Milfoil

By John Shea

Milfoil is an ugly word and the lakes and ponds infected with it are an ugly mess.

As of this writing there is no cure, the only hope of not having MILFOIL in Worthley Pond is prevention. Milfoil must be physically introduced to a body of water. Only you and I can help stop the infestation of this plant by Volunteering to help.  We all need to protect our investments.

Milfoil can be introduced by a number of carriers. For example, Planes, birds, boats, motors, and fishing gear to name a few ways.

We can not do much about the birds and planes, but we can make an effort to keep our pond clean. Our Worthley Pond Association has a program called courtesy boat inspection. This program can prevent this fast growing plant from being introduced into our pond. We have no guarantees but our only possibility is a pro active approach. We need your help.

In 2007-2008, we had some 30 plus volunteers for our CBI program on Worthley Pond. The program covers two hour shifts, 7 days a week and were two hour shifts per day 7-9 A.M and 4-6 P.M. We need more volunteers to fill the shifts. If we have enough people, we would only have to take a shift a month, so ask you neighbors on your road, four people make a once a month deal.

The present volunteers have been asked to return in 2009. We hope all will say yes. So if you have not volunteered please give a little of your time to help with the CBI Program for our pond. If you help, you are helping keep Worthley pond the clean beautiful pond we have all come to love and enjoy as well as protecting your investment.
Milfoil is all around us today. It is in lakes such as Lake Auburn, Shagg Pond, Bryant Pond, Thompson Lake and 24 other ponds and lakes around the state. The latest spotting of milfoil is in the Belgrade Lakes. What a shame to ruin one of Maine’s natural resources. So please volunteer to help with the program.

To Volunteer just contact any officer of the Worthley Pond Association or John Shea, Tim Placey or Kathy Hussey and they will get you the necessary information.

MILFOIL UPDATE - NOVEMBER 2007

For some three to four years our association has been involved in making sure no aquatic invasive species or Milfoil gets started in Worthley Pond. Milfoil is the most common species but there are actually 11 different plants on the state
watch list of which only 5 have been found in Maine. No new infestations have been added to the state list since 2006.

You can access more information on milfoil by going to the "Links" section of our website (www.worthleypond.org) and click on Maine Center for Invasive Aquatic Plants. Here you can see the state list of "Eleven Most Wanted" plants
we don't want and the Maine DEP Listing of infested water bodies.

The Courtesy Boat Inspection Program is our best tool to combat an infestation. Second is doing Invasive Plant Patrols around the entire shore of our pond. This is done partially by shore owners seeing a new and unusual plant growing in front of their property. This has resulted in several samples being gathered and identified to be native milfoil that has always been in the pond but has a lot of the look-Alike characteristics of invasive milfoil species. Invasive Plant Patrols are persons who have been trained to identify invasive plants, looking along the shore at regular intervals for any new suspicious plant life. This is done by boats and people snorkeling. These plants almost always occur in 15 feet or less as they depend on sunlight to prosper.

An active Plant patrol program recorded big success in 2006 on Great East Lake in Acton, Me. and Wakefield N.H. Part of a group of "Weed Watchers" on the lake, Carol Lafond was on patrol snorkeling when she found a newly established single variable milfoil plant and promptly removed it. Now the state is preparing to remove Great East Lake from its list of 29 documented ponds with invasive plants since no further plants have been found during intensive surveys this past year. But this is not usual but very fortunate for this lake. Early detection is the key!!!

Remember once a water body gets infested there is no cure to date. Much money is being spent around the state to try and keep it contained so it does not spread into other parts of a lake, pond or stream. Many cure- alls have and are being tried but nothing to date. One such example is in Vermont. In Fairfield Pond weevils were added to the pond's milfoil beds and there is some hope. The beds are thinning as the weevils hollow out the plants' stems. If this works it will take time to grow enough weevils to attack plants in other parts of New England. But for now we must be vigilant in keeping out these plants and patrolling for the one that may make it through!!

Now that Worthley has a successful Courtesy Boat Inspection Program we now need to develop an Intensive Plant Patrol Program to detect early any of the "11 Most Wanted Plants" that may seek to become residents of Worthley Pond. Next year we hope to find volunteers who will participate in the training and start regular patrols around the pond. All one needs is a watercraft. Anyone who enjoys snorkeling can do this and enjoy their sport and do great things for Worthley Pond. We also plan to provide another milfoil workshop similar to one several of us attended several years ago. It will be refresher course plus a chance for new volunteers to learn to identify invasive aquatic plants. We hope to set these up with several other area camp associations. More about this in the Spring!!!