http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050711/NEWS/507110363/1024
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