Treated Aquatic Plants are Slowly Falling Out

Treated native aquatic vascular plants are just now beginning to fall out of the water column in most treatment areas. Due to the relatively cool water temps(74 F as of 6-28-06) and lack of major turbulence, the plants have been hanging in there longer than they have the past two years. Plants should fall out very quickly as boat traffic intensifies over the holiday weekend. The resulting benefit will be open water for swimming, fishing, boating etc. The unfortunate but predictable side effect will be free floating clumps of aquatic vegetation washing up on beaches or getting tangled in your propeller. Currently, chemical control is our only option in minimizing the consequences of increased nutrient levels and the resulting increased plant biomass in the lakes. We are exploring the possibility of adding aquatic plant harvesters to the in-lake control efforts. These machines actually remove the vegetation, theoretically reducing plant biomass potential each year. The drawback is that they are very expensive to operate and maintain.