Environmental Remediation of Eurasian Watermilfoil without Toxic Pesticides
One of the most serious problems in lakes today is Eurasian watermilfoil (Myriophyllum spicatum). Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent to control milfoil with
weed harvesters or toxic pesticides, and its growth is now worse than ever. What is little known, is that Eurasian watermilfoil can be easily and economically
controlled using environmental remediation without toxic pesticides.
Characteristics of Eurasian Watermilfoil:
Eurasian watermilfoil is a particularly nuisance weed in northern climates. Its ability to reproduce from fragments and spread rapidly, its high growth rate in a large range
of temperature and environmental conditions, and its tendency to reach the surface and form extensive mats at the surface can allow this milfoil to shade and out-compete
native vegetation. Eurasian watermilfoil starts spring growth sooner than native aquatic plants and can shade out these more beneficial plants. The sheer mass of stagnant
milfoil can create a good habitat for mosquitoes. Milfoil mats can rob oxygen from the water by preventing the wind from mixing the oxygenated surface waters into deeper
water. This can limit the growth of snails that would feed on the organic sediment if oxygen were available. Oxygen-depleted sediments release large quantities of phosphorus
and nitrogen, averaging three times the amount coming in from watersheds. The dense mats of vegetation also increase the sedimentation rate.
Eurasian watermilfoil does not receive its fertilizer from the sediment, but from the water column, having only a filamentous thread by which this milfoil attaches itself to the bottom. This milfoil can grow just as well whether the thread is attached to the bottom or not. Eurasian watermilfoil has the ability, unlike most native plants, to reproduce from one-inch fragments made by boat motors or during weed harvesting.
Eurasian watermilfoil can extract carbon dioxide from bicarbonates in the water, which gives this milfoil a definite advantage over other plants that can only absorb carbon dioxide in the gaseous form. Other advantages are its one-year faster seed germination period than other plants. Most aquatic plants germinate after one or two years, instead of during the first year. Eurasian watermilfoil has the ability for the seeds to withstand drying for one year, compared to 3 - 4 months for other plants. Its fruits withstand freezing. This milfoil reproduces asexually. Milfoil has the ability to grow in more alkaline waters and to grow up to two inches a day.
As with other plants, however, Eurasian watermilfoil has weaknesses with make this milfoil subject to environmental remediation without the use of toxic pesticides. This milfoil must grow in nutrient rich water. It needs high levels of ammonia. The water must have high alkalinity. This milfoil also requires large amounts of carbon dioxide, either in the free form, or in the bicarbonate form. Robert Wetzel, a leading limnologist wrote in his book, Limnology, that Eurasian watermilfoil is highly dependent on light, so dark colored water limits its growth. This can change rapidly, as lakes switch every few years from algal growth to weed growth, and from weed growth to algal growth, depending on which become established earliest in the year.
Eurasian watermilfoil can grow in up to twenty feet of water. The dense weed growth prevents wind and waves from oxygenating a large portion of lakes and ponds from spring until fall. While aquatic plants exhaust oxygen into the water during the day, they take up oxygen when photosynthesis reverses at night. The presence of organic sediment in a lake or pond confirms a lack of oxygen at night and during extended periods of the year.
Environmental Remediation of Milfoil without Toxic Pesticides
Eurasian watermilfoil likes carbon dioxide and as you know, shaking a bottle of pop removes carbon dioxide; and so does the CLEAN-FLO International inversion system. Removing carbon dioxide from the water shifts bicarbonates in the water to carbonates in which the carbon dioxide is unavailable for plant growth. This controls milfoil by environmental remediation without toxic pesticides. The CLEAN-FLO system has been in Sweeney Lake in Minnesota since 1973 and there is no Eurasian watermilfoil in Sweeney Lake today, although it is most of the neighboring lakes. But if the CLEAN-FLO inversion and oxygenation system is turned off, there is nothing else that we know of to prevent Eurasian watermilfoil from coming into Sweeney Lake.
We have asked our CLEAN-FLO International representatives if Eurasian watermilfoil was in any lakes they have treated, and is it in any Clean-Flo-treated lakes now. The answer from all of them was always the same: "Yes, Eurasian watermilfoil was in several lakes and ponds that we put the Clean-Flo system in, and no, it is not present in any Clean-Flo-treated lakes or ponds now." Eurasian watermilfoil can be controlled using environmental remediation without toxic pesticides. With toxic pesticides, the milfoil comes back, usually worse than before and must be poisoned again. With environmental remediation, Eurasian watermilfoil never comes back.
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