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Monday, February 14, 2005
Milfoil campaign spreading
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Also on this page: INVADING MAINE'S INLAND WATERWAYS | |||||
Invasive aquatic plants are posing new challenges for lake associations in Maine as they fend off the weeds and the threat they pose to native species, recreational areas and the value of shorefront property. Many associations are attracting more members and raising more money on their own, in part because state financial support for efforts to control milfoil and other invasive plants is falling short of the need. The Little Sebago Lake Association has learned that keeping milfoil in check will require more than monitoring water quality, buying and maintaining a dam and preventing erosion. The task has become overwhelming. "It's huge, it really is. It dwarfs everything else we do," said Kim McBride, one of the association's directors. "With the milfoil, we're finding there's no easy answers and there's very little money." A hybrid form of variable-leaf milfoil has been spreading in Little Sebago Lake, located in Gray and Windham, since the plant was discovered there in 1999. The association wants to start a milfoil management program that would include inspectors checking boats on land and divers and suction-dredging equipment pulling plants from the lake. The group needs about $73,000 in the first year of the program - far more than the $17,500 it collects in annual dues. It's not clear how the association will make up the difference. Little Sebago and other "great ponds" - lakes measuring 10 acres or more - belong to the people of Maine. So, while the lake association is spearheading its own anti-milfoil efforts, it cannot raise money by charging for access to the lake. Other associations have approached municipalities, held capital campaigns and applied for grants. State efforts focus on preventing milfoil's spread to other lakes and responding to new infestations, so the brunt of the responsibility for suppressing already existing problems has fallen on groups like the lake association. Limited state money has been available for boat-inspection programs and some plant-removal costs. Last year, the Department of Environmental Protection gave out $59,000 for such uses, a tiny sum compared to the tens of thousands of dollars lake associations are spending around Maine. The Lakes Environmental Association in Bridgton expects to spend about $60,000 on a project on the Songo River, according to Peter Lowell, the executive director. In Cushman Pond in Lovell, fewer variable-leaf milfoil plants are seen each year, thanks in large part to the $50,000 that Lovell voters decided to spend on milfoil-control efforts in 2002, says Joan Irish, president of the Kezar Lake Watershed Association. In addition, a special fund-raising campaign brought in $18,000 for signs at public landings. The state has a boat-sticker program to raise money for invasive-species efforts. Motorized boats are required to display the stickers on inland waters, including lakes and rivers. The stickers are a colored triangle that cost $10 for residents and $20 for nonresidents. They come with brochures that explain the sticker program and the hazards of invasive species. The sticker program raised about $690,000 for the DEP last year. The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife also receives some of the sticker money, which it uses to check waterways for invasive plants, inspect boats, provide information to boaters and enforce the sticker law. With its share of the sticker money, DEP funds association grants, offers educational programs that teach people to recognize invasive plants, pays for boat inspections in areas with serious infestations and provides technical assistance to other groups. It also tries to control unusual cases, such as the state's only known infestation of hydrilla, a particularly aggressive species, at Pickerel Pond in Limerick. John McPhedran, a biologist and coordinator of DEP's invasive species program, says he knows local groups are looking for more resources. He says the department is looking for ways to give them more. "But we have these other projects that we're working on because they are, as far as we know, singular populations of these species and we have a chance to suppress them," he said. Maggie Shannon, executive director of the Maine Congress of Lake Associations, says the threat of milfoil has boosted membership and fund-raising goals of some lake associations. "They generally start out with a little knowledge of how to organize or fund raise to meet the need. That's their immediate challenge," she said. "When a lake association puts a program on the ground, like the courtesy boat inspection to protect everybody's resources, suddenly they're seen as doing something for the common good. And their membership, revenue and strength grows." The threat of invasive plants helped the Belgrade Lakes Association evolve from primarily a social group that stocked fish and placed buoys into an organization that is involved in environmental issues, says Bruce Fenn, the group's president. "There's no question," he said. "I think we've become far more active." Fenn's group raises three to four times more money than it used to, spending about $7,500 each year on boat inspections to keep Great Pond and Long Pond milfoil-free and about $10,000 over the past two years on professional invasive-plant surveys. McBride, of the Little Sebago Lake Association, says she understands that prevention and education are critical in the battle against milfoil. But she believes the state needs to do more about existing problems. "It's very frustrating," McBride said. "We have a problem here in Little Sebago. If we had the resources, we could deal with it . . . Now we're scrambling to find out how to do this in the absence of state money." Staff Writer Ann Kim can be contacted at 791-6383 or at:
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