Annual Hydrilla Treatment on the Erie Canal and Niagara River
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers biologists Mike Voorhees, from the Buffalo District, and Clayton Corken from the St. Louis District, conduct an annual hydrilla treatment along a 15 mile stretch of the Erie Canal and parts of the Niagara River, Aug. 13, 2024.
Hydrilla is an invasive aquatic plant native to Asia, Africa and Australia. Due to its high growth rates, adaptability and dispersion ability, it is able to spread at an incredible rate, negatively affecting the ecosystem and causing safety hazards to navigation by binding up boat props.
It is also an aggressive and competitive plant, displacing native aquatic species and creating monocultures - an area dominated by a singular species rather than having a balance among many species like in a normal ecosystem.
Our efforts involves a combination of copper and herbicide to kill off hydrilla. The copper stresses the plant while the herbicide targets hydrilla and eliminates it. We then take water samples to have tested for concentrations of herbicide and then rake the water to look for signs of any remaining hydrilla.
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