Milfoil bill seeks boat checks

If Maine is serious about combating milfoil, an invasive plant that has choked off lakes across the country, the state needs to take drastic measures, such as boat inspections at the border and hefty fines, some state lawmakers are saying.

So, the Legislature’s Natural Resources Committee has put together a bill that would require every boat, trailer and boat motor entering the state to be inspected to see if it is carrying any milfoil. A $100 fee would be assessed for inspections, which would begin July 1. If drivers did not stop for the inspections, they would be fined $5,000. The money collected from fees and fines would be used to offset the cost of the state’s efforts to combat milfoil.

The Maine Department of Environmental Protection, which would be responsible for administering the inspection program, opposes the proposal as “unworkable” because of its scope and time frame.

Sen. John Martin, D-Eagle Lake, the co-chairman of the committee, acknowledged Tuesday that any new state regulations that do come about aren’t likely to be as drastic as those proposed by the panel, which is trying to meld four bills aimed at curbing the spread of invasive plants into one proposal to pass along to the full Legislature. A public hearing on the latest proposal will be held Friday morning.

Hefty fines and boat inspection fees were put in the bill to get the public’s attention. “We want to make sure people know we have a problem,” Martin said.

Maine is one of only three states in the country where Eurasian milfoil, a variant of milfoil, has yet to be found. The fast-growing aquatic plant can reach 20 feet in length and is nearly impossible to eradicate. It grows so thick that it becomes impossible to navigate boats through waters where it has taken hold. It outcompetes other plants for nutrients and light, and it can suffocate fish by using up all the oxygen in the water. The plant has no natural competitors and does not succumb to diseases that attack native plants.

A less voracious milfoil variety, variable leaf milfoil, has been found in eight water bodies in southern and central Maine.

The state of Vermont has spent millions of dollars trying to combat Eurasian milfoil by dumping chemicals into lakes. This renders the water undrinkable and unswimmable, Martin said.

“The only way to prevent the spread [of milfoil] is not to have it. Once we have it, we’re dead,” he added.

Martin said he supports some type of inspection program, which doesn’t necessarily have to be at the state border, to ensure that pieces of milfoil are not brought into Maine on boats and trailers.

Asked if charging $100 for each inspection might hurt tourism, Martin said that having lakes that are no longer usable for boating would be a bigger detriment to the state’s largest industry.

In addition, he said, as lakes in other states to the south are shut off to boaters, these people are likely to head to Maine to enjoy the state’s water bodies. This makes it even more important to inspect boats coming into the state, Martin said.

Brooke Barnes, the deputy DEP commissioner, had a different point of view. He said it was inevitable that milfoil, which has been found in all the surrounding states and Canada, will eventually come to Maine. Rather than set up blockades at the border, he said, stepping up public education efforts and allocating more money to the problem would be better approaches.

His department now spends between $50,000 and $60,000 a year on invasive plant issues. With more state money, he said his department and the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife could conduct periodic checks of boats coming into the state with an eye toward educating boaters about the threat rather than focusing on inspection fees and fines. The state could also work harder to hand out education brochures to people hauling boats through toll booths and on the Interstate.

The Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, while supportive of efforts to combat invasive plants through education campaigns and temporary boat ramp closures, if necessary, is dead set against the $100 inspection fee.

If that remains in the bill, it has no chance of passage, said George Smith, the group’s executive director.

He said it is not right to expect boat owners to pick up the entire tab for milfoil prevention efforts.

The plant is easily spread if just a small part is broken off by a boat motor or fishing line and then transported to another spot where it will take root. Boaters and anglers unknowingly spread the plants when small pieces get caught in their gear, which they transport from lake to lake. It can survive for days out of water.

Still, Rep. Scott Cowger, D-Hallowell, the other co-chairman of the committee, said if the state is serious about the problem, something must be done this summer. At the minimum, an interagency task force that is called for in the bill should get up and running, he said.

Under the proposed legislation, the task force would be made up of 21 members, including state and federal officials, the chancellor of the University of Maine System, and representatives of the recreational boating and tree nursery industries. The group would develop monitoring and education programs, coordinate enforcement of transportation controls and see that an inventory of invasive species is undertaken. It would also make recommendations to the Legislature as to whether a regulatory program is necessary to stop the introduction of invasive species here.

“If we’re serious about the problem,” we need to take some action, Cowger said.

The bill will be discussed at a public hearing and work session beginning at 9 a.m. Friday in room 209 of the Cross State Office Building.