Controversy over chemicals is common throughout state: Milford to seek funding to get rid of weeds. By Claudia Torrens. Metro West Daily News.

... After years of debate over herbicides, the town finally opted for manual weed pulling and mechanical weed harvesting as short-term solutions. Harvard is also trying a deep drawdown pumping project to lower the water levels in the winter, exposing the milfoil so it freezes and dies...

Town resists weed plan: Residents speak out against herbicides at Lake Cochituate. By Katie Liesener. Metro West Daily News.

... But chemicals are not a magic bullet, said Griffin, who has worked as an environmental engineer for the EPA and U.S. Department of Energy. She pointed out that Dudley Pond had been treated with fluridone five times, every three years, and weeds continue to be a problem...

State seeking OK to treat invasive plants in Cochituate.
By Emily Shartin. Boston Globe.

The state is asking the towns of Natick, Framingham, and Wayland for permission to use a combination of chemicals and other methods to clear invasive plants from Lake Cochituate... Each town's conservation commission will decide whether to allow the state to move forward with plans to attack the plants... Vanessa Gulati, a spokeswoman for the state's Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, said the state wants to use the herbicide Sonar in Natick...

January 9, 2006

Public comment period ends

Sign petition to Bureau of Land Management
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has proposed to apply massive amounts of pesticides to public lands in 17 Western states. The BLM claims these pesticides need to be applied to forests, rangelands and aquatic areas in order to reduce the risk of fire and slow the spread of invasive weeds. Under the proposal 932,000 acres would undergo chemical application in 17 western states, including National Monuments and National Conservation areas. The pesticides that would be used include persistent and mobile chemicals, including known developmental and reproductive toxins. The list of pesticides includes 4 new chemicals and 14 other pesticides, including 2,4-D, bromacil, chlorsulfuron, diquat, diuron, fluridone, hexazinone, teburthiruon, triclopyr, and picloram. The proposal would also allow the use of "new chemicals that may be developed in the future."

Kissimmee chain likely to continue weed killing. By Daphne Sashin. Orlando Sentinel.

... Experts say the need for research has become more urgent because the state has largely lost its best weapon against the exotic weed, the herbicide fluridone, commercially known as Sonar. Hydrilla has grown resistant to the chemical in the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes, Lake Istokpoga in Highlands County, several Polk County lakes and others throughout the state...

Hydrilla's Resistance to Herbicide Gives Scientists a New Challenge.
By Luis Pons. USDA Agricultural Research Service.

... The researchers--at ARS' Natural Products Utilization Research Unit in Oxford, Miss., and with SePRO Corp., a Carmel, Ind.-based plant-protection management firm--found that a form of hydrilla (Hydrilla verticillata) has developed resistance to fluridone, the most effective herbicide against it ...

Lake Cochituate herbicide plan slows to a crawl. By Claudia Torrens. Metro West Daily News.

A tiny and slippery creature at Lake Cochituate could change an upcoming state plan to use herbicides to control milfoil at the lake... The Boreal Turret Snail, also known as Valvata sincera, is listed under the Massachusetts Endangered Species Act as endangered...

Maddocks: Time for a new treatment. By Philip Maddocks. Natick Bulletin & Tab.,

The state Department of Conservation and Recreation, which owns Lake Cochituate, will likely file an application next month with the Conservation Commission that will include a proposal to use the herbicide fluridone...

Poison those lake weeds? County urged to do study. By Bill Novak. The Capital Times.

... Fluridone use on several Wisconsin lakes has resulted in mixed results, with milfoil growing back a couple of years after treatments with the herbicide, according to DNR research scientist Jennifer Hauxwell. ...

DEQ also sought delay because of swim classes.. A lack of legal notification about revised plans to use herbicide to combat milfoil off City Beach appears to have played a role in the demise of the noxious weed control project...

City Beach milfoil plans hit the rocks. By Keith Kinnaird. Bonner County Daily Bee.

