12th Annual Maine Milfoil Summit in Lewiston, Maine

Out and About for the Sebago Lakes Region of Maine April 21-27
April 20, 2011
Out and About for the Greater Belgrade Lakes Region of Maine April 28-May 4
April 27, 2011

12th Annual Maine Milfoil Summit in Lewiston, Maine


Self-inspect your boat before launching
“Of Maine’s 6,000 lakes and ponds, only 33 are infected with invasive aquatic plants,” Maine DEP Commissioner Darryl Brown informed the crowd gathered at the 2011 Milfoil Summit held on the grounds of the University of Southern Maine’s Lewiston-Auburn campus. Mr. Brown compared this number to our New England neighbors, some of whom have upwards of 600 infested water bodies. He said that those other states look to Maine for leadership in this fight against invasive aquatic plants.
Invasives, explained Mr. Brown, is not just an environmental issue. “ . . .infestations hijack the habitat of native fisheries and wildlife by threatening their food sources, altering their covers, destroying nesting opportunity and degrading water quality; Maine’s lakes are a critical recreation resource and invasives threaten that by reducing the quality of our waterways and the ability to access and enjoy them from fishing to boating and many uses in between; values of lakefront property and local businesses can take a huge hit if a lake becomes infested.” He assured those gathered that the Maine DEP is committed to keeping the number of infested lakes low.

The DEP provides grants to local lake associations for prevention programs such as using benthic barriers to smother plants, purchasing Diver Assisted Suction Harvesters (essentially a pontoon boat and pump that provides suction for the “plant vacuum” and air supply for divers) and hiring Courtesy Boat Inspectors (CBI). A single boat inspector can avert tens of thousands of dollars of plant management with a careful inspection of a boat, trailer and related equipment. In 2010, 73,000 inspections occurred at 154 launch sites on 119 waterbodies in Maine. The CBIs intercepted more than 2,000 plants, 281 of which were invasive aquatics. It was noted that while the awareness of invasives is high, only about 20% of boat operators self-inspect their boats.
The 2011 Milfoil Summit brought together the key players from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife , the Maine Department of Conservation, Lakes Environmental Association (LEA), the Maine Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program, and the Maine Congress of Lake Associations. The event was organized once again by LEA of Bridgton.
During the summit, Elizabeth Schran of the Maine Milfoil Consortium, explained the status of a three-year plan to address existing Variable-Leaf Milfoil infestations through research, mitigation and education. In its second year, two apprentice ponds were added to the list of seven test lakes. The two ponds are Collins Pond in Windham and Hogan Pond in Oxford. The seven test lakes include Sebago Lake and Little Sebago Lake in Cumberland County, Messalonskee Lake and Pleasant Pond in Kennebec County, Shagg Pond / Lake Christopher and Thompson Lake in Oxford County, and Lake Arrowhead in York County. The Consortium distributes funds and provides training and technical assistance to lake associations. The work on these ponds and lakes will ultimately benefit all water bodies in the state as they figure out how to deal with Variable-Leaf Milfoil and develop a Citizen Manager’s Guide of Best Practices. To learn more about the Maine Milfoil Consortium, email milfoil@sjcme.edu, call 207.632.3472 or visit the Web site at http://dir.groups.yahoo.com/group/mainemilfoilinitiative.
At the end of the day, there was a glimmer of hope on the horizon as it was noted that Pleasant Lake in Casco is a Milfoil eradication success story. Lew Wetzel of the Pleasant Lake Association stood to tell the story about a committed group of folks who used benthic barriers (ground mats), hand removal and screens at an inlet/outlet between the lakes to fight an infestation of Variable-Leaf Milfoil. After three years of not finding any plants, the DEP removed Pleasant Lake from the list of infested lakes.  This is the second body of water that was removed from the Maine list. Great East Lake was removed in 2007.
The best way to fight the war against Variable-Leaf Milfoil and all invasive aquatics is PREVENTION. Check your boat, trailer and equipment before launching and after you’ve pulled it out of the water. And help support your local lake association. Those with infestations on their lakes are working to eradicate the problem, and those with no infestations are working to keep it that way. We all need to work together to protect and preserve our beautiful lakes and ponds.

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