Nearly 100 concerned lakefront property owners, lake managers, aquatic invasive plant control practitioners, and DNR/DEQ employees came together on the morning of Friday, March 15th in downtown Lansing to discuss the current state of the science of managing exotic invasive starry stonewort. Michigan Waterfront Alliance would like to extend our heartfelt appreciation to the staff of Karoub Associates for hosting the event – your hard work and professionalism were evident throughout the course of the day! Thank you!
We would also like to extend an enthusiastic thank you to our expert speakers who each did a magnificent job of briefing our audience on the latest technologies available for managing the highly invasive starry stonewort. And, last, but certainly not least, we would like to thank the nearly one hundred folks who ventured out on a cold blustery March Friday to attend our conference – a big thanks to each of you!
Arriving in the Great Lakes region in the late 1970s, the rapidly growing member of the Characeae family has invaded several hundred water bodies in the past forty years, including many inland lakes, rivers as well as Lake St. Clair and Lake Huron. Commonly referred to as starry stonewort in reference to the star shaped reproductive bulbils that are formed on the translucent rhizoids of the species, the scientific name of the native of northern Europe and Asia is Nitellopsis obtusa. Capable of forming dense vegetative meadows of great height and coverage area, starry stonewort is a powerful ecosystem engineer that is capable of altering invaded ecosystems by preventing the growth of native aquatic plants, preventing fish from foraging and spawning, modifying aquatic food webs, and changing nutrient flow regimes.
Notorious for being “predictably unpredictable”, starry stonewort is a fierce competitor that possesses the ability to create conditions that are conducive to its own abundant growth and long term survival. Not well known to the scientific community, little is currently understood about the powerful asexual reproductive capability and growth processes of the species.
Conference attendees were also apprised of their legal rights under the Michigan Environmental Protection Act and Public Trust Doctrine by noted attorney-at-law Bill Carey of the firm Carey & Jaskowski PLLC.
To download the presentation of Dr. Doug Pullman, Applied Biochemists, entitled Starry stonewort Bio-Fundamentals, click here
To download the presentation of Dr. Jennifer J. Jermalowicz-Jones, Restorative Lake Sciences, entitled Case Studies of Starry stonewort in Inland Lakes and Associated Management Methods, click here
To download the presentation of Jason Broekstra, PLM Lake and Land Management Corporation, entitled Exponential Economic Impacts of Starry Stonewort, click here
To download the presentation of Paul Hausler, Progressive Ae, entitled Current Research Pertaining to the Biology and Management of Starry Stonewort, click here
To download the presentation by Scott Brown, Michigan Waterfront Alliance, entitled Exotic Invasive Starry stonewort: Biology, Preferred Habitat, Distribution, and Impacts on Inland Lake Ecosystems, click here
