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When we were looking for challenges facing the Dog River, we cared little for some of the easier challenges to manage. The Dog was already established as a high quality body of water, so some of the simpler fixes (relatively, of course) such as nitrogen and phosphorous mitigation, were not on the table as possible projects. Instead, we chose to delve deeper into challenges facing the body of water. We began to search for problems surrounding the river. Japanese knotweed seemed to be a very large challenge, not only for the Dog River, but for areas across the globe. In several countries, the plant is classified as an invasive species and communities struggle to find ways to deal with the plant. Even by using herbicide, it takes significant effort to cut down the main stalks of the plant over several seasons before one can even consider treating the roots and killing off the plant. There seems to exist three possible solutions for mitigation of Japanese knotweed with the Dog River. The first can be considered a “brute force” solution, which is attempting to do what was stated previously in this post. By cutting down stalks over a few seasons, the plant’s root system, which often branches out significantly, would be weakened to the point of being able to be treated. Herbicide would then be used in order to take down the roots. Although this seems like a relatively simple solution, using herbicide so close to the river would certainly spell danger for the residents of the river. Biochemical oxygen demand would certainly skyrocket, not to mention the concentration of toxic chemicals entering the water would create a large fish kill, among other species to face a grim fate. A second possible solution is digging up the roots, which involves a large amount of earthwork in order to pick up the roots, which extend deep into the ground, and finding a location to place the waste. This presents two major issues. Firstly, and most critical to the Dog River, is the fact that earthwork so close to the riverbank would mean certain expansion of the bank, causing unnatural flows that the Dog is not used to. This digging would also have to be deep, as the roots extend deep into the ground, causing a large cost to the effort. Even more important is the fact that this solution is not certain and would cause the knotweed to find a new place to take root, causing problems for the place that the plants are disposed of. Clearly, this is not in line with the goals of the team, nor its benefactor, so this solution has been ruled out. The third solution seems to be a solution most promising. Given that the team does not want to inject chemicals into the waterway, nor create problems for other areas of the state, it seems that the best solution would be to attack the plants in a manner that creates minimal chemical byproducts. Soil steam sterilization is a viable option that has been introduced in other places of the world. The process is as is implied in that steam is injected into the soil that is hot enough to corrupt necessary biological processes such as protein synthesis, killing the plants in their place. Some issues that could be presented with this solution include the idea of purging any neighboring plants or fauna that contribute to the river’s wellbeing. Brian Betz
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the Dirty LadsThe group was first formed in late August of 2018 and since then, founded Shogun Knot Swat Oct. 2018 at Norwich University. The members consist of Brian Betz, Alonzo Hilario, Vincent Nguyen and Pat Ryan. ArchivesCategories |