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Saturday, August 13, 2005
Weeders help keep milfoil at bay
Copyright © 2005 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. | ||||||||
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She pulled up a mesh dive bag chock full of variable-leaf milfoil -- a green fuzzy invasive plant that resembles a raccoon tail -- mixed in with grasses and bladderwort, and signaled for someone to come empty it. Blanchette, who works with the state Department of Environmental Protection and lives in Searsport, was one of a trio of divers weeding milfoil from around the boat landing on Upper Pleasant Pond in Litchfield on Friday morning. Rather than rid the area of all the milfoil -- an almost impossible project -- divers concentrated on clearing a channel from the boat landing into the main section of the pond. That way, boats and propellers could avoid chopping up the plants as they passed through and possibly distributing them around a series of interconnected ponds and feeder streams throughout Litchfield, Richmond, Gardiner and West Gardiner. "We only have four hours today," said Stefany Gregoire, director of the milfoil project for Friends of the Cobbossee Watershed. "We want to pull the smaller plants in there that will become larger in the future." Meanwhile, Aaron Sargent and Jeff Timm continued scouring the lake bottom, concentric waves of breaking bubbles marking their paths under water. Blanchette, who has extensive experience in milfoil removal projects for the state, was lead diver for the day. She moved rapidly through the water, a milfoil plant tangled around the top of her air tank. Gregoire, with help from Christian Poulin of West Gardiner, slowly paddled a flat-bottomed boat over to pick up Blanchette's watery green bundle. Then they ferried a lobster car full of the green mass to shore, where it was dumped into a pickup truck bed. "We're taking it to my dad's yard and dumping it there. We'll spread it out and it'll die," Gregoire said. Poulin had little trouble identifying the pesky water weed. "There's a lot of it around my place on Horseshoe Pond," he said. In some areas the milfoil threatens to clog boat channels and provides a ready supply of plants that could be transported elsewhere. The half-day removal project attracted a dozen or so volunteers, several of them officers from the Four Towns Watershed Association, and others who live on the shores. Renee Fortin of Litchfield paddled one canoe, and her son, Dylan, had a second. Mary Lynn and Don Furth of Litchfield brought their boat as well, to tend to the divers' needs. Darryl Zeleniak of Litchfield, who has lived along Upper Pleasant Pond for nine years, said he's seen milfoil and other vegetation vary in location and intensity year to year. "One question I have is, what state of equilibrium is the milfoil with the other plants?" he asked. "Is it spreading?" For those looking to identify milfoil and other water plants, the Friends Web site at http://www.watershed friends.com has pictures and descriptions and links to other sites. Friday's removal project was funded partially by a $2,000 grant from the Department of Environmental Protection. Betty Adams-- 621-5631 badams@centralmaine.com |
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