- Author: Aaron N.K. Haiman
- Posted by: Guy B Kyser
The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Conservancy has been organizing the Arundo Control and Habitat Restoration Program since 2014. During that time, we worked with funding from the Department of Water Resources and our project partners, the Sonoma Ecology Center and the Solano Resource Conservation District, to map and prioritize Arundo (Arundo donax) infestations in the Delta (Figure 1), conduct chemical control treatments on as many stands of Arundo as we can gain access to (Figure 2), and install native habitat where possible (Figure 3).
This effort has focused on the Cache Slough Complex which is an area of Solano County that has been identified as a high priority for habitat...
- Posted by: Gale Perez
Assistant Professor - Aquatic Plant Management Specialist
University of Florida
This is a 12-month tenure-accruing position, appointed as 60% research (Florida Agricultural Experiment Station) and 40% extension (Florida Cooperative Extension Service), available in the Agronomy Department, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, at the University of Florida. The assignment may change in accordance with the needs of the unit. The position will be located at the Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants (CAIP) in Gainesville, FL with access to extensive laboratory and field facilities. Tenure will accrue in the Agronomy...
- Author: Guy B Kyser
This article from Science discusses a new species of crayfish (not just recently discovered, but an actual new species) that is self-cloning and highly invasive. It's not a weed, but it acts like one...
- Author: John Madsen
- Posted by: Guy B Kyser
We were sampling plots in the Delta in July 2016, and found a small clump of this plant – pickerelweed (Pontederia cordata). Generally considered a desirable native wetland plant, it happens to fall in the same botanical family as the baddest of the bad in the Delta – waterhyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes). What does family mean in the botanical world, anyway? Although native here, pickerelweed is at best considered “occasional” in the Delta. Waterhyacinth falls somewhere between “abundant” and a “scourge,” depending on the year of reference. While there are a number of similarities in appearance (particularly in the characteristics of the flower, which is the original...
- Author: John Miskella
- Posted by: Guy B Kyser
Waterhyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) is a floating perennial species that has become a serious management issue as it invades aquatic ecosystems around the world. In the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in California, the species forms large, dense mats on the water surface that inhibit boating, fishing, water access, and decrease light availability below the floating mat.
While the leaves of waterhyacinth generally turn brown and die during the winter, many waterhyacinth plants survive the winter and grow new leaves in the spring. Warmer spring temperatures also cause the plants to grow stolons, or spreading stems, from which daughter plants grow (Figure 1). Stolon growth is a key driver of waterhyacinth...