Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Is Plant Control out of control at Lake Martin?

Last week a fisherman at Lake Martin reported to me that he observed the plant control sprayers out at Lake Martin surveying the floating mats of plants, but not spraying anything. Soon I assume we will see ugly dead plants after the spraying again begins to destroy the food supply living in the floating mats of plants.


Here is a photo of egrets feeding while walking around on a mat of floating plants.



Here is another photo of a floating mat of plants that will most likely be killed by herbicide very soon.


Here is a photographer zooming in on the variety of plants in the very important feeding grounds for the birds at Lake Martin.



Here is my amateur version of the same location Brian Wolf shot in his Louisiana Gallery.




Great Blue herons nesting in a place with an abundance of floating mats of plants for feeding, and upon trees growing in water year round.




Here ia a photo of the pennywort and duckweed attempting to recreate the floating mats of plants destoyed by plant control herbicides last year.



Here is a photo I took back in January of Great Egrets and Ibis in the rookery feeding while walking upon the floating mat of plants.



The photographer in this photo is Mr. Brian Wolf from Wisconsin. If you click on the link there in his name it will take you to his site and the Louisiana gallery that he created last month here at Lake Martin and in New Orleans during Mardi Gras. I will try to post some of the photos he sent me later, but for now, link to his really cool site and check out his work.