Hey, What are They Spraying in the Lake?
Today, May 23 Aquatic Nuisance Control Inc. our herbicide applicators were out on the Main Lakes to conduct the Curlyleaf Pondweed treatment as prescribed. The Curlyleaf is topped out and ready to treat, just in time before the plant gets the chance to produce its reproductive structures called turions. The treatment maps are included below depicting the exact areas that were treated. The reason we aggressively target CLPW for eradication has been detailed in last season’s Blog. The goal of these treatments is to focus herbicide induced stress on the CLPW while causing minimum damage to beneficial natives in the vicinity.
Please notice on the overview map that it is terrestrial grass in front of Sunset Beach that was mapped for treatment. This terrestrial grass is submerged and is now presenting a nuisance to those wishing to use the beach. Beach areas are intended to be open to all recreational pursuit and therefore will be treated aggressively to accomplish this goal. Both of these herbicide applications will be contact herbicides (Reward and/or Aquathol K).
Joel and Tom
posted by Summit Lab @ 4:13 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
I didn't see ANC spray in front of our stretch of beach area or at the office end of w. lake. Is this intentionally selective spraying? Will there be another spring spraying?
The treatment conducted on the 23rd was selective for Curlyleaf Pondweed and was limited to the areas defined in the maps posted. While Aquatic Nuisance Control was out on the lake we had them additionally treat the submerged terrestrial grasses along the Sunset Beach shoreline so it is open and ready for the holiday weekend. The annual general herbicide treatment (contact herbicides used to singe down nuisance native aquatic vegetation) is scheduled for June 13&14. This is the application I believe you are refering to. Joel
With regard to the June treatment.I live on East Canadian Lake and the bay in front of our house 8130 East Royal Rd. has been getting much worse with regard to weeds the last 2 years.
Please inspect and spray accordingly.Thank you.
Jerry
There hasn't been any spraying to date in East Canadian --- this is a joke ------- the weeds are horrible. Bad enough all that cotton crap from the trees is floating in the water - but the weeds - boat motors are straining to get through and people are forward and reverse just to get through. This is just ludicrous.
What's up with this "sprayed the Main Lake" - why not East Canadian?
As far as I can tell - my money is the same green as theirs.
To clarify, East Lake is a part of the Main Lakes. It was treated for Curly leaf Pondweed back in late May and was also treated June 14th for nuisance native vegetation. In shallow compartments of the Main Lakes such as East Lake and Far West Lake, there is a major difference in the ratio of developed shoreline to water volume in comparison to deeper areas like West or Main Lake for example. What I mean by this is that if we have 200 homes around the shoreline of Far West or East and they each contribute a theoretical pint glass of pure phosphorus (through fertilizers, grass clippings, septic leechate, erosion…), this phosphorus contribution would be diluted by the total volume of water in these lakes. At just a 10 parts per billion concentration in lake water, phosphorus can and will begin to stimulate excessive aquatic plant and algae growth. In East and Far West, phosphorus concentrations tend to be higher than in West or Main Lake because there is less water to dilute the annual influx of phosphorus. The result is an annual increase in plant and algae biomass. Once nutrients enter the lake, they become incredibly expensive to remove. HERBICIDES ONLY RECYCLE AVAILABLE NUTRIENTS FROM ONE AQUATIC LIFEFORM (native plants) TO ANOTHER (blue green or filamentous algae. Herbicides are not truly selective in that they eventually disturb the overall aquatic ecosystem. They cannot change the “prefect growth conditions” created by excessive nutrients. They can be used sparingly and short term to create the façade of high water quality but eventually something will utilize the nutrients released and grow, like crazy. If we kill the plants, the lakes will bloom with filamentous algae. If we kill the algae, the lakes will turn to pea soup from thick planktonic blue green algae blooms. If we kill the blue greens, paramecium will bloom and on and on until there is nothing left of our aquatic ecosystem. Remember, this is an ecosystem that supports loons, trophy bass and other fish, clear water for boating and swimming… The ultimate solution is to limit the amount of “food” entering our lakes. Next spring just before the general herbicide treatment in June, when the native plants are once again “ludicrous”, take in minute to notice the thickest beds correlate to the most developed shorelines. The natural shorelines tend to have few dense aquatic plant beds in front of them. Also notice how clear the water is prior to the treatment and how quickly it “greens” after the treatment.
after reading all of the comments and your response, I have come to the possible conclusion that is we don't physically remove the weeds and keep trying to control them with herbicides, that we will eventually lose this battle because of the human aspect. Therefore, maybe we need to take further action to remove instead of treat...A discussion with the deq and the board of cl about this should be brought up. After fifty years of feeding the bottom of our lakes, it is time to clean out instead of treat.
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