The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will spray herbicides on Missouri River sandbars to protect two bird species.
The interior least term is endangered, and the piping plover is threatened. Both bird species like open sand habitats that don’t allow predators to hide in vegetation.
The spraying will take place on certain sandbars from Pickstown to Ponca, Nebraska. A helicopter is used to apply the chemicals. Galen Jons is a natural resource specialist with the Army Corps. He says plants are still using chlorophyll to get energy from the sun.
"The plants will actually transport the herbicide to their roots and it will kill the roots of the plant so we don’t have them growing back right away. We want to get this done before we get our first killing freeze. Once that happens, the plants have already sonest for the year and they will no longer to take up any herbicide. So, it’s a pretty narrow window for us to get the spraying done,” Jons says.
Jons says most of the spraying will happen on the sandbars above the Gavins Point Dam. He says the sandbars below the dam have a higher elevation and they don’t hold water as long – so there’s fewer acres to spray.
Jons says several restrictions are in place with regard to the project.
“A big one for us is the wind. We can’t spray when the wind is over 10 mph, which, as you know is tough to do in the month of September. We can’t spray if it’s going to rain within the hour, and then there’s a host of general best use practices with the herbicide spraying that we follow. Things like making sure the equipment is properly calibrated, making sure we have the proper mix of herbicides in the spray tanks…things like that,” Jons says.
Jons says the chemicals do have an odor and a few of the additives in the spray can cause skin irritation. He says crews will stay away from people in the area to prevent any harm to the public. Jons says the chemicals have been approved for aquatic use by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.