Popular Catawba River spot threatened by invasive weed. Blame Hurricane Helene
Alligatorweed is taking hold in the Catawba River, at a well-visited stretch that’s home to the world’s largest bloom of Rocky Shoals Spider Lilies.
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The invasive weed has spread through the lily population at Landsford Canal State Park, according to a social media post from the Catawba Riverkeeper Foundation. Alligatorweed is a fast-growing aquatic plant that can choke out waterways as it grows, limiting growth or other plants and making spots inaccessible to paddlers or boaters.
Landsford Canal is in Chester County near the border with Lancaster County. It’s about 15 miles southeast of Rock Hill and 40 miles south of Charlotte.
Volunteers and staff with the nonprofit foundation removed alligatorweed from the shoals manually but are working on grant proposals to remove more.
“This growth is concerning because alligatorweed is known to outcompete native vegetation, reducing habitat quality for wildlife and creating challenges for recreation, water management and local communities,” the post said.
Rocky Shoals Spider Lilies are a rare plant that only grows in the Southeastern U.S. The Catawba River has the world’s largest stretch of them at an accessible site from the state park in Chester County, just west of Lancaster County.
The spot is a popular paddling area each spring as the spider lilies bloom in May and early June.
Alligatorweed was introduced to that part of the river during Hurricane Helene two years ago and has since spread, according to the Riverkeeper.
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Invasive plants threatening wildlife and recreation isn’t new in the area, but typically it’s been confined to lakes. Lake Wylie has had patches of hydrilla, a similar invasive water weed, for more than a decade. Duke Energy has worked with environmental groups in both Carolinas to curb it.
The Lake Wylie Marine Commission worked with those group to introduce 1,800 sterile Asian grass carp to Lake Wylie in 2009. The fish eat invasive weeds but don’t reproduce, leading to annual fish stocking. Duke Energy and the states also use herbicides to control weeds.
The current invasive weed management plan for South Carolina shows problem areas in six water bodies across the Rock Hill region, all of them lakes.
Lake Wylie has less than 100 acres impacted by hydrilla and alligatorweed, according to the plan.
The remaining spots combine for 37 acres of invasive plants in five water bodies. The 61-acre Lancaster Reservoir in Lancaster County and 70-acre Mountain Lakes in Chester County both have alligatorweed, at a combined 13 acres.
Draper Lakes and Crawford Lake at Kings Mountain State Park have other invasive species in York County, as does Sunrise Lake in Lancaster County.
The Riverkeeper Foundation has been working to keep spider lilies blooming in the Catawba River. That group and its partners propogated about 5,000 spider lily seeds in the Great Falls area last year.
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