...Although the county is cutting its losses with the permit for Sonar, it is pushing head with plans to apply another herbicide called Renovate in the Pend Oreille River at Springy Point, Willow Bay, Albeni Cove, Laclede and Priest River...

Vegetation Matters. Habitat management with chemicals. By Mike Pehanich. BASS Times.

This article explains milfoil and various options to control it. It compares two lakes in Tazewell County, Illinois: one treated with 2,4D (!) and the other with fluridone. FAN does not recommend the use of these two chemicals.

City Beach milfoil plans are on hold. County awaits IDEQ permit. By Keith Kinnaird. Bonner County Daily Bee.

... The herbicide application project is in limbo because the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality said it has not received new maps delineating the proposed treatment areas, said Brad Bluemer, Bonner County's noxious weed supervisor... Sonar will be used in a concentration of 10 parts per billion ...

... Sandpoint Public Works officials issued a statement Friday saying they expect no adverse impacts on drinking water. They also point out the intake for the city's lake water treatment plant is located in the Pend Oreille River channel, a quarter-mile upstream of the application site.

"Furthermore, the active ingredient in Sonar PR is readily absorbed by organic matter. Since water treatment at the Lake Plant includes the use of activated carbon absorption, any residues of the herbicide that might reach the Lake Plant intake should be removed by the treatment process," the statement said.

Don't like milfoil? 'Bomb' the lake. Rutland Herald.

Lake weed problem defies simple solution. Wisconsin State Journal.

... Prompted by success stories trumpeted by a company that sells fluridone treatments, several Dane County residents are promoting the chemical for use on local lakes. Lakeshore property owners already may pay for chemical spot treatments for weeds, under state Department of Natural Resources' supervision. But the goal of the fluridone boosters is to use the chemical in a whole-lake weed treatment aimed at eradicating watermilfoil. A petition is circulating to request the DNR to approve fluridone's use.

But as DNR researchers are well aware, fluridone is hardly an unqualified success. It has been employed on several lakes nationwide with mixed results. The chief problems include the temporary nature of fluridone's effectiveness. Watermilfoil tends to return in two to five years, sometimes thicker than ever.

To be sure, fluridone has yielded some success stories. At Houghton Lake in Michigan, state DNR officials were skeptical of a 2002 fluridone whole-lake treatment. But three years later residents report satisfaction with the results. The Houghton Lake treatment came at a steep price, however. Lake residents and businesses within two miles of the lake were assessed $1.4 million to pay for it. Moreover, follow-up spot treatments are needed to keep watermilfoil in check...

Officials say the public has nothing to fear about an herbicide being dumped into the pristine waters at the mouth of Sand Creek and City Marina. The herbicide, which is being used to combat Eurasian water milfoil in the lake, will be applied starting Monday and lasting through all of August... Floridone has been used to control milfoil on a lake-wide basis without harming native plants, although its use is not allowed in Minnesota lakes...

Lake marks success in fight with milfoil. By Tom Mitchell. Rutland Herald.

... The key to the success of the Sonar treatment has been using a higher dose of the herbicide for a longer period of time, according to Robert Moore, former president of the lake association. The treatment cost roughly $300,000, for which the association got $27,000 from the state, much less than they had counted on...

Panel rejects herbicide for Morses Pond. By Lisa Keen. Boston Globe.
... the Wellesley Natural Resources Commission voted 4 to 1 against relaxing its policy to allow the consideration of fluridone...

In what appears to be an unprecedented ruling in New York State, an administrative law judge has found that the State Office of General Services agreed to destroy rare, protected plants in Lake George when it consented to work with the Lake George Park Commission on a plan to reduce Eurasian watermilfoil last year.

State Administrative Law Judge Molly McBride has ruled that OGS gave its consent to destroy rare, threatened and endangered plant species that are growing in the same location when it agreed to be a co-applicant with the LGPC in seeking an Adirondack Park Agency (APA) permit for the experimental use of the chemical pesticide fluoridone (brand name Sonar) in four locations...