- A lot of 80-year-old men can't do this.
- NARRATOR: Mike Eckert lives just outside of Fredericksburg.
- Woah, don't put that on there.
- NARRATOR: He's heading down to his Creekside, to check on
one heck of a pesky problem.
- The best I understand it doesn't spread from seeds,
it spreads from pieces that washing out and lodging
somewhere and starting to grow again.
- NARRATOR: He's talking about Giant Reed or Arundo Donax.
And this cane invader threatens just about every
river system in Texas.
[creek riffles]
- We're almost to the Pedernales.
Another half a mile you hit the Pedernales down here,
and they've got this stuff at the Pedernales too.
But it's spreading pretty quick and it's all over everywhere you
go it's there so it's going to take a massive effort
to ever wipe it out.
And I'm not sure they'll ever wipe it out.
[engine starts]
[music]
- NARRATOR: Aquatic Invasive Species Specialist
Monica McGarrity and a team of biologists are fighting back.
They are using an herbicide that will hopefully kill
this introduced invasive weed.
Indigenous to the Mediterranean, Giant Reeds been thriving
and spreading across North America since the 1800s.
- Arundo is a grass, but it's a grass on steroids.
It grows 30 to 40 feet tall.
Huge dense canes so dense that wildlife really
can't get through it.
And so this is a really aggressive plant
and it's important to take equally aggressive action
to manage it.
[music]
- NARRATOR: The team's top priority, protecting the jewel
of the Texas Hill Country.
The Pedernales River.
- MONICA: So right now we're on Barons Creek,
Barons Creek is in the upper Pedernales Watershed.
We've done an aerial survey looking for this plant the
invasive Arundo and found that this is really the source,
Barons Creek, it doesn't go farther upstream and so we're
trying to tackle that working from upstream down.
- This opens up a little bit back here!
- MONICA: Here it grows to nearly thirty feet high,
it creates a monoculture so it just dominates the vegetation
crowds everything else out!
[spraying]
Any small fragment of this plant, just a single node
can root and create a new plant.
And so when you have a flood that comes through or when
someone mows, or chops it up, fragments go downstream,
that can create new plants and create a whole new problem.
[music]
- Whoop, yeah that might be about it, we'll go refill,
and get back at it.
- NARRATOR: So, what does it take to kill this reed?
Thoroughly evaluated by the EPA, it's a mix of herbicides
that attacks the plant in different ways.
- APPLICATOR: What the Roundup's going do it just bake it in the
sun, just like if you sprayed roundup on weeds at the house.
This one is Clearcast, and this just another herbicide like
Roundup, and it's going to be a more long-term released
herbicide.
- MONICA: And so we're applying this chemical to each area
only once per year.
And we're applying it as sparingly as we can, trying to
ensure we have as little runoff into the creek as possible.
These are approved for use over aquatic habitats, and if used
responsibly can have very little impact on the environment.
- NARRATOR: Spraying herbicide into a creek sounds alarming,
but this ecosystem is closely monitored for any damage.
- STEPHEN CURTIS: They're breaking, they're breaking!
Ah getting a lot of gravel.
- NARRATOR: Just downstream, aquatic biologists study a
section of Barons Creek that has already been sprayed.
- We are wanting to see if the aquatic herbicide
treatment is having a negative effect on the
fish and invertebrate community.
- BIOLOGIST: Got a Red Breast Sunfish.
- STEPHEN: We can seine, we can electro-fish.
- BIOLOGIST: Aw, looks like we'll pull a few out of here.
- STEPHEN: And then we can get a general idea about the health of
the stream based upon the health of the fish communities
and invertebrate communities that we are sampling.
[riffle]
You got some Red Breast Sunfish that is mainly what you're
seeing, and then...
[splash]
Look at that, holy crap!
Did you see that!
Dang look how big that fish is!
- BIOLOGIST: Got him a meal!
- STEPHEN: That is crazy, never seen that before.
- NARRATOR: While that snake seems happy and healthy,
and it appears there are plenty of fish here at the creek.
- BIOLOGIST: One, sixty, nine.
- NARRATOR: This biologist wants to make sure some smaller
creatures are just as healthy.
- Invertebrates are really great indicators of water quality,
because they depend on good water quality
to complete their life cycle.
- NARRATOR: Dr. Arches Grubh studies aquatic invertebrates.
- I primarily focus on the invertebrates,
little small critters.
You'll see dragonfly larva, stoneflies, mayflies, just
beautiful creatures underwater.
You might think of some alien creatures, pretty much
right on the head.
- NARRATOR: The question here is if the chemical spray has
affected the Mayfly larva, Dragonfly larva,
and other microscopic wonders.
The fish feed on these bugs and they are a key component
of this ecosystem.
- ARCHIS: The thing with fish is when water quality recedes,
they can actually avoid that bad water area
and move further downstream.
But the invertebrates, they can't really move,
they are not as mobile.
- BIOLOGIST: Man there are a lot of little guys on here!
- ARCHIS: Yeah let's see if there's anything else
on this rock.
See those case builders here?
There's a whole bunch of them here.
And they build this shell out of sand particles.
- BIOLOGIST: Ah what is this?
- ARCHIS: A yeah, that's a horse fly larva, go ahead and bag him!
[scraping]
- ARCHIS: Beautiful.
I got an anthropod, let me see if I can catch him for you.
There's a damselfly larva, that one's super small.
Oh, this one's a beautiful caddisfly, green one.
Dobson fly in.
No biting, no biting.
So far I got bout 85 of them in this jar, seems like a lot
but there is also a lot of dirt packed in there.
- NARRATOR: While it seems plenty of tiny bugs are still
alive after the treatment, the Arundo taking hold
has already had an impact.
- ARCHIS: So in a typical creek you might find a huge diversity
of invertebrates, just from a visual estimate what I have
seen so far is in the Arundo stands we do find a lot
fewer invertebrates.
These invertebrates which are native to this area
are not used to the exotic vegetation.
- MONICA: The Arundo tends to take over, and it causes huge
changes to the channel shape and it can really impact the quality
of the habitat not only the banks but then also within
the stream or the river itself.
- MIKE: They didn't get the chemical back there!
- NARRATOR: Now as for Mike, he had the aquatic invasive team
spray his Arundo outbreak, and hopes more folks along
the creek will join the fight.
- What you need to do really and truly is have
a beer and bbq, then you'll have the whole town come to it.
And everybody will know about it.
These Germans love free beer and bbq up here!
[footsteps]
- MONICA: Here we want to be as careful as we can
of their trees.
- NARRATOR: While Barons Creek looks like it might just
win the Arundo battle.
To win the war it's going to take a buy in from everyone!
- MONICA: Lots of landowners are getting involved and taking
action to manage Arundo on their properties,
and also reaching out to their neighbors and friends
to get more people on board.
[music]
And by everyone getting involved we have a really good chance of
making a really big difference for the health of the streams
in the Hill Country.
- This project was funded in part by a grant from the
Sport Fish Restoration Program.