The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation has given the green flag to begin treating Lake Hood in Anchorage with an invasive weed herbicide.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Biologist John Morton said the goal of the Kenai Peninsula Borough helping Anchorage quickly treat it’s busiest float plane lake is to keep Elodea from returning to local lakes.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Biologist John Morton said borough administration was able to help because of the unexpected success and savings of herbicide treatments in Nikiski’s three lakes.
Morton: “They realized that we could eradicate Elodea off of the Kenai Peninsula but have it immediately reintroduced from Lake Hood. So it’s not a far cry for the borough to help out in this particular case and that’s exactly what they did. So they modified the grant they got for the state, the $400,000, which allowed them to purchase herbicide product for Lake Hood.”
The Kenai Peninsula’s successful treatments of Daniels, Beck, and Stormy Lakes in Nikiski has been a model for other communities worried about the easily spread weed.
Morton: “Right now to the best of our knowledge, we’re feeling fairly confident that we’ve gotten rid of it out of Daniels and Beck, but because it only takes one fragment to reinfect the lakes, we’re going to go ahead and treat it for at least this year. Originally our prescription called for treating it next year but I think at the end of this year we’ll reexamine whether or not that really needs to happen next year.”
Elodea is an invasive weed typically used decoratively in fish tanks.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service believes the plant was introduced to Nikiski’s waterways from aquariums being dumped a few years ago.
The initial treatment of Anchorage’s Lake Hood is scheduled for this Friday, July 24.
