DEP to broaden scope of milfoil survey

Divers plan to survey additional areas of Salmon Lake and Great Pond near Belgrade for signs of a particularly aggressive type of the invasive plant known as milfoil.

Biologists also are looking for additional volunteers to help monitor for milfoil in the Belgrade-Oakland area.

Last week, divers with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection removed all of the Eurasian milfoil they found in a cove on Salmon Lake, also known as Ellis Lake. They also installed screen netting to prevent small fragments of milfoil from entering adjoining Great Pond.

But DEP officials said Wednesday that enough small plants were discovered to merit another survey. The department has not set a date for the next dive.

“Even a small fragment of this highly invasive plant is enough to create a new infestation, so it is important to contain even the smallest pieces and prevent the transportation of any fragments to other water bodies,” Roy Bouchard, a DEP biologist, said in a statement.

Milfoil is an invasive aquatic plant species that grows so rapidly and reproduces so prodigiously that it can literally choke ponds and lakes. Most of the roughly two dozen lakes and ponds in Maine infested with milfoil have the type known as variable water milfoil. Eurasian milfoil is even more aggressive.

The DEP is working with University of Maine at Farmington science professor Dan Buckley and the Congress of Lake Associations to coordinate surveys of shoreline. The Belgrade Regional Conservation Association is also helping conduct lake surveys; however, they are short on volunteers.

The DEP and the Belgrade Regional Conservation Association plan to have courtesy boat inspectors at the Spaulding Point boat ramp 12 hours a days, seven days a week through Labor Day.

Interested volunteers should call 495-6039 for more information.

kmiller@bangordailynews.net

990-8250