At its November meeting the Lake Anna Advisory Committee (LAAC) discussed updating its Hydrilla Management Protocol to allow the group to be more flexible in how they manage the aquatic weed.
LAAC Chair and Louisa County Cuckoo District Supervisor Christopher C. McCotter told the group during discussion, “It’s time to examine how we prioritize areas for hydrilla management so we can be sure we are nimble enough to address problem spots going forward.”
At the meeting McCotter appointed a work group to review the current process and make recommendations for an updated process for the January 2025 LAAC meeting, appointing Harry Looney (Louisa County representative), Jeff Palmer (Orange County representative) and Robin Horne (Louisa County representative) to the group.
As part of its ongoing efforts to manage hydrilla in Lake Anna, the Lake Anna Advisory Committee oversaw the treatment of 20 acres of the aquatic grass in Pigeon Creek in mid-August.
LAAC received the approval of Dominion Energy and the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources to contract with an aquatic herbicide applicator per LAAC’s Hydrilla Management Protocol, which includes multiple annual surveys to determine which, if any areas hydrilla impedes navigation on the lake.
The hydrilla was effectively treated in August. Two weeks after the application a follow-up survey found no hydrilla within the treatment area.
LAAC also stocked 100 grass eating carp into the back of Mitchell Creek last spring to address hydrilla growth surveyed in 2023. While the hydrilla wasn’t completely eliminated, the carp have managed it, so it hasn’t posed a navigational impediment.
“Remember our stated goal is not to eradicate hydrilla but to manage it. Some hydrilla is beneficial to the lake, acting as a sediment filter and nutrient eliminator. Where you have hydrilla, you don’t have harmful algae blooms,” Looney told the group at the November meeting.
McCotter noted there are other areas around the lake with significant or notable hydrilla growth this summer including on the Waste Heat Treatment Facility or “hot” side of the lake and told committee members he was concerned about LAAC’s budget being enough to treat hydrilla.
“I don’t think we are going to be able to keep up with it getting $17K in funding a year from Louisa, Orange and Spotsylvania Counties for hydrilla management and buoy maintenance.”
LAAC did increase its annual funding requests to all three counties ($8,500 each) and recommended all three include hydrilla maintenance funding in the annual legislative agenda for the upcoming General Assembly.
Looney noted he and McCotter had recently participated in a meeting with the Lake Gaston Association, a similar group to LAAC that manages hydrilla on the 20,000-acre Dominion Energy-owned lake that straddles the Virginia/North Carolina border.
“We learned that LGA manages hydrilla very differently and has a $1 million budget, part of which comes from the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation. They also work closely with North Carolina State University to survey hydrilla tubers with sediment samples and use over 100 volunteers to do a whole lake survey. We learned a lot during the conversation.”
Another topic of discussion during the November meeting was the option for HOA’s to treat the hydrilla themselves with a permit and a licensed applicator.
Looney noted the work group would look into that possibility.
Hydrilla growth slows by the end of October and it dies back by the end of November. Tubers will remain in the lake bottom and a combination of nutrients, turbidity and water temperature will determine where the weed emerges the next season.
