Heard that homeowners on Lake Athens got a note this week saying that workers would be spraying grass.

Noticed the last time I was there that the grass had been pushed back but figured it was just due to "winter"....but now I'm wondering if they had sprayed some already

It is up to the home owners to kill the grass and only in front of their houses (I don't think it can go past their dock much) I hope it doesn't get out of hand & ruin the lake.

Can you go video it for us? I'd like to see that one!

Well, there goes another good lake.

TPWD does it again

Many million dollar homes.
Grass bad on jet skis.

50,000 grass carp will help...

It seems like most of the rich people who build huge homes on lakes really don't like living on lakes. They like living on big, dammed up swimming pools. All those yucky plants and varmints that get into the pool need to be cleaned out.

Well said...

when will the madness STOP,only a few people can start the spraying(home owners) cant we as fishermen( we out number the home owners)stop it? We need to find a fisherman in Austin(rep or senator)and let them know what is going on.

Money talks though. And those homeowners who have the mansions have the money.

this is not going to be a popular opinion but if you had a million dollar lake house I bet you would like a way to get to the water without overheating your motor .

When they "treated" Lake Tyler they killed all the grass in the middle of the lake, around Stake Island. I wasn't aware there were any boat docks or children swimming around it.

dont buy a house on a lake that has a lot of vegetation? I.e. Clear water promotes vegetation growth for the most part

Yep, Cypress Springs is a perfect example. The water used to be beautiful and clear. I bet now a lot of the homeowners wonder what happened and why it is so much dirtier.

seems like someone would figure out how to "control" the growth, without ruining it.

When they spray does the stuff disperse throughout a larger area than intended or can it just be localized?
I cant imagine why they would want to spray anywhere but around docks and just leave all the shallows alone where there aren't boat docks. Seems like the wave runners and wakers need some incentive to stay out of there for their own safety.
Or is this just too logical?

I have seen (last year) a local spraying an entire cove. If I had known about the legal issues, I would have reported it...

AMWD Vegetation Info

Another helpful piece of information on Hydrilla. Note, it must be applied by approved organizations...

Hydrilla Treatment

I have yet to find anything on an actual list of outstanding permits where they are allowed to spray. My assumption is most just do it anyway, and it is swept under the rug.

It's called a boat ramp. They may own or lease the land adjacent to the lake but they have no ownership in the water itself. Something they should have considered before paying for a dock or even buying on the lake.

TPWD can do spot treatments and keep it localized and their biggest cause for concern is invasive species like salvinia and hydrilla. The majority of aquatic vegetation at Athens is native.

On Lake Austin you had tremendous clarity, it was beautiful water and they added carp. Now you can see 2ft at best. Guess what, those million dollar homes are still there and selling like crazy. So are the wakeboarders. Point is, they really don't give a $%&%.

They probably prefer it that way if it cuts down on the fishermen around their docks.

This is pretty much the deal on all lakes here in Texas. Lake Clark near Ennis is full of hydrilla but guess what, there are no houses or boat docks on the lake. When I started fishing Fork in 1986 the lake was full of hydrilla, mostly all gone now. Boat docks and $$$$$ homes replaced it. We humans change things to suit our needs. Always been that way and always will be. Sun still rises in the east and sets in the west. Everything else changes.

Homeowners on Fork have caused a lot of the damage to the hydrilla. They have sprayed and broadcast enough poison to kill off most of the grass.

No, according to Dr. Richard Ott (TPWD) who more or less conducted the meeting with Lake Athens homeowners, the hydrilla acreage shrank owing to the heavy rain event a few years back. The hydrilla just disappeared and I believe Lake Athens has less than an acre of it now. Hydrilla does look a lot like coontail, so there could be some confusion there. Coontail is found all over the lake.

He was also asked what TPWD thought of as the normal range of grass (vegetation) for a Texas lake, in terms of acreage. He said 20 to 40% coverage is considered good. Then a homeowner asked what Athens had and he said . . . 20%. TPWD and Dr. Ott don't seem to share any concerns about grass on Lake Athens. He was just sharing options.

No, TPWD WILL NOT be spraying nor have they been as best I can tell. Lake homeowners, individually or in some cases in little neighborhood units, will have to pull permits to hire licensed herbicide applicators to spray the vegetation. Or, another permit can be sought to "mow" or otherwise yank out the grass, that is, physically remove it. There is one man on the lake now and again who has a "water tractor" of some sort and he "mows" some homeowners' areas. The rules require that any vegetation removed from the lake be taken out of the 448' range. The lake has a 440' conservation level . . . no homeowner owns the land down to the actual water. The vegetation must be moved above the 448'.

