# Ecological Impact of Emersed Plant Growing



## Phil Edwards (Jan 22, 2004)

Hey folks,

I wanted to take a moment and remind everyone of the potential impact emersed outdoor culture can have. Please take the time to check your governments list of banned/noxious/invasive weeds before starting up a culture. If any of your plants are on that list be conscientious enough to not grow it outside of your aquarium.

It isn't just cuttings that can cause a plant to establish. If the right pollenator and disbursor is available in your area the species could establish through seeds.

Many of our plants are very competitive and can displace local flora which can cause all sorts of havoc with local ecology. Case in point, the Wilmington River here in North Carolina. Somehow a founder population of Anacharis got loose into the river and spread like wildfire during that growing season. As soon as the water got too cold for the plant to survive it all died and the decomposition took all the oxygen out of the water, killing everything in the area.

Invasive List for US:
http://plants.usda.gov/cgi_bin/topics.cgi?earl=noxious.cgi

Happy Planting,
Phil


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## plantbrain (Jan 23, 2004)

People have drowned due to thick aquatic weed beds. 
Aquatic weeds displace native rare plants and many endangered and rae aquatic are rare due to these invasive weeds.

Killing them is needed to prevent out native plants from becoming extinct.
Most herbicides target the noxious weed, not the rare plant, doing nothing about it, assures the destruction of native aquatic plants while the lake or water body becomes full of only one species of weed and that reduces animal life since most critters are herbivores only on the native plants, not the invasive weeds.

Heavy plant growth produces fish kills and lowers the capacity of the water for all forms of life under neath the mats of weeds.

It also breeds a great place for mosquitos and west Nile virus.

I kill weeds like these and get to provide better habitat for out native plants.
Next to human development, invasive weeds are the main reason for endangered plant extinctions in the USA.

So whether you are a farmer and involved in business, water, health services, fishing or an environemntalist, killing and controlling the weeds is everyone's business.

Many wrongly assume the herbicides used for aquatic weeds are bad.
This mainly due to ignorance and has nothign to do with science.

When properly used, they are very safe. The problem with their use is more socialogical rather than factual.

Most of the herbicides used do not presist for long peroids and decompose by sunlight and microbial decomposition in a few days generally into CO2 and H2O. We don't like to use copper for this reason since it will not dissapate and biograde.

After a few weeks, the weeds are dead and the water is returned to the natural state before someone *biopolluted* the lake.

Not doing anything is the worse thing you can do and that is often what radical environmentalist will suggest. Many assume that we dump tons of poisons into the water. A few pounds of herbicide specific and slow acting and low impact are what we use. There have been decades and decades of use and testing associated with the herbicides. Their human and animal toxicity levels are several order of magnitudes lower than the effective dose for control of the weeds.

Adding a weed is liike pollution except worse. The oil or toxic chemical will go away, the weed will self repleicate and only get far worse.

The ironic thing is that folks have bumper sticker saying keep Tahoe Blue.

But they fertilize their lawns, develop all over the lake, drive oil leaking wave runners and boats(these all leak oil) and pollute the lake in much more serious ways. They have Eurasian milfoil in the lake and it's getting worse, but they will not let the state use herbicides to kill the weed.

We would only need a small amount to treat the problem since it's only a small infestation right now. Later, when the entire lakes is covered, we will need huge amounts to treat it and it will cost far more.

Much like letting the tank go and allowing the algae to get a good foot hold, a rapid response is always a better plan if you want to cure the problem.

But folks more worried about little things are not focused on the long term cures. The environmentalist are hurting the lake while not dealing with the real issues, adding all the nutrients and oil and other poison's into the lake.
But don't add one molecule of herbicide in our soon to be very polluted lake.

Nothing like the irony of ignorance.

Both adding invasives and the treatment of them is not an issue of science or treatment options, it's an issue of human behavior and attitudes.

Regards, 
Tom Barr

Regards, 
Tom Barr


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

Sometimes native plant populations can get too rampant, also. In the 80's Vallisneria in lake Eire was becomming so rare that it was about ready for the Endangered Species list. It was losing out to green water and other kinds of algae overgrowth due to nutrient pollution. 

Then along came the zebra mussel, which cleared up the water in short order. Now Vallisneria is so thick in the bays and inlets of Lake Erie that boats can hardly get through it. The problem is still nutrient pollution, but somehow I think that dense beds of Vallisneria are prettier than gobs and clouds of algae.


