(Orleans)– The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has completed a chemical treatment of curly leaf pondweed on East Lake Okoboji. Mike Hawkins, a DNR Fisheries Biologist, tells KUOO news the application was made just within the past couple of weeks…
”We did get an under-ice treatment completed up on the northern part of East Okoboji and then also expanded that down to Lower Gar. Those areas are prime for that type of treatment because of their low water volume, they’re shallow, and it becomes cost effective to do this under-ice treatment. And this is really a new technique in the midwest for working on curly leaf pond weed. We’re still learning with this and this product. In addition, this spring after the ice goes out and the water temperatures get into the 60’s, we will be doing a little bit of surface treatment as well with a boat application along some of the affected shorelines in the southern part of East Okoboji and also Lake Minnewashta.”
Hawkins says they’re hopeful the repeated applications will have a longer term impact on reducing curly leaf pondweed…
“Each year those germinate in the fall, and if we treat them under the ice, those plants under the ice, they will not produce another crop of turion, so in theory, over time, over a few years, may run out of turions. And so that’s something we are monitoring and we actually are seeing a decrease in turion densities up in the northern portion of East Okoboji, up north of Highway 9.”
Hawkins says curly leaf pondweed last season was nearly non-existent on East Lake Okoboji, thanks in large part to treatments for eurasian watermilfoil.
