Plan targets invasive weed at Lake Tahoe
RENO -- Scientists at Lake Tahoe are trying a new experiment to try to eradicate an invading underwater weed that is spreading through the lake and the Truckee River.
The enemy is the Eurasian watermilfoil, a native of Europe and Asia that showed up in the United States in the 1800s and once was used as an aquarium plant.
The new strategy is to lay black fabric layers over the plant to block its access to sunlight and kill it out before it clogs water intakes for the region's primary water supply system.
The Truckee Meadows Water Authority approved $20,000 last week to fund most of the project the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will manage this summer at Martis Creek Reservoir near Truckee, Calif.
Officials say previous attempts to control it there by mowing the weed may actually have caused it to spread more.
The weed spreads rapidly from plant fragments carried from an infected area and can alter severely the ecology of a water body.
