FAQ
Here you will find questions we often get at annual meetings and online about water quality. Please check below to see if your question is here, and then send us your question!
Q: Why is it bad to compost starry stonewort?
Invasive species spread: Starry stonewort can quickly proliferate. Composting the plant material without proper management could spread its fragments to new areas, so the species could establish itself in new habitats and further disrupt ecosystems.
Resilience and regrowth: Starry stonewort is known for its ability to regenerate from small fragments. Starry stonewort reproduces via bulbils (produced by rhizoids) or stem fragments, so even if the plant is composted, some plant structure might survive the composting process and find their way back into water bodies, leading to potential re-infestation and further ecological issues.
If you discard invasive species, take these safety precautions:
Bag and Discard: put the plant material in a bag big enough to hold it and let it dry in the sun. Once they are fully dried, they should be safe enough to throw away.
Do NOT Chip Starry stonewort.
Check your local laws: Starry stonewort is a prohibited invasive species, which means it it is unlawful to possess, import, purchase, transport, or introduce plant material except with a permit for disposal, control, research, or education.
Q: Are the references areas that haven't been treated?
Yes, reference areas are areas that haven't been treated and are used as controls.
Q: Are invasives found at inspection sites?
Yes, we find invasive species on boats, but once we started working on management, boats have been a lot cleaner. If you want to know more, check out the reports on the 'Inspection Program' page.
Q: Some Starry stonewort was sent to the captain who said they would contact the board; what happened?
We do not have a lot of flexibility for individual treatment areas, but we do our best to make sure the concerns are properly handled.