http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/osceola/orl-ohydrilla1105dec11,0,4998256.story?coll=orl-news-headlines-osceola
December 11, 2005
Orlando Sentinel (Florida)
Kissimmee chain likely to continue weed
killing
Experts say research is needed because fast-growing hydrilla resists
some treatments
By Daphne Sashin
The Kissimmee Chain of Lakes would be spared any cuts in herbicide
treatments if the state diverts some money from its weed-management
budget to hydrilla research, the Florida Department of Environmental
Protection says.
Hydrilla researchers, aquatic-plant managers and fish and wildlife
officials agreed during a two-day summit last week that DEP should
use 5 percent to 10 percent of its $38 million operations budget
to bolster research into new chemicals, insects and other weapons
against the fast-growing, lake-choking weed. The state's annual
research budget is about $500,000.
Experts say the need for research has become
more urgent because the state has
largely lost its best weapon against the exotic weed, the herbicide
fluridone, commercially known as Sonar. Hydrilla has grown resistant
to the chemical in the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes, Lake Istokpoga
in Highlands County, several Polk County lakes and others throughout
the state.
"We saw there was a need to reinvigorate the research program,"
said Mike Netherland, a researcher with the U.S. Army Engineer
Research and Development Center. "If you increase the funds,
you would increase the quality of the research proposals coming
in."
The state would not cut back on treatments on the Kissimmee chain,
which has suffered some of the worst infestations, said Jeff Schardt,
an administrator in the DEP's bureau of invasive-plant management.
Nor would it reduce funding for control of water lettuce and hyacinth,
which remains the state's highest priority, he said. The money
would come from lower-priority treatment areas, Schardt said,
though he could not specify which ones.
In their search for new hydrilla controls, environmental officials
say their top concern is finding tools that won't harm native
plants. Anglers complain that high concentrations of fluridone
have destroyed the vegetation that supports fisheries in several
lakes, and they say some hydrilla is better than no vegetation
at all.
Researchers tussled over whether hydrilla could be left untreated
for a certain amount of time in some polluted lakes, such as Lake
Apopka and the Harris Chain of Lakes, to bolster the largemouth
bass population.
"We have some lakes in Florida where we might allow it to
grow," said Jim Estes, chief of freshwater fisheries research
for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
But DEP officials and other researchers said that would be dangerous.
The weeds could grow out of control and spread to other lakes
and rivers, potentially blocking navigation, choking boat motors
and eventually leading to an ecological collapse. The additional
cost to taxpayers could be millions of dollars more a year to
get the problem under control, state officials said.
"The only good hydrilla is a dead hydrilla, in my opinion,"
DEP biologist Don Schmitz said. "This is crazy. . . . I just
can't believe we're still arguing about this 20 years down the
road. A little bit of it is good, but it doesn't stay that way.
It eventually expands."
© 2005 Orlando Sentinel Communications
