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LEA Provides Guidance on Sebago Cove Milfoil

October 12, 2007 - "What we're trying to do as an organization is to encourage exactly the kind of thing that's going on in Sebago Cove. We just don't have the resources ourselves, to deal with all tlie problem areas of milfoil," said Peter Lowell of the Lakes Environmental Association Tuesday.

"So it is great to see groups like this getting going. We want to encourage them and help them. We can provide information and support. This is exactly what we're trying to encourage." Lowell said the Songo River project has been sort of a model for what local groups can do.

The LEA is directly leading that effort. The goal is to keep milfoil from advancing up the Songo River and encroaching on shallow Brandy Pond. When the LEA started on the river project in earnest two years ago, milfoil colonies had reached ahnost to the foot of the pond. These were beaten back the first year, and the milfoil really took a licking this year.

"By the end of this summer,' Lowell said, "we were hardpressed to find a plant in the stream. We know they're there, however. They'll be back. The goal is to keep the population down to where it becomes easier and easier to keep the river clear every year."

It's incredibly difficult to eradicate the milfoil plant problem completely. The plant roots can hide under the river bottom and regenerate. Just one fragment of a plant, given time and the right conditions, can start whole new colony.

"We at LEA are just trying to encourage local groups. The truth is, the state has very little money they can devote to this. We have very limited resources, too. The people with the fight right in front of them are going to have to step forward. You're seeing that on Sebago Cove."

Rep. Rich Cebra of Naples introduced a bill in the legislature last year calling for a one-time-only two-million-dollar state appropriation to direct toward fighting milfoil, before it gets entrenched in too many lakes across the state. But the cash-strapped State of Maine was reluctant to put out much new money, and the measure did not pass.

Lowell notes that New Hampshire and Vermont have tapped a pool of federal dollars, and he would like to see Maine do the same. There are battles to be fought on more than 20 water bodies in Maine, with always the threat of further spread. The LEA is also helping Peabody Pond residents set up a boat wash station, and other stations have been set up in Bridgton at Woods Pond, at Highland Lake and on Moose Pond in Denmark. Volunteer lake monitors have also been established through agencies like the LEA, and by some towns, as well. Actually eradicating milfoil infestations, however, is a long-term project. To make significant progress in Maine on established colonies, there probably need to be more direct local efforts such as Save Sebago Cove, Lowell indicated.

SOURCE: BRIDGTON NEWS

DATE: 10-04-2007


Lakes: Sebago Lake
Regions: Sebago


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