FWC to treat Little Lake Harris amid residents’ hydrilla concerns

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said Friday that workers will begin treating hydrilla that has grown thick and is spreading on Little Lake Harris, blocking boat navigation and prompting concern from Howey-in-the-Hills residents and officials.

An airboat will begin applying herbicide with a trailing hose Tuesday, depending on the weather, said Nathalie Visscher, an FWC invasive plant management biologist. Plans call for the herbicide to be applied in sections of the lake where people and businesses have docks. The treatments will take about a week, she said.

On Aug. 13, the FWC announced at a Howey Town Council meeting attended by about 75 people worried about the hydrilla that the agency will treat 640 acres on Little Lake Harris, 475 acres on adjoining Lake Harris and 470 acres on Lake Eustis, at a total cost of about $1 million.

Visscher said the herbicide should kill the hydrilla — a submerged plant with a long stalk and clusters of leaves that extend above the water surface and form dense mats — in about two weeks.

“Sometimes a little less, sometimes a little more,” she said, adding that she’s confident boaters will find navigation easier.

At the meeting earlier this month, resident Roddy Tate said the hydrilla was so thick “you can almost walk across it.”

Mayor Chris Sears said dealing with the hydrilla issue was a top priority for the tiny Lake County town northwest of Orlando.