By Martin Davis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
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Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors’ meeting got fishy toward the end.
Kevin Marshall (Berkeley District) noted during Board comments that the Lake Anna Advisory Committee held an emergency meeting last week about the hydrilla problem at the lake.
“Usually it’s the upper area of the lake,” he said, noting that area has dealt with the problem for about a dozen years and it’s usually handled with treatments.
“This year,” he continued, “hydrilla has taken to the lower end of the lake … basically from Boggs Creek … back to the dam on both sides of the lake.”
Funds from the Lake Anna Advisory Committee have been secured to treat about 40 additional acres of lake with a chemical that’s approved by Dominion and the Department of Wildlife Resources.
The problem, according to Marshall, is that this is a one-time fix to an on-going problem. A longer-term solution, he said, is to introduce a species of fish that consumes hydrilla.
Welcome Sterile Grass Carp
Marshall motioned that the county allocate $5,000 to purchase sterile grass carp, which are able consumers of hydrilla.
It’s not the first time that the county has turned to this fish to deal with the problem.
Marshall told the Advance in a phone call that in the 1990s this same fish was introduced into the lake to deal with hydrilla, but the results were not positive. Too many fish were put in and it “took more vegetation than was intended,” Marshall said.
In 2017 about 100 fish were introduced at the upper end of the lake, and of those that are still surviving (grass carp live five to 15 years), they are effectively consuming the hydrilla without taking too much of native vegetation.
The fish would be introduced this spring, and the number of fish introduced would be determined by DWR to ensure too many aren’t released. It’s likely to be between 300 and 500 fish.
Marshall said that Louisa will also likely be appropriating some money to help with the purchase of the carp.
The Board voted 7-0 in favor of purchasing the fish.
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