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Job of Eradicating Milfoil Starts with Dive Today

May 20, 2009 - OAKLAND -- The effort to contain and possibly eradicate Eurasian milfoil from Salmon Lake begins in earnest today when five divers survey the cove where a local resident discovered the invasive water plant last summer.

Don Borman, president of the McGrath Pond & Salmon Lake Association, knows more than most of the importance of that survey and other efforts to combat the plant.

"We don't want to be alarmist," he said, "but at the same time, we have to be practical. If we don't do a good job containing it, it will spread."

Educating the public on the threat is a critical part of the reason for a forum on Eurasian milfoil at 7 p.m. May 27 at Messalonskee High School.

The lake association, Maine Department of Environmental Protection and Belgrade Regional Conservation Alliance are sponsoring the event, which will feature a presentation from DEP staff.

DEP biologist John McPhedran is working with the lake association and conservation alliance to eradicate milfoil.

Eurasian milfoil does not appear to have spread beyond Kozy Cove, the area where it was discovered in August, he said. But Salmon Lake alone has more than 600 acres of potential habitat for the plant, he added.

"You can't survey every square meter of this lake," he said. "You survey where you're likely to have the (invasive) plant or where you already have native plants."

DEP has restricted access to the cove, limiting boating activity to Kozy Cove residents, with the provision that they use it just as a passageway to Salmon Lake and take care to clear any vegetation from their boats before doing so.

The state agency has placed two nets at the cove's mouth to prevent milfoil from migrating to the larger lake.

Today's diving operation is an attempt to gauge the current level of infestation and to remove as much of the vegetation as possible.

McPhedran said eradication of the plant is possible, given the milfoil was detected early. Yet it will be hard to determine whether that goal has been achieved.

"Let's say by this summer we find no more plants," he said. "I would not jump and down and say the milfoil has been eradicated. We would have to monitor for several years before I got to that point."

Eurasian milfoil is relatively new to Maine. Salmon Lake is only the second body of water in the state where it has been found.

It was first detected in a Scarborough pond -- one formed from a former gravel quarry -- in 2004.

Eurasian milfoil is of great concern, McPhedran said, because it can take over portions of lakes and affect their recreational use.

"It also affects other organisms in the water," McPhedran said.

He said anybody who finds Eurasian milfoil in Salmon Lake or McGrath Pond can call DEP (287-6110) or the Conservation Alliance (495-6039).

BY COLIN HICKEY,Staff Writer, Kennebec Journal, 05/19/2009



Lakes: Salmon (Ellis) Pond
Regions: Belgrade


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