Watersheds Association Annual Conference
• Illinois Lakes Management Association Annual Conference
• Western Aquatic Plant Management Society Annual Conference
• Indiana Lakes Management Society 35th Annual Conference
• Wisconsin Lakes & Rivers Convention Annual Conference

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A Message from our Leader: Reflecting on the NALMS Symposium

Collecting Leaves Protects Waterways

30 Years of Improvement, But Still Polluted

Unique Strain of Hydrilla Threatens Connecticut River

Upcoming Conferences

• Oregon Lakes Association Annual Conference
• Colorado Lake and Reservoir Management Association Annual Conference

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A Message From Our Leader: Abbondanza

Toledo Bend Reservoir Needs More Hydrilla

More Green Can Fight Climate Change

Measure Water Clarity to Save the Green

Save the Date:

• Aquatic Weed Harvesting Seminar
• Best Practices in Waterway Trash Skimming

Upcoming Conferences:

• Western Aquatic Plant Management Society Annual Meeting
• Pennsylvania Lake Management Society 33rd Annual Conference
• Virginia Lakes and Watersheds Association Annual Conference
• Illinois Lake Management Association Annual Conference
• Indiana Lakes Management Society 34th Annual Conference
• Midwest Aquatic Plant Management Society 43rd Annual Conference

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Aquatic Invasive Species: Hydrilla

How Much Weed Killer Would you Like with your Water?

Adopt-A-Beach Program

Upcoming Conferences

• SE NALMS Lake & Watershed Conference
• Land Grant & Sea Grant National Water Conference
• Kenya National Water Conference

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Tennessee Valley Authority is a corporate agency of the United States that provides electricity for business customers and local power distributors serving 9 million people in parts of seven southeastern states.  TVA maintains 29 power generating dams with reservoirs in addition to another 17 non-power dams that are used solely for flood control and recreation.  TVA is certainly no stranger to invasive species.

Management of invasive plants is necessary to keep the right balance between the diversity and density of plant growth. TVA has been managing invasive plants since the late 1950s, when it began to address the problem of milfoil. In the 1960s, TVA began to use helicopters to chemically eradicate weeds.

One of TVA’s management options is prevention. In some communities the spread of invasive plants have been prevented by quarantining boats on specific bodies of water to prevent transfer.

• Physical management including the use of mechanical weed harvesters or barriers such as plastic to prevent sunlight from reaching the plants.

• Biological methods include the introduction of grass carp to eat the weeds.

• Chemical management includes the use of herbicides to kill the weeds.

• Mother Nature is perhaps the most effective force in managing invasive plant growth. Many of the invasive weeds are susceptible to cold. The past few mild winters in the region might explain the increase of invasive plants on TVA waters.

In a recent workshop on the issue of aquatic invasive species, over 200 people turned out to not only voice their concerns on the growing weed problem, but to learn how they can help in the management.

Hydrilla, which is native to Africa, Australia, and parts of Asia, forms dense mats of vegetation that interfere with recreation and destroy fish and wildlife habitat.  This plant is able to survive freezing temperatures and can grow in very low sunlight which is a huge advantage over native aquatic plants.  Hydrilla grows early in the season and quickly shoots to the water’s surface blocking the sunlight and absorbing nutrients native plants need to survive.

No lake is immune since a fragment of the plant, often transported from lake to lake via boats, is capable of regenerating new plants.  Lake Pinehurst, a 200-acre manmade lake is owned by Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina; a premiere golf and recreation resort. Power boats are not permitted making it an ideal lake to host cocktail cruises, sail, swim, and fish.  Well, maybe not fish – not anymore.  Residents and resort guests trolled for largemouth bass and other fish that were once plentiful in the lake.  Pinehurst Resort advertised a well-stocked lake and provided fishing guide services for guests.  That is until hydrilla was discovered, Pinehurst Resort and members of the homeowners association quickly ordered herbicide spraying to combat the aquatic invasive species.

Aquatic vegetation had always been a problem in shallow parts of the lake and years of limited spraying kept the vegetation under control.  Three years ago an intensive annual program of spraying herbicides to kill the hydrilla began.  The program costs $20,000 annually and has proved to be successful, at least if near complete obliteration of plant life was the goal.  Very little aquatic vegetation remained after the spraying program, and native vegetation is necessary to keep lakes healthy, filter pollutants, and create fish habitat.  The annihilation of the aquatic vegetation has led to an unproductive fishery in poor shape; there is lack of forage fish which has resulted in stunted and unhealthy game fish.

According to the North Carolina Agricultural Extension Service, heavy hydrilla infestations (those that cover more than 25 to 30 percent of the surface in a lake) eliminate fish habitat, cause stunting, and reduce the number of harvestable fish.  Also, low oxygen levels under the mats make them unsuitable for the growth and survival of sport fishes and most other aquatic animals.  It’s interesting to note that the results from the treatment plan sounds hauntingly familiar to a hydrilla infestation.  Of course the hydrilla is gone now.

At the urging of fishermen in 2011, a study was conducted by Foster Lake & Pond Management, to include an analysis of the health of the current fish population in the lake, analysis of the food chain, survey of the lake’s bottom, study of aquatic plants, water quality and the negative effects of the lake’s population of grass carp.  The report concluded that the aquatic vegetation proved to be bladderwort, a carnivorous plant that is native to North Carolina; no hydrilla was found actively growing, but that tubers from the weed could be present in the hydro soil.  The grass carp were found to be healthy and actively feeding on what little aquatic vegetation remained.  The main problem in the lake now is a shortage of forage fish, those upon which the game fish feed; resulting in stunted and unhealthy game fish.

Recommendations were made on how to help fix the problem that the herbicide treatment caused.  These included harvesting certain fish, forage fish restocking, a feeding program and habitat enhancement.  In an effort to add habitat, discarded Christmas trees were submerged as a type of artificial habitat.

So although there is not funding to aid the “unproductive fishery that is in poor shape” there is money to continue with chemical treatments.  A small group of sportsmen and homeowners are hoping to find a way to compromise with those who find any aquatic vegetation a nuisance.  Aquatic vegetation can be controlled without killing all of the aquatic vegetation which is necessary to keep Lake Pinehurst healthy; it is a lake after all and not a 200-acre chemically treated pool.