Cleaning Hydrilla out of the Rainbow River is vital for maintaining the life of the river.  Hydrilla is an invasive aquatic plant that grows very rapidly, sometimes up to 2 inches in length in a single sunny day during the summer when the days are long.

Hydrilla loves the sun, it grows fast spreading out trying to gobble up as much sunlight as it can.  As the Hydrilla reaches the surface it spreads out, we call it “topping out”. What it does then is hog all the sunlight so none of the other aquatic plants that were there long before Hydrilla invaded can’t get any sunlight and die.

The Hydrilla grows so thick on the surface of the water that it chokes out all the native vegetation below, disrupting the delicate ecosystem that we find naturally in the unspoiled sections of the Rainbow River. As the Hydrilla “tops out” it becomes very dense on the surface and the long stems below start shedding there leaves as they are no longer getting any sunlight.  Now we have all these naked stems rising from the bottom to the surface clogging up the water column.

With the water column so clogged up, the larger fish can not swim through it. Turtles have to try to crawl across the surface to go anywhere, exposing them to danger from predator birds, who love to swoop down and grab the little ones to eat. Otters can not swim underneath the dense mats of Hydrilla and will leave the area in order to survive.

Even the mighty alligator can not swim through Hydrilla, I see them up by my house making their way along the surface on top of the Hydrilla.  Hydrilla is killing our Rainbow River in so many ways. 

Many people who live, work and play on the river also are impacted by the Hydrilla that has taken over sections of the Rainbow River.  I see people get their boats stuck in the Hydrilla.  If their boat tilt is not up high enough it will catch all the stems of Hydrilla wrapping up in tight dense rope like strands bringing their boat propellers to a dead stop.  Then good luck getting all that stuff pulled out, you will need a sharp knife with you to cut it out.

Oh yea, and don’t try swimming through Hydrilla, you won’t make it very far. We have had people die in the Rainbow River, by falling out of their tubes into the “weeds” and drowning before anyone with a boat could get to them.  Very tragic.

As bad as Hydrilla is, what comes next is even worse.  Lyngbya! As the dense mats of Hydrilla on the surface keep on growing getting more and more dense killing the old sections of the plant as it is constantly growing new leaves and buds on the ends of the long stems that can extend many feet long.  

I have asked many times how long can Hydrilla get?  In books I have seen 15 feet, 20 feet and sometimes over 25 feet long.  Then I have seen Hydrilla in lakes with more stagnant water that were reported to be 50 feet deep, still covered with Hydrilla.

Out of control Hydrilla if left unattended will slow the velocity of the water down in the Rainbow river wherever it can and allows Lyngbya algae and other algae’s the opportunity to have time to hoard  nutrients like excess nitrogen and start growing creating dense mats of algae that will eventually suffocate the Hydrilla and create dead zones along the river where nothing can live except mosquitoes.

Lyngbya is a filamentous algae that has hair like strands that can grow over 15 feet long.  It is slimy to the touch, is dark green to almost black in color.  It can also wrap around boat propellers stalling motors out and leaving people stranded.  Lyngbya can look like raw sewage on the surface of the water.  

Lyngbya can cause a rash on human skin sometimes known as swimmers itch (seaweed dermatitis) on people who swim through areas of it.  Lyngbya will cause the further destruction of the ecosystem along the Rainbow River, even worse than what Hydrilla has already done.

I don’t want to see the Rainbow River get as bad as things got in Crystal River on Kings Bay with nothing left  except Lyngbya before we start cleaning up and fixing the imbalance being created by the invasion of Hydrilla into our waters.

We need to remove Hydrilla, vacuuming up the Muck and replanting eelgrass and other native plants that can outgrow the Hydrilla if given a fair chance.  That is the Mission of One Rake at a Time. 

For more information visit our website OneRakeataTime.org or like and follow us on Facebook and TikTok.  We have some music videos up and are posting stuff on a weekly basis.  We are hoping to get enough followers that we can monetize our pages to help support the project.

Thank you,    
Art Jones