Groups feel money strain in milfoil fight

PORTLAND – Invasive aquatic plants are posing new challenges for lake associations in Maine struggling to raise more money on their own because state financial support is falling short.

Keeping milfoil in check will require more than monitoring water quality, buying and maintaining a dam and preventing erosion, officials for the Little Sebago Lake Association said.

“With the milfoil, we’re finding there’s no easy answers and there’s very little money,” said Kim McBride, one of the association’s directors.

The association wants to start a milfoil management program that would include inspectors checking boats and divers using dredging equipment to pull the plants from lake bottoms. But the group needs about $73,000 in the first year of the program, far more than the $17,500 it collects in annual dues.

While state efforts focus on preventing milfoil’s spread to other lakes and responding to new infestations, the brunt of the responsibility for suppressing existing problems falls on groups such as the lake association.

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. Associations have approached municipalities, held capital campaigns and applied for grants to raise money.

But the costs are still considerable. For example, the Lakes Environmental Association in Bridgton expects to spend about $60,000 on a project on the Songo River, executive director Peter Lowell said.

The state’s boat-sticker program to raise money for invasive-species efforts raised about $690,000 for the environmental department last year. The agency uses that money to fund association grants, offer 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.

McBride says she understands that prevention and education are critical in the battle against milfoil. But she believes the state needs to do more.

“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.”