Ag director wants more money for milfoil battle
Tuesday, February 12, 2008 4:45 PM CST
BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Idaho's expensive battle against an invasive plant that chokes lakes and waterways with dense mats of growth is being won, a state official told lawmakers in a pitch for more money.
State Agriculture Director Celia Gould told the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee that there has been "a significant reduction in Eurasian water milfoil populations statewide."
Eurasian milfoil is a feathery weed that grows in water less than 20 feet deep and can eventually reach the surface, forming a dense layer that can entangle swimmers and hinder boats.
The state has spent $4 million in each of the last two years on an eradication program, and Gould wants another $4 million this year. Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter supports the proposal.
"In the past two seasons, all known lake populations in Idaho have been aggressively treated," Gould told lawmakers, The Spokesman-Review reported. "Funding is requested to continue the fight against this aggressive invader and to continue the successful eradication effort."
She said 80 acres of Cocolalla Lake in northern Idaho were treated in 2006 and 2007, and surveys have not found evidence of milfoil in the lake since those treatments.
About 300 acres were treated in Hayden Lake, reducing the milfoil infestation to 7 acres. Gould said more work needs to be done on Lake Pend Oreille.
"They have made tremendous progress," said Rep. Eric Anderson, R-Priest Lake.
Gould said the state needs to get rid of milfoil before other invasive species arrive that require money to fight.
"It's such an aggressive problem that we really have to keep after it," she said. "We've got to get that one under control so we can start addressing quagga mussels and whatever hits us next."
Quagga mussels are fast-spreading, thumbnail-size mussels that haven't yet arrived in Idaho. On the East Coast, they have choked waterways and destroyed landscapes, and they're spreading west.
Anderson said the threat of quagga mussels to the state "makes milfoil look like a dinner salad."
Gould said the department is working on a plan for early detection of the mussels, but isn't proposing any legislation.
Information from: The Spokesman-Review, http://www.spokesmanreview.com
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