An organized effort to remove a hyacinth bloom from Crest Lake, one of the smallest lakes in the Baton Rouge Lakes system, is scheduled to kick off next week.
Since early May, Lakeshore resident Matt Thomas and a handful of volunteers have been trying to rid the lake of the plants, which do not pose a hazard to the lake ecosystem while alive, but rob of the water of crucial oxygen once they die and rot. Though Thomas’ cleanup efforts put a small dent in the problem, the plants proved too much for the limited manpower.
Thanks to help from the Center for Planning Excellence, however, Thomas was able to get a good deal on some equipment from the Lafourche Fresh Water District. The parish agency’s board voted Tuesday night to provide equipment and manpower at cost—$5,000—to remove the plants.
Thomas says it’s a bargain, given that private contractors he’d contacted earlier this spring quoted him prices of between $14,000 and $20,000. To help fund the effort, he raised $1,000 from the Lakeshore Civic Association and $4,000 from The University Lake Improvement and Preservation Association, an organization he started several years ago with fellow Lakeshore resident and retired Congressman Henson Moore.
LSU is also helping in the effort. The university is constructing a ramp needed to lower the equipment into the lake. LSU is also making available a front-end loader and has agreed to haul away the plants once they’re removed from the lake.
Thomas says he hopes the work will be complete within two weeks of the start date, and says he’s heartened to have a plan in place to address the problem.
“The only concern now is that some of the hyacinths have migrated over to University Lake,” he says. “They’re pretty to look at but they’re really a nasty plant and you have to maintain control of them.”
—Stephanie Riegel
