Back in February of this year, the ISW posted about efforts to protect Caddo Lake in Texas from the invasive aquatic plant known as giant salvinia (Salvinia molesta). Flash forward to July 30th, when biosparite sent in a link to a New York Times article about the very same lake...and holy cow! They've managed to wrangle some serious support for what originally seemed to me to be a low-level grassroots effort. First, they got Don Henley, former Eagle and enviro-champion extraordinaire, to voice his concerns for the current state of the lake (turns out Don actually keeps a trailer on the lake). There's already a Caddo Lake Institute established by Henley and friends that predates the salvinia invasion. Then, concerned citizens raised $35,000 to purchase a giant net (two miles wide!) to isolate the more salvinia-ridden portions of the lake. Now, this past week, the Texas legislature appropriated over $200,000 for controlling salvinia in the lake. We're talking some serious advocacy here, no?
This tiny post really can't do the NYT artlce justice, so do head over there to read the full story. Thanks biosparite!
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