Delta Water Hyacinth

Is the off season the action season?

cynxing — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:21:26 +0000

The current state of the Water Hyacinth population is a kind of hibernation. The plants are still floating around like wreckage from a crash site. Some of the plants are clearly nibbled by critters and bugs and have no future. Few have any live stems that rise above the water right now. What we have are the floating bulbs that are waiting till the weather grows warmer to start their merry reproduction again.

It seems to me that scooping up these smaller bits of debris and composting them now, while they are lightweight and loose, might delay the growing season for the plant and spare us the onslaught we had last summer. Why give them a chance to establish their colonies?

For this task I propose floating composting barges. The mobile floats with composting bins mounted in the center could be filled manually and parked in the sun. As the weeds dehydrate they become light and easy to relocate onto a land based compost pile with a pitchfork. This method is similar to what is done now in marinas except instead of the weeds getting dumped in a mid-waterway tule island where the plants have a chance to re-establish and launch back into the river, the weeds are contained in the composting box, cooking down in the sun.

Right now is a chance for action when the plants are at their weakest. I’ve even heard of a removal method that is like a big vacuum cleaner and sucks the plants out. Which agency has that thingamajiggy and how can we borrow or rent it?

Ideas and Inertia

cynxing — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 19:28:06 +0000

I used to run a National non profit dedicated to education, promotion, and marketing of straight vegetable oil as a fuel (the National VegOil Board). That effort grew out of a website I built answering my frustration that information about VegOil was scattered, contradictory, and un-vetted. The website met a need, and the need grew, but ultimately I could not sustain it alone and had to go back to paying my bills with a day job.

This inquiry into Water Hyacinth has a similar feel to it. I see the need, have ideas on how to approach the problem, but insufficient resources alone to tackle the issue in a meaningful way. And so I’m merely a town crier, Hear Ye Hear Ye, anybody interested in doing something about Water Hyacinth?

I am NOT going to start a non profit for the removal of Water Hyacinth. If you would like to, I laud your efforts and will support you however I can. I would consider this blog a success if any concerned citizenry actually stepped forward to action beyond the acknowledgement that yes, someone ought to do something.

Here are some ideas that might jog hearts and minds:

Find someone who knows how to weave bags etc. out of the processed Hyacinth to do a bunch of workshops to interest handworkers in the medium. Maybe hold it at YCs in the delta, or at Jo Anns Fabrics or Michael’s
crafts.
Collect a bunch of prize money to be awarded to the person with the
most clever and effective way to remove the plant from the water and
distribute it.
Talk to farmers to determine any interest in composting hyacinth and
if not, why not. Also get the calendar for fertilizing vs. growing
seasons.
Isleton seems like a great place to centralize weed processing -
Location (“Hyacinth Central”)and lots of empty buildings make it ideal. Maybe Landlords with vacant buildings could be given some sort of tax subsidy in
exchange for use of the empty buildings to process the Hyacinth. Also
not much work in Isleton, but a population of folks who have demonstrated
thrifty, crafty, creativity, artistic tendencies.

That’s all for now. Any residents of Isleton out there with thoughts on these ideas?

Increased Google Buzz

cynxing — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:36:53 +0000

I may be wrong, but it seems to me that when I started googling Water Hyacinth in September I got less than a half dozen leads to information about the plant. Now, in January, there are a ton. Doesn’t that mean that more people are searching for info on Water Hyacinth? It’s not just me because I use three different computers.

If I knew how to manipulate this blog site better I would put them below in the links section, but in lieu of that let me list some cool things that came up here.

This guy (Green Deane) wants people to EAT water hyacinth. See his youtube video at Eat The Weeds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1kkn5Sz4MI

Apparently rhino like to eat it too. Maybe we should import them to the Delta: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0YJWiqSvD0

How to weave Water Hyacinth: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voDk65JwYaM
But how do they dry it and flatten it?

People in Thailand making baskets with Hyacinth: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZecSR2xJCc&feature=related

A wacky outdated 1977 movie about the dangers of the weed, called Water Hyacinth: the Silent Aggressor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QRVM_n9pcg&feature=related

A short informational identification video with an archive photo of infestation from 1939: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3OATv_Yq6g&feature=related

A crazy man trying to sell them, promoting them even: http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=6H0h_I8yupc&feature=endscreen

And a crazy woman doing the same. She has no IDEA what a huge Hyacinth looks like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3bL2x-A7S4&feature=related

Here’s what Lake Victoria in Africa looks like. Something for the Delta to look forward to if we do nothing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPYn3v_62NQ&feature=related

That’s all for now, sportsfans.

