The Truxor

With well over 200 hours logged on the new Truxor machine working on Trapper Woods pond, Swan Lake, Camper Lake, and the Main Lakes, we have deeper understanding of how to best utilize it as a lake management tool. The potential applications for the Truxor are wide ranging from aquatic and terrestrial vegetation control to floating peat mat removal to even potential light dredging. However, what is limited is time and money. The endless list of work sites is more than the Truxor can address in one season. Identifying and prioritizing work sites is an ongoing effort. As we learn the machines strengths and weaknesses, we can best use it to efficiently address control needs. Some of these work sites will require annual maintenance while others will only need to be addressed occasionally over years.      

Currently we are using the Truxor on the Main Lakes to remove Wild Celery in anticipation for the Labor Day weekend. Wild Celery is a native aquatic plant that matures in the fall. It sends up a fibrous “curly-Q” shoot to the surface that easily becomes tangled in boat props. Wild Celery can be uprooted by ducks, geese, swans, muskrats and boats and can form fairly extensive mats. Herbicides are at best minimally successful at controlling Wild Celery. The Truxor will be utilized to capture and remove these mats as best possible. Small mats of vegetation may wash up on your beach. If it is a small amount, please help us out by raking it out, letting it dry, and disposing of it. If it is a large mat, please let me know where it is and I will do my best to get it collected.

Please keep your distance when observing the machine in action. With an endless list of work to tackle, we need to keep the operators engaged in the task at hand. I would be more than happy to answer any questions you might have about the machine. We still plan to use aquatic herbicides when they present the most cost effective strategy but the Truxor is providing an opportunity to control nuisance vegetation issues were herbicides can’t. Below is a mat of Wild Celery on the Main Lake that was uprooted by boats, muskrats or waterfowl. Though herbicides will do nothing to control this nuisance, the Truxor can collect and remove much of this obstruction.