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Nonprofit Seeks to Foil Milfoil on Messalonskee Lake

August 21, 2010 - SIDNEY -- With the winds whipping them Friday morning, a handful of volunteers set out on a boat on Messalonskee Lake in the cove off Juniper Lane in Sidney.

They installed four Benthic barriers -- 10-foot by 30-foot underwater mats -- in shallow waters that were 3- to 5-feet deep.

The barriers are the first step in an effort by the Messalonskee Lake Association to kill and manage the invasive plant milfoil.

"Since it was pretty windy today, we need to go back and get in the water and make sure they (the barriers) are in position properly and that they lay on the bottom," Mike Willey, president of the nonprofit Messalonskee Lake Association, said Friday after he and others returned from the cove. "But so far, so good."

There are eight barriers, and association volunteers expect to install the other four in the same area, Willey said. The barriers are weighted down and marked on the surface with buoys.

Boat and swimming access has been blocked there for a long time by heavy milfoil infestations, Willey said.

At the Juniper Lane cove, the idea is to "make a 200-foot channel from the dock out to the deepwater of the lake without having to go through milfoil."

The milfoil efforts will get more hands-on after Labor Day, when the lake association leases a diver-assisted suction harvester to remove patches of milfoil near the Oakland Boat launch. Divers will use a newly completed map of milfoil hot-spots to determine where the harvesting should occur.

Efforts to control milfoil in Messalonskee Lake are expected to amount to about $39,000, of which $13,000 is from the U.S. Department of Fish & Wildlife and the remaining $26,000 will be matched by private donations and in-kind contributions. It's also part of a statewide Maine Milfoil Initiative backed by a total of $500,000 in federal aid.

Milfoil is an aquatic plant species that grows quickly, can choke out other plants and interfere with recreational activities such as swimming and boating. The invasive plant is often spread from lake to lake by boaters using different lakes. In Messalonskee, project officials will be hunting for variable-leaf milfoil.

Organizers of the project say they don't expect to eradicate milfoil, but they can limit its spread and maintain recreational uses on the water.

Willey said his group has gotten a "good response" from association members and others who are contributing money and other assistance.

"What we're doing is exactly what we planned; we're right on track with that," Willey said.

by Scott Monroe, Kennebec Journal, August 21, 2010

Lakes: Messalonskee Lake
Regions: Belgrade


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