Informed stakeholder support for managing invasive Hydrilla verticillata linked to wildlife deaths in a Southeastern reservoir

Abstract

ABSTRACTFouts KL, Poudyal, NC, Moore R, Herrin J, Wilde, SB. 2017. Informed stakeholder support for managing invasive Hydrilla verticillata linked to wildlife deaths in a Southeastern reservoir. Lake Reserve Manage. 00:1–10.Public opinion surveys prior to implementing management actions provide managing agencies with a detailed understanding of stakeholders' attitudes and help inform the general public on the complexity of potential management actions. Like many other Southeastern U.S. reservoirs, J. Strom Thurmond (JST), on the border of Georgia and South Carolina, has been infested with nonnative hydrilla (Hydrilla verticillata). Avian Vacuolar Myelinopathy (AVM), a fatal wildlife disease linked to a neurotoxic cyanobacterial species growing on hydrilla, has been documented on this 28,733-ha reservoir since 1998, when the hydrilla acreage first exceeded 350 ha. As of 2016, 90 bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) mortalities and hundreds of waterfowl deaths have been attributed to AVM disease on JST. To...