Town arms itself for war on invasives

Sunday, August 3, 2003

OUTDOORS: Deirdre Fleming

The sign says it all.

"Wash all plants from boat, motor, trailer, and fishing gear. Before launching!"

The best thing about Bridgton's new boat wash station - Maine's first - is that it will make boaters aware of the invasive plant problem, if not by the colorful sign, by the sight of boat owners cleaning their crafts before pushing off into the woodland-ringed waters of Woods Pond across Route 117.

Maine remains one of the few places on the East Coast where invasive plants have not become a widespread problem. But plants in lakes and ponds that clog and choke waterways are a widespread threat here.

A new boat sticker to raise funds for boat inspections has helped thwart the spread of invasive plants, said Peter Lowell of the Lakes Environmental Association.

The association helps towns establish preventive milfoil programs through the new source of state funds.

Fifteen of the 40 Maine towns that applied for grants to stop invasive plants last year were already infested, Lowell said.

With boating such a widespread summer activity in Maine, more measures are needed. The one Bridgton unveiled last week is a good start.

The 50- by 15-foot boat wash station beside Woods Pond on the other side of Route 117 looks like nothing more than a small, attractive truck weigh station.

But it will help boats entering Woods Pond stay clean of invasive plants that cling to crafts coming from infested waters, such as those that exist in New Hampshire and Vermont.

The fact that the little wash station cost only $5,000, Lowell said, provides additional hope that more wash stations will be built by towns around the state.

The wash station was paid for by 35 generous lake residents, according to Shelly Hall, director of the nonprofit Woods Pond Foundation.

Now, boat owners carrying their crafts on top of their vehicle or on a trailer will notice the raised platform of crushed gravel when they drive along Woods Pond. If they stop, they'll find a high-pressure water hose to spray their boats.

Lowell said the crushed gravel will absorb the water and sediment, so it doesn't wash into the Wood Pond outlet, the source of the water.

If there is overflow, Lowell said, the dirty water will be sent into the wooded area through a perforated pipe system.

Hall said the hope is that the practice of cleaning boats becomes common in Bridgton.

In the very least, it will bring awareness to the problem of invasive aquatic plants.

"Last week, we got some plants off a boat from New Hampshire in Trickey Pond," Lowell said. "(The boat owner was) one of the rare people who had no idea (of the invasive plant problem). The plants were draped off the trailer."

One boat is all it takes for invasive plants to enter and spread through a body of water, Lowell said.

That is why Hall didn't want to wait for Woods Pond, now clean of invasive plants, to become infested.

Hall founded the association in the summer of 2002 and raised the $5,000 needed by December.

While the foundation raised the funds for the wash station, Reginald Fadden, a longtime Woods Pond resident, leased his land to the town for the wash station, the Lakes Environmental Association designed it, and the town of Bridgton assumed liability and maintenance of the site.

Hall said the ease with which the wash station was built is an example. Whether other boat launch sites will be built around Maine has yet to be seen. But along the New Hampshire border, where the threat is great,Bridgton residents are putting up milfoil reminders on car windows, hoping to keep Maine's waters pristine, Hall said.

"We're the only state east of the Mississippi that has a chance," Lowell said.

Staff Writer Deirdre Fleming can be contacted at 791-6452 or at:

dfleming@pressherald.com

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