Cosumnes River Preserve - 2004 water hyacinth cleanup day

Water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) showed up in California more than 100 years ago. The water hyacinth is an attractive plant, with shiny green leaves and delicate lavender flowers. However, this extremely prolific aquatic weed can quickly spread into a dense floating mat of vegetation. It has become a recurring problem in the Cosumnes River Preserve, managed by BLM California. If allowed to spread, the area covered by water hyacinth will double in 18 days, effectively cutting off oxygen to any organism in the water. It can also clog water pumps of the Preserve and its neighbors.

Work days to physically pull plants are a regular tradition at the Preserve, and a workday in June 2004 was no exception. It takes a lot of hard work to physically remove the plant from areas it is choking off, but it is the best alternative to spraying, especially in confined areas and where dying plants can clog pumps or other equipment.

Staff from the BLM California State Office, along with volunteers from the Cosumnes River Preserve’s Landscape Team, work together to eradicate water hyacinth from the Preserve’s Lost Slough, under the direction of Preserve Wetlands Manager, Holden Brink.

The group loaded the canoes, hauled the canoes out of the water and dumped the plants nearby to dry out. This group of enthusiastic volunteers removed more than two full pickup loads of water hyacinth from the slough. Thanks for all your hard work!!

Above: Lots of plants as the work starts.

Below: the same area shows crews making much progress in removing the floating layer of water hyacinth.

Volunteer workers load their canoes:

Cosumnes River Preserve

As featured in News.bytes (issue 161 - June 16, 2004)