MILFOIL

WHAT IS MILFOIL?

Milfoil is not native to our state and is very difficult to control once it becomes fully established. Milfoil reproduces through fragmentation whereby plant fragments break off from the parent plant through wind or boat action, grow roots, and settle in a new location. Milfoil spreads rapidly and displaces beneficial native plant life. It makes swimming difficult and can devalue waterfront property. Where this species grows in its native environment, insects and fish may feed on this plant at such a rate as to control its growth. In our area, milfoil has no natural predators to keep its population in check. Under optimum temperature, light and nutrient conditions, milfoil may grow up to an inch per day. How did exotic milfoil become established in this state? It was most likely a “stowaway” fragment attached to a boat or trailer that came to this region. Milfoil can live out of water for many hours if it remains moist.

 

See Amy Smagula’s report on invasive plant and animal species click HERE

THE “SS MILFOIL”

The “SS Milfoil” is a working barge on a pontoon base that is owned and operated by the Mascoma Lake Association. It is used for collecting water samples and patrolling the lake for invasive plants. It serves as the platform for divers to remove the milfoil. The barge is outfitted with an electric motor in addition to the gas one to allow slow, wakeless movement. If you see us out on the water please feel free to come over and say hi and see what we are doing—unless our dive flag is out. If you see the flag (shown on boat above), it means divers are active in the water, so please steer far around us.

The current caretakers of the SS Milfoil, chairing the Invasive Species Committee, are David Kelman and Martha Rich, who took over from Roger and Marta Barnes in 2011. Inspired by the late Bill Martin, Marta and Roger spearheaded over a decade of SS Milfoil management, creating a program of weed removal as the foundation of our approach to controlling Eurasian Milfoil in Mascoma Lake.

Weed watchers place floating markers in the water to indicate underwater milfoil plants that need to be removed. While the markers used always being improved, most are currently a yellow or orange foam-noodle type, with larger bright-yellow buoys for large infestations. A GPS system is now used for mapping purposes, to create an ongoing record of plant growth. Certified weed control divers, SCUBA-certified volunteers who have completed a special state-approved course, dive and remove each individual plant by hand. The process is tedious, but if any fragment of the plant is left in the water, a new plant can be started. While divers are removing plants under the water, support volunteers are watching the water surface, collecting the harvested weeds and recording counts, keeping divers supplied with new collection bags, and using nets to remove any plant fragments that are floating.

In 2013 over 3,000 plants were removed by this process. We need your help to continue keeping this invasive plant at bay. Weed watchers are always needed, no experience necessary. Surface support for the divers is also needed. We will train you. If you are a certified SCUBA diver with some time to volunteer, we can help you become a certified weed control diver. Join our S.W.A.T …the Submerged Weed Attack Team!

HOW YOU CAN HELP CONTROL MILFOIL

◉ If you see an orange-yellow foam-noodle milfoil marker, please leave it where it is and avoid motorized boating near the marker.

◉ Clean off your boat! Here’s a video of Cheers’ Cliff Clavin (John Ratzenberger) discussing how to clean Milfoil off your boat by Minnesota Sea Grant.

◉ If you think you see Eurasian Milfoil, let us know and we’ll follow up on suspected sightings. You don’t have to be an aquatic plant expert, just an alert citizen!

◉ If you would like to monitor the water near your property on a regular basis as part of the “neighborhood water watch,” let us know. Your commitment as a watcher would be to cruise your area from the shoreline to a depth of 12-14 feet when the lake is still and the sun is not directly overhead (usually early morning or late afternoon). We ask that you report at least once by July 15 and a second time by the middle of August. We particularly need weed watchers on the 4A side from the Baited Hook to the head of the lake.

◉ If you’re a SCUBA diver or want to become one, we welcome new divers. With the state-approved training, it’s easy to learn the techniques of proper milfoil harvesting.

◉ We also need people to become surface support crew on the SS Milfoil. Support volunteers accompany the captain and the divers on each harvesting trip. They clean collection bags, count plants, and record harvest locations on our GPS.

◉ Learn about setting up Milfoil markers for harvesting Milfoil

MILFOIL HARVESTING DATA

MILFOIL HARVEST RECORD 2013-2022

This chart  shows how many trips were taken each year (again broken into quarters), with the total for each season shown in the right-hand column. The average for the past six years is just over 23 harvest trips per year

You can see that 2015 did have more trips than average but nowhere near double the number. (For trips alone to account for the spike in harvest, we would have needed to take more than 51 trips.) Since 2015 we seem to have returned to average numbers of trips with this year continuing that trend, but the harvest has dropped off precipitously in recent years as shown in chart 1. It wasn’t that we took a lot fewer trips to dig up milfoil. Could it be that less milfoil is actually growing in Mascoma Lake?