Contact: Kenneth Billings
STARKVILLE, Miss.--Work by a team of Mississippi State researchers and students is earning recognition by the State of Idaho and the personal appreciation of its top elected official.
As non-native aquatic vegetation began to threaten resources, Gem State officials earlier this year began taking steps to manage the weed. In the spring, they requested the assistance of John Madsen of the university's GeoResources Institute.
The MSU institute regularly conducts and coordinates research and educational activities in environmental resource management, particularly in areas relating to agriculture, forestry, water resources, meteorology, and oceanography. To complete its work, GRI's interdisciplinary group employs high-technology resources of the land-grant institution's High-Performance Computing Collaboratory, of which the institute is a part.
For the past six months, Madsen, research associate Ryan Wersal and four others worked to determine the most effective means of managing Eurasian watermilfoil.
Native to Europe and Asia, the plant, whose scientific name is Myriophyllum spicatum, features feathery foliage and once was sold as a common aquarium decoration. Now found over most of the U.S., it can alter drastically a water body's ecology by forming very dense surface mats that interfere with boating and other related recreations.
According to Madsen, the economy of Idaho has shifted gradually in recent decades from a reliance on agriculture and mining to a heavy dependence on tourism centered on its many lakes and natural resources.
The MSU team primarily focused its efforts on Lake Pend Oreille (pronounced "pend oray") in the northern part of the state.
"Our role was to survey the lake and collect information to help them identify the most effective ways to manage the unwanted vegetation in the states lakes," Madsen said. "From May until September, we had a two-man team on the lake at all times."
Other team members included weed science graduate students Joshua C. Cheshier and Wilfredo Robles, both of Starkville; senior Jimmy D. Peeples of Greenville, an agricultural engineering technology and business major; and part-time institute staff member Waldemar Robles, also of Starkville.
Idaho's largest lake, Pend Oreille is more than 40 miles long and features some 110 miles of shoreline. At 1,158 feet, it's also the fifth deepest in the United States.
Madsen said the research was supported by the Idaho Department of Agriculture and Bonner County, in which most of the lake is located. The Aquatic Ecosystem Restoration Foundation, a national non-profit, tax-exempt organization, also was a partner.
Over the six-month period, Madsen or Wersal, along with another team member, rotated travel to the state to take daily samples to monitor the effectiveness of various eradication efforts. They also used global positioning systems to conduct grid surveys of the entire water compound.
Additionally, small sections of the lake were surveyed where the invasive species had been found before and after chemical or mechanical treatments had been applied. In all, some 300 biomass samples were taken for analysis to determine the most effective treatment method.
Beyond the research, the Mississippi State specialists participated in an information-sharing program that included a question-and-answer session with interested members of the general public.
For their efforts, the team received valuable field experience--and an official letter of appreciation from Idaho Governor C.L. "Butch" Otter.
"Thank you for dedicating so much of your personal time and staff resources to this important project," Otter wrote in his correspondence to Madsen. "I also wanted to thank you personally for continuing to assist my staff in developing sound management techniques. Your experiences from other areas of the country have been invaluable."
While Madsen was grateful for Gov. Otter's recognition of the MSU team's work, he had his own thanks to share. "I was deeply appreciative of the students who were willing to help with this project," he said.
"They basically sacrificed their summer break to spend several weeks in a motel, working long hours to complete this project," he added.
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.