The Legislature is expected to consider next year whether to continue the

Tag : Herbicide.
Two helicopter crews on Tuesday began spraying an aquatic-safeherbicide along the 85-mile section of the Platte River fromHershey to Elm Creek, Neb.
The project to spray phragmites -- an invasive grass that grows astall as 10 feet -- could be completed in six to 10 days, if weatherconditions remain favorable, said Rich Walters, manager of theeastern half of the two-part project.
A similar effort earlier this year cleared Republican Riverchannels for the first time in 10 years.
The work this week is being funded with two Nebraska Department ofAgriculture grants totaling more than $630,000.
Both the Platte River and Republican River weed-clearing effortsare being financed through 2007 legislation that set aside $2million per year for two years to clear vegetation from rivers inwater-short areas. The Agriculture Department is charged withdistributing the funds through a grant system.
During the past five years, phragmites have exploded along thePlatte River, Walters said, likely encouraged by drought. The grasscreates dense thickets on the river sandbars that preventthreatened piping plovers and endangered least terns from buildingnests. The phragmites also increase the risk of flooding bynarrowing the river's flow.
It will take several years to loosen the weed's hold on the river,Walters said. With insufficient money available to spray the entireriver, the strategy is to kill the plants upstream to stop theirseeds and runners from spreading downstream.
The Legislature is expected to consider next year whether tocontinue the weed-control program.
The project is a partnership of numerous groups, including thePlatte Valley and West Central Weed Management Areas; the PlatteRiver Habitat Partnership, consisting of the Nebraska Game andParks Commission, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the NatureConservancy; local natural resources districts; and arealandowners.
The Central Platte Natural Resources District has contributed anadditional $100,000 to use machinery to remove the weeds at placeswhere they choke the streambed, increasing the risk that water willback up and cause flooding, Walters said.
The state money is restricted to spraying areas where water rightsexceed the water that is available.
Even though they don't qualify for state dollars, eastern Nebraskanatural resources districts will begin their own spraying programnext week, downstream in the Platte riverbed, to attack phragmites,purple loosestrife and other invasive weeds; cottonwood trees; andwillow trees.
Helicopters will be used to spray as many as 1,000 acres ofsandbars along the Platte from just downstream of U.S. Highway 77to the Missouri River.
Three natural resources districts -- Papio-Missouri River, LowerPlatte South and Lower Platte North -- are sharing costs with locallandowners for the approximately $200,000 project.
Rich Tesar, a board member for the Papio-Missouri River NRD, saidthe invasive weeds pose the "biggest crisis the Platte River hasfaced in modern times." He said he has urged officials along thelower Platte to act before they face as serious a vegetationproblem as their upstream counterparts.
Not only do the weeds thwart birds from nesting and inhibithunting, fishing and other recreational uses of the river, theycreate serious flooding concerns, Tesar said.
With their thick roots and runners, the weeds create a "hugebiomass" that can block the water's flow and cause winter ice jams.
--Contact the writer: 402-473-9581, leslie.reed@owh.com
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