Josh Yerby eases the 18-foot Panther airboat off its
trailer and into the still water of Lay Lake, readying to
re-enact a scene from the opening credits of the long-ago
TV series "Gentle Ben" – minus the full-grown bear. ose
of a certain age will remember the show's opening credits,
which featured actor Dennis Weaver scudding across the
Florida Everglades in an airboat.
"Unless you've done it, it's something completely
different on the water," says Yerby, an Environmental
Affairs specialist for Alabama Power. "You can go pretty
much wherever you want to go."
Yerby's job requires him to go wherever he wants or
needs on Alabama Power's lakes. Yerby is one of a half-
dozen employees who staff the company's Aquatic Plant
Management Program. He spends a good part of his time
on the airboat, on Lay, Mitchell and Jordan lakes on the
Coosa River.
On a brilliant fall day on Lay, Yerby offers a guided
tour of aquatic plant infestations, starting with a dense,
football field-sized mat of waterlettuce just a few hundred
yards from the boat landing. e waterlettuce looks like
just that – tightly bunched lettuce plants spreading across
the water's surface.
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