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ELKHART – Tom Shoff has lived along the St. Joseph River all of his life. He says his neighbors and fishermen are all in deep trouble.
"We have to fix it or it's going to keep getting worse," said Shoff.
Shoff leads the St. Joseph River Association and is a lieutenant with Elkhart Police River Patrol.
He showed WSBT examples of invasive weeds that made portions of the river difficult to navigate through.
Somewhat visible on the surface: underwater weeds, like eurasian milfoil and coontail.
"If we did not do any treating, that would be all over the river," Shoff said.
So far, they've treated 8 out of the more than 600 acres in the St. Joseph River.
There was an area in the river where crews did not kill the weeds. It was easy to see because of the number of swans feeding on the weeds underwater.
The swans are just part of the problem.
The weeds are able to thrive because of our mild winter. A freeze would have killed roots.
Rain would have made the water cloudy. Instead, clear water and all that sunshine only helped the weeds grow.
