Dennis
02-23-2011, 06:02 PM
KCOL Invasive Plant Management Interagency Meeting
February 22, 2011
Ed Harris from FWC opened the meeting introducing Tim Coughlin FWC Aquatic Habitat Restoration and Enhancement Section, who spoke of the need to manage emergent vegetation specifically hydrilla, pickerel weed, and cattail on the KCOL.
His treatment schedule for April / May; Cypress 88 acres, Hatchniha 150 acres, Jackson 30-40 acres of knotweed, no spring treatments for Toho.
Danielle Schoble Regional Biologist FWC Invasive Plant Management Section, she proposes 575acres on Hatchniha will be treated in December; Hatch has 3 snail kite nests as well. Kissimmee will see 120 acres near the park, and 70 thru the pig trail treated however there are snail kites nesting in the area and may move the schedule to accommodate the kites. On Thursday 340 acres on the south end will get the burn. The south end will also have tussocks harvested pending permitting and disposed of on a nearby upland area. According to Danielle, Kissimmee has 4000 acres of hydrilla of which they would like to treat 1600 acres.
Ed Harris FWC Invasive Plant Management Section gave a review of Toho, his presentation included much of the same as his last but there is a new method of treatment call “lit line” that uses hoses suspended in the water to treat hydrilla on the bottom of the deeper parts of the lake applying aquathol K more directly to the plant and treating from the bottom up in the water column cutting the amount of herbicide used by 40%-60% to open up the navigational channel in the lake.
Cypress has 1600 acres to treat down from 2200 there will be 600 acre treatment in mid March at the Toho Canal to the Hatchniha canal. A new herbicide, Clipper is under testing and appears to have potential; demonstration plots on Cypress are planned for 100-150 acre areas on the lake. Harris also related that Toho has 10,000 – 11,000 acres of hydrilla and deep water treatment in November opened the channel and provided edge for anglers. Harris also said the States new budget could have a $2 million dollar cut in aquatic plant managements budget.
Mike Bodle a contractor for SWFWMD out of West Palm Beach went thru his work, his company’s activities have been to control floating exotics, refurbish locks, he spoke of The WMD replacing navigational markers on KCOL and deepening C37 to hold more water. Shady Oaks boat ramp opening is delayed due to material failures in the air boat ramp. Permitting is all that’s stopping the harvest of the tussock islands near the South end of Kissimmee to keep C65 lock open.
Dr. Mike Netherland, USACOE gave a presentation about monitoring herbicide treatments. He said permanent grids are set up in Toho to monitor herbicide in the water and lake bottom these are used to monitor the impact on hydrilla and native SAV. When Aquathol is used the target rate is 2 to 3 ppm the grids have shown that Endothal another herbicide is no longer detectable after 12 days. Often these are used in combination. Dr. Netherland also said that Goblets Cove has had no management for 2 years although he didn’t give a reason and that cattails are encroaching on native SAV according to their monitoring. Dr. Netherland said the Cores future work is to continue monitoring of KCOL treatments, evaluate strategies, continue to monitor hydrilla expansion and manage to promote native SAV and attempt to manage hydrilla as a native plant.
Next presentation was by Dr. Bill Haller, Director, University of Florida Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants. Dr. Haller gave a short course about aquatics registration of herbicides and went into detail of products and how they are tested for registration and about how they studied the accumulative effects in wildlife. Although fairly long and technically detailed it was quite interesting.
Zack Welsh, FWC snail kite coordinator was up next, he went over the number of nests on the KCOL lakes Toho has 23, Kissimmee has 4, Hatchniha has 3, and we should notice the decals added to the snail kite signs on the lakes with the no entrance dates of February to August on those now familiar signs.
The meeting was well attended by numerous agencies, the public, and was simulcast on the web. United Waterfowlers members Newton Jones and Steven Durrance were in attendance as well. Newton asked several questions during public comment. The next meeting will be scheduled for 2 months from now.
February 22, 2011
Ed Harris from FWC opened the meeting introducing Tim Coughlin FWC Aquatic Habitat Restoration and Enhancement Section, who spoke of the need to manage emergent vegetation specifically hydrilla, pickerel weed, and cattail on the KCOL.
His treatment schedule for April / May; Cypress 88 acres, Hatchniha 150 acres, Jackson 30-40 acres of knotweed, no spring treatments for Toho.
Danielle Schoble Regional Biologist FWC Invasive Plant Management Section, she proposes 575acres on Hatchniha will be treated in December; Hatch has 3 snail kite nests as well. Kissimmee will see 120 acres near the park, and 70 thru the pig trail treated however there are snail kites nesting in the area and may move the schedule to accommodate the kites. On Thursday 340 acres on the south end will get the burn. The south end will also have tussocks harvested pending permitting and disposed of on a nearby upland area. According to Danielle, Kissimmee has 4000 acres of hydrilla of which they would like to treat 1600 acres.
Ed Harris FWC Invasive Plant Management Section gave a review of Toho, his presentation included much of the same as his last but there is a new method of treatment call “lit line” that uses hoses suspended in the water to treat hydrilla on the bottom of the deeper parts of the lake applying aquathol K more directly to the plant and treating from the bottom up in the water column cutting the amount of herbicide used by 40%-60% to open up the navigational channel in the lake.
Cypress has 1600 acres to treat down from 2200 there will be 600 acre treatment in mid March at the Toho Canal to the Hatchniha canal. A new herbicide, Clipper is under testing and appears to have potential; demonstration plots on Cypress are planned for 100-150 acre areas on the lake. Harris also related that Toho has 10,000 – 11,000 acres of hydrilla and deep water treatment in November opened the channel and provided edge for anglers. Harris also said the States new budget could have a $2 million dollar cut in aquatic plant managements budget.
Mike Bodle a contractor for SWFWMD out of West Palm Beach went thru his work, his company’s activities have been to control floating exotics, refurbish locks, he spoke of The WMD replacing navigational markers on KCOL and deepening C37 to hold more water. Shady Oaks boat ramp opening is delayed due to material failures in the air boat ramp. Permitting is all that’s stopping the harvest of the tussock islands near the South end of Kissimmee to keep C65 lock open.
Dr. Mike Netherland, USACOE gave a presentation about monitoring herbicide treatments. He said permanent grids are set up in Toho to monitor herbicide in the water and lake bottom these are used to monitor the impact on hydrilla and native SAV. When Aquathol is used the target rate is 2 to 3 ppm the grids have shown that Endothal another herbicide is no longer detectable after 12 days. Often these are used in combination. Dr. Netherland also said that Goblets Cove has had no management for 2 years although he didn’t give a reason and that cattails are encroaching on native SAV according to their monitoring. Dr. Netherland said the Cores future work is to continue monitoring of KCOL treatments, evaluate strategies, continue to monitor hydrilla expansion and manage to promote native SAV and attempt to manage hydrilla as a native plant.
Next presentation was by Dr. Bill Haller, Director, University of Florida Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants. Dr. Haller gave a short course about aquatics registration of herbicides and went into detail of products and how they are tested for registration and about how they studied the accumulative effects in wildlife. Although fairly long and technically detailed it was quite interesting.
Zack Welsh, FWC snail kite coordinator was up next, he went over the number of nests on the KCOL lakes Toho has 23, Kissimmee has 4, Hatchniha has 3, and we should notice the decals added to the snail kite signs on the lakes with the no entrance dates of February to August on those now familiar signs.
The meeting was well attended by numerous agencies, the public, and was simulcast on the web. United Waterfowlers members Newton Jones and Steven Durrance were in attendance as well. Newton asked several questions during public comment. The next meeting will be scheduled for 2 months from now.