View Full Version : Milfoil and invasive plants
I was looking at pictures of the lake and the low water level, and have a question for the lake experts.
With the water level so low and the boating season winding down, with little activity, ...Why don’t the divers pull up the invasive weeds during this time of year?
It Seems it would be safer and possibly easier due to the lower lake level. My only knowledge of this was watching a diver feed weeds into some sort of huge vacuum system on a boat next to him, a few years ago, so I am asking sincerely.
Thankyou
Descant
10-05-2020, 08:56 AM
Milfoil management is mostly funded by boat registration fees, municipalities and lake associations. DES develops 5 year management plans, based in part on anticipated funds. For many areas the most effective treatment is in the spring with some follow up in the fall. I'd expect that funds are dried up (sorry) by now. When the 2020 plans were developed in 2019, nobody knew what the 2020 rainfall would be. I don't think it matters to divers if the water is 8' deep or 6'.
The suction operation is called Diver Assisted Suction Harvesting (DASH). Usually an accompanying boat would follow to pick up fragments that would otherwise drift, sink and root. The divers are specially trained and certified for this work.
webmaster
10-05-2020, 09:52 AM
Hopefully the effort has got more serious since I posted this in 2015:
https://www.winnipesaukee.com/forums/showthread.php?p=251764
FlyingScot
10-05-2020, 10:06 AM
There's an excellent milfoil effort led by DES that is working pretty much the entire season. I suppose some areas are a bit easier to attack now than in June. OTOH, those areas have had an extra 3 months to grow. Either way, the crew looks at this from a year round perspective, and they are fully aware of the pluses and minuses of various approaches
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