Hydrilla treatment starts on lake

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Hydrilla treatment starts on lake

County News

Thursday, 18 November 2010 08:22

By Fallan Patterson
Staff Writer
Herbicide treatment began this week to battle an aquatic weed that residents and fishermen say is clogging up Lake Tohopekaliga, possibly impacting the local economy.
Bill Thompson, a former fishing guide, has lived along the northern part of the lake for 32 years. Several agencies, including the South Florida Water Management District, have asked to use his boat ramp recently to conduct various surveys of the lake. Thompson noticed the hydrilla was growing more rapidly and suspected concern for the endangered Everglades snail kite was contributing to the lake turning into a “swamp.”
“This part of the lake is fast becoming a swamp and is impossible to get a boat through it except for a small trail in the southeast corner,” Thompson said at a Nov. 5 public meeting on the issue.
Ed Harris, the biologist in charge of the hydrilla treatment, said this week's focus will be on areas of the lake 8 feet deep or shallower. After the treated areas are observed, and taking into account surveys conducted and conversations with anglers, boaters and other concerned parties, additional treatment may be conducted in January on areas from 8 to 12 feet deep, providing the herbicide is available.
“We started out low and acres were added based on a variety of factors,” Harris said.
Last year, after a colder than average winter and a more aggressive hydrilla treatment plan, more hydrilla was killed off than biologists anticipated, posing a problem for the endangered snail kite. These birds only eat apple snails and the apple snails eat the hydrilla as well as sit atop the plant to breathe.
Based on these factors as well as others, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service cut back the treatment of hydrilla from 4,500 acres last year to 1,500 acres this year. The main objective is to clear areas prone to flooding and maintain boat ramp access and boating channels.
“It is an insult to our intelligence to state that snail kites depend on hydrilla to survive,” Thompson said at the Nov. 5 public meeting. “We had snail kites when there was no hydrilla in our lake.”
According to the FWC's Nov. 5 presentation, snail kite populations have declined in recent years. There were 133 snail kite nests in 1991; the lake has averaged 80 per year from 2007 to 2010.
Critics of the plan, including Mike Horner, president of the Kissimmee/Osceola County Chamber of Commerce, are concerned about the impact hydrilla will have on the recreational and professional fishing tournaments and fishing guides that pump money into the local economy.
“There has be no study as to the economic impact of the proposed reduction in treatment,” Horner wrote in a letter to FWC regional director Dennis David. “A lake clogged with hydrilla in 2010 will have a long-term negative impact on the lake's reputation among anglers.”
Another public meeting is being planned for mid-December.