Join Dr. Benjamin Sperry, Aquatic Plant Management Team Leader and Research Biologist for the US Army Engineer Research & Development Center to learn about a recent project on the Connecticut River to manage hydrilla populations.

The US Army Corps of Engineers initiated a research and demonstration project in 2023 to develop management strategies of a new genetic strain of the invasive aquatic plant, hydrilla, that was first identified in the lower Connecticut River. The technical approach to address this new aquatic plant management challenge was constructed based on existing data gaps related to plant biology and ecology, herbicide concentration-exposure time relationships, and bulk water exchange rates.In 2023, research efforts included field and laboratory-scale phenology studies, mesocosm-scale herbicide bioassays, as well as site-specific water exchange experiments to generate data required to inform operational-scale field verification studies in 2024. In the summer of 2024, operational-scale field studies were deployed at five representative sites in Connecticut and have been monitored to date. This presentation will discuss research findings and the future outlook on managing the spread of this invasive.

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