TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Getting To The Root Of The Problem

PHOTO: By reporter George H. Newman

A conveyor operated gate on the Weedbusters harvester allows the machine to pull underwater plants such as hydrilla out by the roots. Floating debris and plants such as hyacinths can be scooped up and removed to let sunlight and oxygen nurture the lake. PHOTO

ADVERTISEMENT

By GEORGE H. NEWMAN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 23, 2008

Additional Photos

PLANT CITY - City officials are pleased with initial work to clear weeds from a lake that is the centerpiece of Samuel W. Cooper Park, but they say the battle will continue.

Before crews began work early this month, aquatic weeds including hydrilla covered much of the oblong lake, except for around three aerators. Weedbusters, an aquatic weed-control company based in Tarpon Springs, used machinery to move the vegetation from the water.

The weed removal effort at the man-made lake at Dr. Martin L. King Jr. Boulevard and Lake Street seems to have made progress, city Community Development Director Jim McDaniel said.

"I didn't think they would be able to pick up so much of the hydrilla," McDaniel said.

Hydrilla, which roots on the bottom and grows rapidly, is a major nuisance in Florida lakes, and controlling it is never easy, officials said. The city is looking at continuing weed-control efforts with chemicals and perhaps fish that eat aquatic vegetation.

The city spent more than $10,000 on its initial effort to clear the weeds this month. Truckloads of water-soaked vegetation were hauled to the city's water treatment plant off Spooner Drive, where the weeds will decompose.

City Manager David Sollenberger said city employees, including its aquatic crew, have a number of ditches, canals and ponds to maintain.

Cooper Lake is a real challenge, said Don Rainard, the city's supervisor of streets, stormwater and traffic.

"Particularly in the summertime," Rainard said recently. "In the wintertime, when the rainfall is light, we can remove a lot of nuisance plants that grow in our ditches and retention ponds that have gone dry. But the wet ponds, like the one at Sam Cooper Park, are a bit more troublesome."

The 10-acre lake, unlike most retention ponds, features gentle slopes and is the focal point of a park. But maintenance of the lake has proven to be more difficult and time-consuming than anticipated. Weeds proliferate because the water tends to become stagnant.

"It's not as simple as putting people in waders or floating by in a boat and removing the nuisance plants by hand," Rainard has said. "As soon as you get the second acre cleared out the first one is overrun again."

The park and lake were completed about three years ago to alleviate flooding in the areas adjacent to Water Oak Branch, a natural waterway commonly referred to as Eastside Canal.

There was a 2-acre retention pond there, and the city bought and cleared 22 houses to expand the lake and develop a park named for Samuel W. Cooper, a longtime civil rights leader and member of the city's code enforcement board who died in 2002.

City Public Works Director Willie Nabong said the city continues to look at ways to keep weeds under control. The city may try chemicals, manual removal or other methods, he said.

"We are still in the planning stages," Nabong said.

Millie Stewart, a 23-year employee with the city and aquatic crew foreman, recently said the city has to be careful when it uses chemicals.

"We have a healthy fish stock in that lake, mostly small bream. We also have a number of waterfowl that frequent the lake. So we can't just indiscriminately spray the nuisance plants with an aquatic herbicide. We also have some vegetation that is beneficial to the lake and the wildlife in it that we also want to protect," she has said.

Along with the hydrilla, the mosquito fern, a reddish floating plant, is a nuisance, Stewart said. Left alone, the fern would cover the lake, cut down on the sunlight reaching the bottom and kill beneficial plants growing there.

Sollenberger said another option could be the introduction of grass carp, a vegetation-eating fish.

"We would have to determine if the carp would be enticed to eat the kind of vegetation we want to keep under control," Sollenberger said.

The use of fertilizers in the vicinity of the lake is a known contributor to increased nutrients feeding the aquatic plants, nuisance and otherwise, Sollenberger said.

The city Parks and Recreation Department has stopped fertilizing grass on the banks and plain surrounding the lake.

Mayor Rick Lott said the city needs to pay attention to the lake.

"The lake was introduced to the public as an attractive centerpiece in the neighborhood," Lott said. "Our specific intention was to construct a retention pond that would not only solve the flooding problem in that area but also create a memorial park that would draw people to use as a recreation facility.

"Sam Cooper Park needs to be an eye-pleasing attraction for people who visit the site or live in the community."

Reporter Dave Nicholson contributed to this report. Reporter George H. Newman can be reached at (813) 865-4451 or gnewman@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT