On March 11, 2020 The Lake James Environmental Association hosted a member meeting with Brett Hartis - Duke Energy's lead scientist on Aquatic Plant Management. During the meeting Brett presented his teams' latest findings from the January 2020 Aquatic Plant Survey along the Catawba Wateree River reservoirs.
The overall story for Lake James is good news. Lake James is an oligotrophic lake with a healthy plant ecosystem. However, along with the discovery of Floating Yellow Heart in late 2018, Duke's survey found two other invasive species (Hydrilla and Parrotfeather) in approximately 11 acres southwest of the Catawba arm outflow. Duke Energy, along with NCDEQ has a plan to eradicate these invasive plants. Fortunately, like the Floating Yellow Heart issue found in 2018, these invasive plants are in a isolated cove and can be managed and eradicated with confidence.
Brett encouraged the membership of the Lake James Environmental Association to be on the look out for invasive plant species or algal blooms in our lake and to reach out to him at [email protected] with any suspicions. The earlier the plant is caught, the better.
You can learn more about Duke Energy's Aquatic Plant program at https://www.duke-energy.com/community/lakes/services/nuisance-aquatic-plants
Click to download the January 2020 Catawba-Wateree River Reservoir Survey (Lake James Data starts on Page 9)
