Fluridone - CAS No. 59756-60-4. Local Battles.
July 11, 2005. Lake marks success in fight with milfoil.
By Tom Mitchell. Rutland Herald (Vermont
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July 11, 2005

Rutland Herald (Vermont)

Lake marks success in fight with milfoil

By Tom Mitchell
Herald Staff

POULTNEY — After an herbicide treatment in Lake St. Catherine last year, only small patches of Eurasian milfoil have grown back on the north and south ends this spring and summer, leaving the main lake mostly free of the nuisance weed for the first time in 22 years.

"The main lake is clear (of invasive weeds)," said James Canders, president of the lake group during a recent interview. Local people have been surprised by dramatic results with the use of Sonar, the herbicide, he said.

Milfoil had covered up to 65 percent of the lake, according to a study done last year.

By comparison, milfoil in the summer of 2004 made up about 10 percent of plant cover in Lily Pond and 21 percent in Little Lake, at the south end, where there was heavy native plant cover last year and this year.

Relieved at not having to undertake what has been the annual chore of cutting weeds with harvesters, the Lake St. Catherine Association has instead begun a boat inspection program aimed at keeping milfoil from coming back to the lake on boats and motors.

To curb the milfoil that has returned, the plan has been to use divers to remove patches from Lily Pond at the north end of the lake, where there is also heavy native plant cover, Canders said. The weed was found during an air boat inspection in the spring. And during a second air boat check the first week of July, a number of the milfoil plants were also found in Little Lake, officials said.

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. Donations from lake group members have paid for most of the cost, Moore said.

After a similar treatment on 449-acre Lake Hortonia last year, only individual plants widely scattered throughout the lake seem to be present, according to Warren Ecke, a camp owner and member of the Lake Hortonia Association.

Both Lake Hortonia and Lake St. Catherine used eight parts per billion for up to 120 days, two parts per billion less than they had sought state approval for, Ecke said Thursday. The strength and length of treatment was longer than used in the lake in a prior treatment in 2000, he said, but milfoil then came back strong in successive years.

In an effort to keep Lake St. Catherine clean, meanwhile, the lake group has hired a local constable to check boats, particularly at the start of fishing derbies. Canders has begun coordinating a program that monitors access areas on weekends. The aim is to advise boaters to keep Eurasian milfoil and zebra mussels off their craft.

Over the Fourth of July weekend, Michael Russo, who previously ran the association's harvesting program, checked 250 boats coming on the lake including one from Lake Bomoseen that was carrying quite a bit of milfoil, that was removed, according to Jeff Crandall, who gave members of the lake group a progress report at their annual meeting Saturday.

"The regrowth to date has been very low," Crandall said referring to only two to three individual plants found on the 800-acre main part of the lake so far. The group has divided the lake into 22 zones, where monitors will check returning milfoil plants.

David Murray, first constable in Wells, also began checking incoming boats for milfoil in late June. "So far, people have been cooperative," Murray said. He plans to keep a record of boats arriving at the state access at the south end of the lake and where they came from.

Murray said he expected to be at the access this summer when at least two bass tournaments are held. "Those (bass) boats are in all kinds of lakes all over the place," he said. So far, the boaters he talked generally understand that the weeds and zebra mussels are threats to the lake, Murray said.

If a boater does not comply with a request to remove weeds or zebra mussels, the constable said he would consider writing a ticket with a civil fine of $150 or more. If a case were to go to court, the revised invasive species law provides for penalties up to $1,000, Michael Hauser, a state invasive species specialist, said.

Zebra mussels infest Lake Bomoseen in Castleton, but have not spread to nearby lakes so far. Groups on other lakes want to keep them from coming in. When checking boats, Murray said he asks boaters what lake they came from. In the case of boats coming from Lake Bomoseen, he checks things like bait buckets that can carry the microscopic zebra mussel larvae, or velligers.

The association will also get help at times from patrols by Vermont State Police marine auxiliary, which has already been on the lake checking boats on two Saturdays, Canders said.

Some native weeds are visible along the east shore of Lake St. Catherine near Route 30, said Henry Bingham, a past vice-president and member of the lake association. In terms of traces of milfoil found at the north, it may have been because the herbicide was diluted by streams flowing into Lily Pond, Bingham said.

Keeping the native plant cover in the lake is a concern not only for the state but for the lake group. "We don't want fish to lose all their cover." The herbicide was likely diluted by streams flowing into Lily Pond, Bingham said.

Keeping native plants in lakes treated with a herbicide been a concern for biologists with the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife. Officials have expressed concern that use of chemicals long-term may not be good for the lake.

Groups on some lakes, for example Lake Sunset, still manage to control smaller amounts of milfoil without chemicals. There is also a heavy infestation of milfoil on Lake Bomoseen where some machine harvesting is done at the north end.

In early June, the St. Catherine's group was caught off-guard when a number of fishing boats showed up at the state access point for what seemed to be an unpermitted tournament, Canders said. When groups obtain a permit from the department of Fish and Wildlife, the association gets a warning from the state to have an inspector present, he said.

On one day last year, there were three tournaments slated on one day at the state access, association officials said, speculating that boat traffic may have spilled over from Lake Bomoseen in Castleton and Hubbardton, pushing tournaments onto St. Catherine.

The Vermont Bass Association has worked in recent years to coordinate events so no more than one event is set at a location, said

Rod Wentworth, a state fisheries scientist who helps oversee the fishing derby permits. "It just doesn't work for anybody, if it (a state boat access area) is overloaded."

Hurt by a drop in revenue, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife has shrunk, making it difficult at times to find staff to monitor accesses and check regulatory issues such as whether derbies have proper permits, Wentworth said.

Existing law governing tournaments doesn't allow Fish and Wildlife to bar simultaneous events at one location, he said. However, one event per launch point is preferred.

Officials in Fish and Wildlife are also looking into changes that could give them more of a role in derby scheduling and more control over problems with overloading, he said. Meanwhile, officials with the Lake St. Catherine Association have at least started to find their way, in terms of how to keep up with the derbies, along with the normal traffic and what they may bring to their lake.

Contact Tom Mitchell at tom.mitchell@rutlandherald.com

 
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