“Wow this is illuminating. Hydrilla is one of our company’s major targets for our bioherbicide discovery screen. Clearly, alternatives are badly needed; we are confident we can find biosolutions by going to where the weed lives, and even better, locations where the weed has died out and finding microorganisms that produce natural products that control the weed.
We already have taken this approach with our Washington State Department of Agriculture grant to find biological solutions to control burrowing shrimp harming oyster beds. In only 5 months from our first collecting trip (from sediment in existing shrimp burrows, from where they have died out and from the shrimp themselves) we have found microbes that control a surrogate shrimp species (and btw also microbes that control weeds and also algae weeds).“
Here’s the first part of the article, read the rest at cfpublic.org
As pollution plagues Florida lakes, state spends millions to manage invasive plants
Florida’s new state budget includes millions for invasive aquatic plant management, like a collective $3.2 million to reduce unwanted vegetation in Lake Tohopekaliga and East Lake Toho in Osceola County. Both those lakes, like most in Central Florida, are polluted enough to fail state and federal water quality standards, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
In fact, Florida ranks first for how many acres of its lakes are classified as “impaired” for swimming and aquatic life: 80%, according to the Environmental Integrity Project.
At Lakes Toho, mercury and high concentrations of the nutrients nitrogen and phosphorus are polluting the water. At Lake Apopka in Orange County, nitrogen and phosphorus are also a problem, along with pesticides found in fish tissue.
Those chemical pesticides, used to treat invasive plants like the underwater plant hydrilla, are what longtime angler Scott Wilson is worried about. He and many other anglers and outdoor enthusiasts say the chemicals are doing more damage to Florida waters than the invasive plants themselves.
“I’ve seen lakes go from some of the most phenomenal, unknown bass fisheries on the planet to being absolutely mud pit within the matter of one or two years of constant [herbicide] spraying,” Wilson said from his small fishing boat on Orange Lake, in Marion and Alachua counties.
Lately, bass fishing here at Orange Lake is actually doing quite well, according to data from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Wilson thinks it’s one of only a handful of good fisheries left in the state.
“I’m watching my Florida die,” Wilson said from his small fishing boat on Orange Lake, in Marion and Alachua counties. “I could break down and cry right now … I’ve watched my lakes get destroyed, one by one.”
The chemicals
Of the roughly 400 pesticides currently registered with the EPA, only 17 are authorized for use in Florida waters, and experts say they undergo rigorous testing before and after being approved.
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