Herbicide Treatment in Cayuga Inlet: In the News

Ithaca Journal Covers Hydrilla in the Inlet

• Hydrilla Treatment Starts in Cayuga Inlet (Oct 11, 10:04 p.m.)
• Hydrilla Treatment Scheduled  (Oct 9, 7:40 p.m.) 

 

Hydrilla Treatment Starts in Cayuga Inlet
More eradication work coming in spring in larger area

Ithaca Journal, October 11, 2011-- A little green plant called hydrilla has the power to temporarily close down boating in the Cayuga Inlet, has warranted a declaration of a state of emergency in the City of Ithaca, and will cost nearly $100,000 in county, municipal and state funds this season.

Tuesday, crews from Allied Biological Inc., a lake management and wetland restoration consulting firm headquartered in New Jersey, applied the first round of the herbicide Aquathol K, which is expected to disrupt the hydrilla's reproductive process this fall and prevent it from spreading. A second round is planned Wednesday.

But the fight against the invasive plant will not end there, as the herbicide will only kill the leaves, stalks and turions, or buds. The plant's tubers will remain alive in the inlet's sediment.

Eradication efforts will have to wait until next spring, said aquatic biologist Bob Johnson. Not only that, Johnson said the task force members have no doubt fragments of the plant have been carried out to the lake itself, especially after the Labor Day-week rain. That means future efforts to beat back the spread of hydrilla will have to focus on a much wider area than the 95 acres currently permitted by the state Department of Environmental Conservation for herbicide application.

The invasive aquatic plant went from unheard-of in Ithaca to the top of several agencies' to-do lists after a chance discovery of a hydrilla bed in mid-August by a participant in a floating classroom. A subsequent survey of the area revealed that there are beds up and down the inlet.

A task force quickly formed to handle the infestation, including the City of Ithaca, Tompkins County, Cornell Cooperative Extension, the New York Invasive Species Research Institute, the Cayuga Watershed Network, and the New York Sea Grant. The DEC is helping with the initial response.

Aquathol K, with its active ingredient endothall, is not toxic to animals or humans in the concentration it will be used in the inlet, according to an information sheet prepared by the Cayuga Inlet Hydrilla Task Force and available on Cornell Cooperative Extension's website. Johnson said the chemical begins to disburse and break down quickly after being applied beneath the water surface. In each application, the chemical will be diluted to 1.5 parts per million.

But as a precaution, use of the water in the inlet will be prohibited fordrinking for two weeks, and for swimming and bathing for 24 hours.

The city is also asking that no one fish in the inlet, so as to avoid disturbing the hydrilla and risking facilitating its spread. However, there is no restriction on catching or eating fish from treated waters.

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Hydrilla Treatment to Start Tuesday

Lost boating weekend seen as investment in stopping invasive plant

Ithaca Journal October 9, 2011 -- Inside a plastic bottle set on his front counter, Jim Pirko keeps a sprig of hydrilla immersed in a liter of Cayuga Lake water. Used as a sample to educate customers at the Johnson Boat Yard and Marina, the slender branches of Hydrilla verticillata hardly look menacing. But 30 yards away, in the warm inlet waters, the plant is decidedly the enemy, and the war against its advance is set to begin.

"It takes over channels," said Pirko, the store manager of the boat yard and marina. "It's invasive, nasty stuff."

To combat the plant, 95 acres of the Cayuga Inlet will be doused on Tuesday with Aquathol K, a commercial herbicide with the active chemical Endothall, in the hopes of halting the hydrilla spread. According to a fact sheet prepared by the Cayuga Inlet Hydrilla Task Force, the countermeasures will cost roughly $91,000 this year, with the New York Department of Environmental Conservation and Tompkins County covering a bulk of the costs. Substantial investments for another five years or so will be needed to control the threat of a spread along the shorelines of Cayuga Lake and beyond, the task force warned.

To contain hydrilla in the inlet, boat access has been restricted since Wednesday and will remain off-limits until at least Saturday for application and settling of the herbicide. The diminished traffic means less gasoline sales for Johnson Boat Yard and Marina, but for Pirko "it's a small inconvenience to get rid of a big problem," he said.

To keep boaters out of the lake, signs declaring the Allan H. Treman State Marine Park boat launch closed have been posted at the park entrance. Buoys set up by the Tompkins County Sheriff's Office deny access to the lake, and a patrol boat remains moored nearby to chase down any boats should they violate the ban.

Boaters have largely understood the gravity of the issue, according to Sue Poelvoorde, a senior park planner with the Finger Lakes State Parks. "They realize the consequences of what could happen if we don't jump on this quick," she said while conducting a check of a boat and trailer leaving the launch on Sunday after the boat was removed from a marina slip for the season, which was allowed.

The consequences have environmental and government groups worried, and that has spurred quick action by the Cayuga Inlet Hydrilla Task Force since the discovery of the plant in August.

"We're all bureaucracies," Poelvoorde said of the agencies involved in the task force, "so we're all astounded that we were we able to move that fast and work together and respond to this so quickly."

The quick action includes obtaining the necessary permits to use the herbicide and closure of the inlet to the broader lake.

For boaters trying to take advantage of a sunny and warm Columbus Day Weekend, the timing couldn't be worse.

"It's disappointing but I understand why," Scott Nostrand of Dryden said as he took down the mast of his 22-foot O'Day sailboat. The closure made him decide to end the season a few weeks earlier than he might have. "I understand why they need to treat it and why they need to jump on it," he said. "You can see it in the water. It's there."

While the exact origin of hydrilla in Cayuga Lake is unknown, it's a common aquarium plant that may have been dumped into the inlet. The herbicide to be spread will arrest the vegetative part of the plant, thereby stopping the spread of turions, which are reproductive parts produced in the leaf axils. It won't, however, kill the existing root systems, and this round of herbicide will need to be one of many, with similar disruptions in the inlet expected over the next few seasons.

In the war against hydrilla, this week's application will mark the first battle. Treatments will need to be continued, Poelvoorde said, with the goal to keep "knocking it back, knocking it back. It'll take a while."

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Last Updated: March 25, 2012