Response Minimal

cynxing — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 22:07:34 +0000

Well, after the Nov. 22 KQED NPR Perspective piece I got three responses, one from my mother, all pretty much saying, yay, go for it, throw a party for us. I am in the familiar Little Red Hen position.

I got about five responses on the Craigslist Ad, none from my mother, and they pretty much said the same thing. So glad someone is doing something about this. Go for it. Good luck.

Blah blah blah.

So what else can I do to inspire some actual action from total strangers? This is the thing. If we hold a meeting to talk about what is possible, would anyone come? Would you?

The LiveAboard about Hyacinth

cynxing — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 22:08:17 +0000

I also draw a docucomic about living on a boat. http://www.cynxing.com/liveaboard/ Here is a visual response to Water Hyacinth.

Processing Problems

cynxing — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 21:51:33 +0000

This is water hyacinth in groups in the water. Unless it has stabilized into a tangled intertwined clump, individual plants can be pulled out easily by hand.
The plant can grow low and bulbous or tall and stalky. The low fat growth could be used for composting. It can be piled and turned and offers both green (wet) and brown (dry) composting. I would like to know how well it works plowed directly into a wintering field.
This is how I have been drying the longer stalks. Two strings twisted between two nails hold the plants in place. It seems to take several weeks to dry them outside and if they get wet they resaturate like a sponge.
This is what they look like dry, and dry cut so I can twist it into twine.

Cutting a bulb or stalk open reveals a sponge-like cell construction.

Call to Action – Craigslist Style

cynxing — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 17:12:35 +0000

I know it’s a long shot, but I posted this in the activities section of the Stockton CL:

You’ve seen the Water Hyacinth clogging the river from Isleton to Stockton.
They cut it, they poison it, but nobody seems to be HARVESTING it.
A little research shows it can be made into rope, paper, compost, biogas even.
LET’S DO IT

I’m looking for other people interested in exploring the uses of Water Hyacinth in a practical way.

I would love to talk with you if you:
- are good at making things with your hands,
- are good at researching materials and methods (how to prepare the hyacinth for use),
- are entrepreneurial and can help figure out how and where to market the products,
- have connections with local agriculture and have composting experience,
- have video experience and equipment and can document our progress to share with others
- can habla espanol and translate for anyone who needs it
- have a truck and/or boat we can use to collect the plants
- have a dry garage or tent where the plants can be hung and dried
- are good at organizing potluck meals
- are not afraid of getting grubby
- Like to cooperate and make a difference in your community.

Everyone is welcome, young, old, unemployed, stay-at-home, bring your kids, there’s a place for you if you’d like to participate.

Naturally you can do all of this on your own. Go For It ! We need lots of minds working on this problem.

If you prefer to work together on this project that has so much potential, please email me and I’ll organize a meeting where we can all talk in person.
I am also developing a web page to bring all of our research together in one place.

Who am I?
I have owned two businesses; a non profit for alternative fuel education and a fine art gallery. I have produced radio pieces aired on NPR, was a freelance magazine writer and a beat reporter for a daily newspaper. I like to make something out of nothing and am worried about the health of the planet in general and the Delta specifically. I am going to plug away at the problem myself but think it would be FUN to get more people involved. And maybe even profitable later on. It’s an adventure.

Timeline: I have already started collecting small amounts of Hyacinth to experiment with. Once the frost hits I’m not sure the plants will be useful any longer, so I’d like to scoop a bunch up soon. My hope is to jump-start collection and drying and work on twining and composting techniques over the winter. Then when the Hyacinth start popping up again in the spring we’ll be ready for it!

This is not a get rich quick scheme. It’s more of an environmental / economic movement. No obligations to find out more. This ad is to see if anyone else is interested in the idea. Maybe you?

Identification of a problem

cynxing — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 21:29:07 +0000

I first became aware of the hyacinth problem in the Delta as a pleasure boater trying to navigate the sloughs. Some sloughs are completely socked in with the lovely but excessive plant.

It seemed a shame that nothing was being done with the very green and elegantly designed water flora. I started looking into it and very quickly found that with a little cooperative effort and less dedication to simply poisoning the stuff (which doesn’t really work anyway), we could turn an overdone decorative weed into a useful California crop.

This blog is an attempt to collect any and all information about Water Hyacinth and it’s uses, and to network the people who are interested in doing something positive with the plant while removing it from the clogged Delta Waterways.