US (TX): Morley Hudson Weevil Greenhouse opens in Uncertain
It successfully fought against a chicken processing plant being located on the Little Cypress Bayou, and successfully fought against Pilgrim’s Pride’s efforts to dump poultry processing waste into the Big Cypress at Pittsburgh.
With the completion of the Morley Hudson Weevil Greenhouse, the group is ready to successfully win another battle — the fight against giant salvinia.
“The reason we’re here today is because our organization along with others are involved in a desperate fight to save Caddo Lake from one of the most aggressive aquatic plants in the world,” Daren Horton, president of GCLA said, addressing a crowd at Wednesday’s grand opening celebration of the greenhouse.
The occasion drew attendees from the county and beyond out to Uncertain to celebrate the culmination of GCLA’s effort to develop a biocontrol-based giant salvinia management program for Caddo Lake. It’s also the first high production weevil rearing facility in the world.
“Giant salvinia was first found on Caddo Lake in 2006,” Horton said. “Since that time, Texas has spent $1.6 million spraying aquatic herbicides to control the plant, and Louisiana spends much more than that every year, spraying salvinia to try to control it.
“In 2010, Texas A&M Center for Invasive Species Eradication began a weevil research program on the wildlife refuge. Because of the results and the success of that program, we became convinced that the giant salvinia weevil was to become a key factor in the giant salvinia management plant for this lake,” he said.
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