It’s in CT and ‘the most harmful, invasive species known’

The U.S. senator led what amounted to a pep rally for environmentalists in Hartford in support of the eradication of the invasive, aquatic superweed hydrilla, which threatens to choke the Connecticut River and the $1 billion it receives annually in recreational and other economic generates activities.

U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal called hydrilla, which has exploded along the lower river over the past decade, “the most damaging, invasive species known to man” and announced he has secured another $5 million to support a state development plan — and federal agencies to begin the fight against the disease next month with targeted herbicide treatments.

Business and environmental advocates have grown concerned that unique species of hydrilla expanding exponentially along the lower river are threatening a half-century of progress that has changed this river from what former Old Saybrook resident Katherine Hepburn , once described as ‘the most beautifully constructed cesspool in the world’ in what natural scientists once called. Conservancy now calls it ‘one of the last great places in the world’.

Invasive plants are choking CT waterways. The state will fund groups with proposals to reduce the threat.

Marina owners pay to have the canals cleared of the thick mats of weeds that tie up boat propellers and stall engines. Kayakers can’t get through it, swimmers don’t want to swim in it, and fishermen have given up their choice of spots in bays and creeks because it’s impossible to drop a hook through. Hydrilla threatens to dam shallow tributaries like the Mattabesset in Middletown, turning them into giant breeding grounds for mosquitoes. Owners of multimillion-dollar waterfront homes are looking out over mats of weeds and tax collectors are concerned about property values.

A noxious weed is threatening the CT River. Students created a device to join forces to eradicate it.

Nationally known experts such as Gregory Bugbee, who directs the state Office of Aquatic Invasive Species within the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, have said the local hydrilla is so powerfully dominant that it is altering the river’s ecosystem at will, destroying native plants and fish are driven away or killed. . There are concerns that it could feed an algae-like cyanobacteria that is deadly to large birds such as bald eagles and ospreys that are repopulating the river.

The officially named “Connecticut River Hydrilla” has what Blumenthal called the “questionable distinction” because it is a genetically distinct species from the invasive weed that has plagued the southeastern U.S. for decades. It is believed to have originated somewhere in Eurasia as decorative vegetation for aquariums. Bugbee and others believe it ended up in the river when families dumped their children’s aquariums

Blumenthal said the $5 million he secured will be added to money already budgeted for the next phase of an anti-hydrilla campaign by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Hydrilla hadn’t even been heard of in the Connecticut River until 2016, when it was first discovered in Keeney Cove in Glastonbury during a field trip dubbed a bio-blitz by a group of volunteer scientists and river enthusiasts. Bugbee and his colleagues then spent three years documenting its explosive growth. It now covers more than 1,000 acres between Essex and Agawam, Massachusetts.

Based on maps provided by state scientists, the Army Corps last year poured harmless dye into the river at several locations to map flow directions and speeds. Based on those results, the Corps plans to introduce a state and federally approved herbicide into the river at six locations this summer and study its effect on the weeds.

Much of the discussion outside the boathouse in Hartford’s Riverside Park Wednesday focused on fishermen and other boat owners who towed boats between the river and state lakes and ponds. Small fragments of hydrilla that attach to trailers and hulls can survive out of water for days and are believed to have transplanted the weed into seven state lakes and ponds over the past year.

Bugbee said it was first discovered a year ago in East Twin Lake in Salisbury. It was discovered on Tuesday in Bashan Lake in East Haddam. Blumenthal and others urged boat owners to rinse any boat pulled from the state’s waters before putting it back in the water. Bugbee said warning signs are being posted at all boat launches in the state.