The invasive freshwater plant Elodea has now been found in Alexander Lake, the first confirmed infestation of a lake in the Mat-Su area.
The Alaska Department of Natural Resources as well as other agencies have been fighting the infestation of Elodea in Fairbanks, Anchorage, Cordova, and the Kenai Peninsula and finding the lake weed in Alexander Lake grows the number of known infested lakes to 18 statewide.
On July 1, the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly accepted and appropriated a $400,000 grant for the elodea eradication project.
During that meeting, Matt Steffy from Homer Soil and Water Conservation spoke about the treatments that have begun in three Nikiski Lakes.
Steffy: “A lot of the initial concerns have been there’s a chemical going in the lake in my back yard, what all is it going to kill, can my kids swim there, can I still drink my water and the wonderful thing about the selection of the herbicide we’re using and the mode of action that it does is that it has minimal to zero non-target impact, it inhibits the formation of keratin and essentially prevents a plant from photosynthesizing, so that means that it doesn’t hurt fish, doesn’t hurt insects, doesn’t hurt birds, you can apply this herbicide to the lake and immediately scoop a cup down into the lake and drink it.”
A third treatment of Nikiski’s Stormy, Daniels, and Beck Lakes is expected this month.
DNR is asking the public to help identify and stop the spread of elodea by cleaning, draining, and drying any and all equipment that could carry the easily spread weed to fresh waterways.