The National Geographic Channel is heading to north Louisiana Monday at 5 PM to visit Caddo Lake, the sight of a nasty infestation of giant salvinia. The lake is split nearly evenly between Texas and Louisiana, and Caddo Lake Institute Executive Director Laura-Ashley Overdyke says…
“The Texas side of the lake looks more like Louisiana. It is very swampy, viewers will be taken there to this kind of prehistoric landscape to see how locals are fighting back against this invasive species.”
Salvinia is a floating fern that hails from Brazil, and once it takes root it can cover acres of water in just a few days, doubling every week during growing season. Overdyke says it can cause massive damage to ancient local ecosystems in just a short amount of time, in one of two devastating ways.
“One would be a massive die-off of fish, the other is that we are a migratory stop off for birds that when they look down it looks like a pasture and not open water.”
The documentary will take viewers out on flatboat through those troubled waters, and across the border into Texas where efforts are underway to create a creature that can go toe to toe with growing menace.
“There is a small non-profit based in Uncertain, Texas featured in the show, they raise salvinia weevils and these weevils only eat and only live in salvinia.”
The host, Sal Masekala, is credited with calling Lake Caddo one of the most magical locations he’s ever seen.