Finally, there is another permit for anyone who wants to dredge. The dredging creates more depth and since many lake plants can't grow beyond a certain depth, adding a few feet of depth eliminates some of it. Example, lotus or water lilies don't/can't grow in deep water and are confined to areas with less than 4 feet or so of water depth.

Jut a guess that what will happen is about 100 lake home owners will hire herbicide applicators or physical removers (where it just grows back the next season) and a much smaller group might do some dredging.

I think the lake will continue to be rather grassy, maybe a bit less right around some boat houses.

Brad

Just a word of advice based on observation...pay no attention to what Richard Ott says. Pay attention to what he, TPWD, and the people they allow to "treat" lakes do.

Several years ago Ott told some of us in a farce of a Lake Tyler "stakeholders" meeting that the plan was to only spray a relatively small area and leave some hydrilla for fishermen in the less developed areas.

Surprise, surprise, in no time at all every sprig of grass in the lake was gone. He and TPWD used the "heavy rain washed it out" excuse then, too.

I get the distinct impression that the urgency on the property owners part is the source of the problem, when the call goes out to TP&W that there needs to be something done about the vegetation, property owners want immediate results. Immediate results = stronger herbicides with longer shelf lives, spray on Monday and everything in the area is dead by Wednesday including some beyond.

I'd like to think that TP&W or the COE (whichever applies) could come up with a happy medium on the needs of everyone by getting a less potent chemical to use that would still keep the vegetation in check where needed, but not have the shelf life log enough to kill off vegetation in non-intended areas.

fitter2259, that is sort of what I got from the meeting, that some homeowners feel some urgency. And, I also got the distinct impression that they wanted "someone else" to pay for it. At least one homeowner at the meeting mentioned AMWA's large cash position on its balance sheet.

So, since AMWA is not going to pay for it, nope, and since TPWD isn't going to pay for it since the lake isn't in imminent danger by any invasive plant species nor is Lake Athens excessively grassy by its own definition, I will be very surprised if many more than, say, 100 homeowners hire a licensed herbicide applicator. If each of 100 homeowners treats 100 feet of their water frontage, that'd be 10,000 feet or just a couple of miles of shoreline. Some from this "100" or perhaps some more might use mechanical removal ( I saw a neighbor doing this yesterday . . . just mucking out the tall reeds) but this grows back very quickly.

I don't know anything about Tyler but I have heard Lake Raven was treated and it wiped out a whole lot of vegetation. In that circumstance, the lake is inside Hunstville State Park and I believe it became almost impossible to fish from the bank, so the people visiting out there who didn't have boats were affected.

As long as AMWA and TPWD are not funding sources for herbicide treatments, my guess is it'll have only a minor effect, if that, on fishing.

Brad

Oh no let's all cry and realize there's nothing we can do to stop it

I saw this the other day on Facebook.
https://m.facebook.com/lakeothepinesguide/

per acre.........

I have no problem with that. Unlike introducing a bunch of grass carp, that method won't keep killing vegetation for years to come.

Dang those pics hurt!

Ott is the devil, he is the killer of great bass lakes to numerous to mention. That dude is not the fisherman's friend.

LMBV...Wait For it...

Grass disappears and fish get sick around the same time frame. Not a scientist just an observer.

That picture was from January 29. Makes sense why the plants all look dead. Doesn't really seem to me like it would help much removing dead vegetation. Just gets the litter out of the way. At best, it was just starting to sprout. We were there around that time and grass was just barely starting to grow in a few places.

Looks like they are done killing the grass on Lake Athens this year.

http://www.athensreview.com/news/local_n...897ec008b1.html

I lost all respect for Dr. Ott's decisions or leadership when he directed Purtis Creek to be stocked with grass carp several years ago. What was created to be a managed trophy Bass lake was stripped bare of any vegetation and bass habitat. Ruined what was once a fantastic fishery. We fished it when 10 + pounders were common and the parking lot was full. In a time our State parks are struggling for revenue, I can't believe that purposely did something reckless and stupid to drive fisherman away.

lots of dead grass all over the lake, sad sight.

The grass is slowing dieing just like the fishing

They aren't spraying.....using a pelletized herbicide.....I fished Athens today.....saw lots and lots of dead grass on points far from any docks or boathouses.

Here's what I got from TPWD.....Thank you for your interest in Lake Athens. We have had several questions regarding the vegetation on the lake this year, and many of them have developed from rumors or partial truths. I am going to make a guess here that you are an avid fisherman that loves the quality fishing Lake Athens offers. I couldn�t agree more and can relate as a die-hard fisherman myself. Lake Athens is a gem of a lake and contains some of the best shallow water habitat, with diverse vegetation, of any in the state. Beginning last fall and steadily increasing this spring, we have had homeowner after homeowner inquiring into how they go about treating the vegetation around their lake-front property. In all honesty, we are fortunate that so many contacted us before going forward on their own, as several have, and treat the lake with an unauthorized, ineffective or illegal manner. Before I continue to explain the problems we (TPWD) are facing at Lake Athens, I would simply like to let you know that TPWD is not conducting nor paying for ANY vegetation treatment on Lake Athens. There is a series of steps that each homeowner is required to go through in order to simply get permission to treat around their property, and even then, it is granted with several constraints. First, a homeowner much submit a proposal to treat around their lake-front property to the controlling authority that actually owns the lake. In this case it is the Athens Municipal Water Authority (AMWA). If AMWA approves a permit, it is then forwarded to us and the homeowner must complete a second permit application through TPWD. If the permit is approved, it is then the homeowners responsibility to hire a private, licensed applicator to conduct the treatment with several constraints as I hinted to earlier, including: Each property owner will not be allowed to treat more than 0.25 acre of surface area on the lake and the treatment may not extend beyond 75ft from the high water mark. . The majority of the requests will be treated with a granulated chemical that will sink in the area it is broadcast and not affect much outside of the area approved for treatment. At this time, I believe the total area requested to be treated by homeowners is approximately 53 acers. That leaves the majority of the vegetation, likely several hundred acres, untreated. Fortunately for us, AMWA has been completely in agreeance with TPWD and plans to work with us with all treatment requests going forward. I cannot stress enough how lucky we are to have a controlling authority that also sees the benefits of aquatic vegetation, and does not wish to see any more treated than absolutely necessary.



On a personal note, I would like to state that I can understand your frustrations with any vegetation being treated. It is the unfortunate reality that TPWD often faces, particularly on reservoirs with heavy shoreline development. The sad truth is, if TPWD completely denied all applications to treat vegetation at this time, it would only come back to bite us. Most likely, more homeowners would treat anyway, possibly using unapproved chemicals and affect way beyond the 0.25 acres we are allowing. Trying to find a happy balance at this time will hopefully prevent disgruntled homeowners from exacerbating the situation and bring legal and/or legislative action. Our hope is that several of these homeowners realize the high costs of treating, and decide to give up future efforts as the areas treated will simply grow back assuming the lake level remains stable. Again, I promise from the perspective of a TPWD biologist and an avid fisherman, I would much rather not have to see any vegetation treated on Lake Athens, but this really is the best option we have going at this time to protect as much habitat as possible, while keeping homeowners and homeowners associations happy enough to prevent more extreme actions.



I hope this elongated email has informed you of the difficult balance we are struggling with on Lake Athens. I cannot state enough, TPWD is not conducting any of the vegetation treatment, nor are we paying for any of it. Every bit of treatment conducted on Lake Athens will be through private contractors and will be paid for by the homeowners. Please feel free to follow up with more questions, or call my office number listed below to discuss this issue further. I share your concerns and would like to put as many of them at ease at possible. Again, thank you for your question and have a great weekend!



Jake







Jacob D. Norman

Assistant District Fisheries Biologist

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department

I think Fish2222's email sounds just about right, that 53 or so acres were treated assuming each of just over 200 lakefront property owners used a service that used a pelletized herbicide.

Anyway, everyone in the property owner association received an email stating that TPWD would not issue any more permits, that it wanted to assess the effects from the herbicides.

This includes mechanical removal, too, not just herbicides. This sort of surprised me since the mechanical methods are sort of like mowing down weeds on land: they just grow back.

The lake supposedly had around 360 acres of vegetation out of its 1799 acres. So, if the 53 or so acres of vegetation were successfully eradicated (it won't amount to that), it will now have 300+ acres.

The latest "invasive" on the lake is alligator weed . . . and a whole lot of it. I think TPWD indicated it might use a biological control for it. It looks like a common ground cover, say asiatic jasmine, with small white flowers when it is blooming.

Other than a few homeowners who have used a mechanical tractor device to remove vegetation, I haven't seen any signs of herbicide usage on the north and west side of 2495. We fished in one little cove up there and actually caught quite a few fish.

I still think it will be a non-event as regards fishing. Time will tell.

Brad