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## New 2 Fish (Dec 31, 2004)

Isn't the zebra mussel invasive also? Or is it another mussel I'm thinking of?
Tom- I'm curious about the names of some of these low impact herbicides you are referring to. I'm on the board of a local park which has a canal - I'd like to know more before I need to. Also going to take an herbicide applicator class later this summer.
I'm an environmentalist too, but also have more of a science background than the average person (but not those on this board!!)
Thanks!


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## kmurphy (Dec 15, 2004)

As a Pest Biologist specializing in aquatic noxious weed control, I am glad to see this topic coming up on the APC. 

Aside from checking the USDA site for the invasive plant list, I would also encourage you to check with your state and determine what is listed as noxious in your area. All of the plants on the USDA list are not native to the united state, so any domestic plants that may not be wanted in your area won't be on that list.

New 2 Fish - You are right about the zebra mussle, it is extremely invasive, slowing marching its way across the country, hitching rides on boats and trailers. Also, as to the herbicides, the best thing for you to do is contact your state department of agriculture, or whatever state agency is responsible for registering pesticides in your state. Most states have differet laws and regulations pertaining to what can and can not be used in aquatic environments.

But a few of the herbicides that are allowed in Washington,and low in toxicity are glyphosate products such as Rodeo, Aquamaster and Aquaneat to name a few as well as a newly registered imazapyr product called Habitat (the proceeding list is only effective on emersed vegetation). For submersed vegetation check into triclopyr products, works really good on milfoil out here.

hope this helps.


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## plantbrain (Jan 23, 2004)

I generally will try other avenues before suggesting herbicides.

They are quite safe if used properly, often times, the label recommended rate is higher than what you need to control the weed.

Green house studies run about 4x less for the same impact, so a 1/4 dilution from the full label rate will yield the same result in the greenhouse. This ratio is a generalization though.........

Folks generally have an issue with the word "herbicide".
These products breakdown fast and have very low toxicity.

Then the darn weed is dead and gone, fish and critters are safe.
No action means the weed will get worse, the potential for fish kills and reduced fisheries increases the long you let it take control.

I hear a lot of so called environmentalist wing nuts claim we are dumping poison's in the our waters..............

But we seldom hear them tout the issue of *pollutants* such as aquatic weeds...........

These do far more damage to the environment and endangered species, next to habitat lost from development by humans, invasive species are the no#2 reason for extinctions and decline of rare species in the USA.

These weeds self replicated and last hundreds, thousands of years, an oil spill will go away after a some time, weeds never go away unless you kill them, nature will not be able to stop them without our help. they displace native species, lower diversity and host of other issues.

Both the environmentalist and the business and agriculture interest *all win* by management of aquatic weeds.

Catching the problem early, dealing with it with an integrated management plan takes care of things best for the environment.

Folks like to act like we do not have a clue when we apply herbicides but they have been tested for decades and have proven track records.

WA has a great aquatic weed program.

Now we have Eurasian milfoil in Lake Tahoe, but we cannot add anything to get rid of the small populations due to the laws here.

We cannot apply any herbicides at all, yet they allow oil leaking boats, fertilizer runoff(The ferts will increase weed growth), lots of housing and development, nice Lake Tahoe will look like a weed choked cess pool because folks do not base these decisions on sound environmental management, but because of their attitude and superstition.

Leaving the weeds will make it worse, not doing anything will only require more herbicides later. This means it will also cost more.

The famous political statement : "If I'd *only known* this would be a problem we would have done something sooner."

Irony has no limit. We tell them, whether they listen and take our suggestions is another matter. It's always cheaper as well as less damaging to the environment to do things before they get really entrenched and established.

Weed control benefits everyone, not just farmers, water conveyance folks, businesses, boaters, health Dept's, forestry rangers, real estate folks, environmentalist. We all win by working together to prevent thew weeds from getting there in the first line of defense, and if they do get established, killing the weeds quickly once we are aware of them.

Researching the toxicity of these herbicides is rather easy, you see how long the agent last and how much is toxic to a host of wildlife.

The science and application of weed control is straight forward, the surrounding misinformation and politics is anything but straight forward.

Regards, 
Tom Barr


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