The New York Times
Caddo Lake covers 35,000 acres in Texas and Louisiana.
Posted on 07/30/2007 10:46:26 PM PDT by neverdem
UNCERTAIN, Tex., July 25 — How this one-time steamboat landing on Caddo Lake got its name is, well, uncertain — as uncertain as the fate that now clouds this natural wonder, often called the state’s only honest lake.
With more submerged acreage than Minnesota, Texas has just 166 bodies of water commonly considered lakes. All but one of them, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, are artificial reservoirs, most created in the 1950s to fend off drought.
Now that one, Caddo Lake, a mystical preserve of centuries-old mossy cypress breaks, teeming fisheries and waterfowl habitats, is under siege by a fast-spreading, Velcro-like aquatic fern, Salvinia molesta, also known as Giant Salvinia.
In what East Texans here liken to a horror movie, the furry green invader from South America, which is infiltrating lakes in the American South and abroad to growing alarm, is threatening to smother the labyrinthine waterway, the largest natural lake in the South, covering about 35,000 acres and straddling Texas and Louisiana.
“It’s probably the most dire threat that the lake has ever faced, and we certainly have had more than our share of threats,” said Don Henley, the drummer, singer and songwriter of the Eagles, who grew up in nearby Linden, keeps a double-wide trailer on Caddo Lake and has put his celebrity and fortune behind efforts to preserve it.
The United States Geological Survey calls Salvinia molesta one of the world’s most noxious aquatic weeds, with an ability to double in size every two to four days and cover 40 square miles within three months, suffocating all life beneath. The plant is officially banned in the United States, but it is carried from lake to lake by oblivious boaters, to the point where some private lake communities now limit access to boats already there...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The New York Times
Caddo Lake covers 35,000 acres in Texas and Louisiana.
How about furiners needing a quick wash after crossing into the US ?
Ok ... I guess I am rascist
Speaking of marine horror movies, anyone seen the made-in-Korea film entitled “The Host.” I really enjoyed it, and recommend it highly.
They call it a natural lake, and it originally was, but now it has a dam to keep the water in.
Maybe the dam makes it worse?
We need scientists to find a commercial use for unwelcome biomass such as this and kudzu. Couldn’t it be harvested, dried out and used as a source for fiber or fuel?
What to do??? Start a rumor that the “weed” has some unusual hallucinogenic properties. Already being officially banned is also a plus. The lake will be clean in a week.
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