Water Hyacinth

[kingbird]

According to wikipedia, water hyacinth is one of the fastest growing plants in the world. As an invader, this is very bad news.

Moore Bayou at Arkansas Post is now probably 75% covered in this crap. Lily-pads are almost gone and I suspect the cattails will be next. This is one of the very few breeding sites for Purple Gallinule in Arkansas. Noble Lake just outside of Pine Bluff is basically 100% covered. I've also noticed it above Wilbur D. Mills dam on the Arkansas River. No doubt, there are other areas that are negatively impacted.

I wonder if there are any plans for eradication.

[asilidman]

In Thailand we were out in the countryside looking for birds when a man eagerly asked us to follow him to see something. He took us to some small ponds that had enclosures above them in which chickens were kept. The floor was of wire, at least in part. The droppings fell through into the pond and the water hyacinths and the catfish flourished there as a result. The water hyacinths (I believe it was water hyacinths) were then scooped up and chopped and fed back to the chickens..a clever self-sustaining system of which he was very proud.

We too have seen the plants in several areas in the S.E. of Arkansas and wondered if any attempt was being made to control them.

Cheryl