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/