If 'they' cared about Lake Martin they would stop draining it in September and spraying herbicide in the rookery during the restricted time frame that prohibits boats from being in the rookery!
The plants are not out of control @ Lake Martin, the LDWF Division of Aquatic Plant Control and Research is! Especially if they are going into the rookery to apply herbicide when the birds are nesting between January and July! And they have been doing that now for over 10 years!
This is nothing new as you can see if you read the article in the link below!
And for 20 years I have been protesting excessive application of herbicide which has resulted in hundreds of acres of Button Bush being wiped out on all four sides of the lake ...
and now for the last few years Louisiana Deptment of Wildlife and Fisheries has nothing else to spray, so they are going into the rookery even during the "restricted time" from February-July when boats are alledgedly prohibited from entering the rookery. But if there really is a law prohibiting access, show it to me!
Above is the blossum on a button Bush which is the preferred nesting site for egrets and herons in the rookery at Lake Martin. Below is a photo of me in 1997 by Brian Miller when I was doing swamp tours in the rookery as evidence that I do not disturb the nesting birds.
In my opinion the combination of an unwarranted drawdown of water by the Nature Conservancy through 'their' draingate on the southside by the visitor center and the excessive application of herbicide in the rookery by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Division of Aquatic Plant Research and Control is combined producing much more disturbance of the ecology than the nesting birds can tolerate and the result were are fewer birds nesting in 2017 than I have seen since the 'mysterious' disappearance of the nesting birds in 2006-2009.
