2007 COURTESY BOAT INSPECTION PROGRAM

Let’s do our share at Worthley Pond. We must take responsibility for preventing NPS pollution.

Last year was our second year of boat inspections at Worthley. While it was a successful year with 186 boats inspected by 16 individuals putting in 264 hours of volunteer time and 215 hours of paid time, we still need to do more. All of our inspections were done in July and August but we have lots of boats entering the pond during May and June

We have been able to obtain additional funds for this season. The state increased their grant from $1500to $1600 and this year Peru voters approved $500 to help with this program. With $500 from the association we will have $2600 available to expand our program.

We will have a paid inspector at our two locations to cover Saturday and Sunday hours.

What we are going to need is more volunteers to expand hours and this means we need your help. John Shea spent many hours last year knocking on doors and this year he will coordinate our volunteer effort. We need your help so please contact John at 562-8367 and volunteer some time. Plans are to start in mid May doing spot inspections from Friday PM to Sunday. We have a lot of visiting fisherman and want to inspect their boats. Remember we have three close by water bodies (Lake Auburn, Shagg Pond, and Lake Christopher) which have excellent fishing AND Milfoil infestations. By mid June we want to increase inspections from Friday PM to Sunday PM (our normal schedule the past two years in July and August).

A volunteer’s job is easy and does not require extensive training. It can be fun as you meet some interesting people and probably some of your pond neighbors. You will ask to inspect their boat, trailer and fishing equipment looking for any plant fragments. If found we have plastic bags to put them in for identification by someone else. The second part is to educate boaters about inspecting their boats and why it is so important. So…….please help!! The health of our pond depends on it!! Once milfoil enters a pond it can not be eradicated or removed. The next step is managing the infestation which is a polite word for keeping it from spreading to other areas of the pond. We need your help and time so please call John Shea (562-8367) and volunteer!!!