Attack mounted on pesky water hyacinth

MYRTLE BEACH — From behind the steering wheel of a motor boat, Furman Long pointed to a thick mass of floating green plants clinging to the banks of the Waccamaw River in Georgetown County.

“All of that you see over there probably came from three plants,” said Long, a land steward with the S.C. branch of The Nature Conservancy, an international environmental group. “That’s amazing, isn’t it?”

If left unchecked, nature officials fear fast-growing water hyacinth will clog up waterways and damage ecosystems. So for the first time, The Nature Conservancy, state and federal officials and private landowners are combining forces to stop the plant.

“If we didn’t really tackle it aggressively this year, it would be a massive problem next year,” said Craig Sasser, manager of the Waccamaw National Wildlife Refuge for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “We’re on the way to a pretty big infestation if we don’t deal with it right now.”

Hyacinth, native to South America, can double in numbers in as little as two weeks, said Ken Langeland, an agronomy professor at the University of Florida’s Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants.

The mats created by the plant — which can weigh 200 tons an acre — are so thick that they can block boats from navigating rivers. The plants also block sunlight and air from getting into the water, killing off native species, the center says.