During 2007 the Pirates continued evaluating other means of Milfoil control. They established contact with an aquatic biology
specialist, EnviroScience, Inc.(EVS). EVS specializes in augmenting a lake's aquatic weevil population as a natural control
over Milfoil. They have worked in over 120 lakes in the north, with an 80% success rate. Weevils are natural to these lakes,
and to ours, and the trick is to stimulate their population to the point where it responds to increases and decreases in a lake’s
Milfoil. The bugs are native, harmless, and virtually invisible. ACT hopes to begin initial tests with weevils in the 2008
season.
Aquatic Conservation Taskforce - ACT!
Lake Luzerne has been invaded - Here's what we did in 2007!
In 2007, stimulated by Michael Schaffer, the Town finally began a trial project. Schaffer and a few others made up
a group called the “Milfoil Pirates” and got the project in motion. The Pirates raised about $12,000 from the Town, the Lake
Luzerne Association, and residents.
The Adirondack Park Agency (APA) requires that a permit be issued to anyone tinkering
with the Park’s ecology. The Town hired a consultant to help the Pirates get the permit and to advise them. The consultant
recommended benthic barriers and hand harvesting as the most practical approaches to get started.
Volunteers assembled 40 - 10’ by 10’ mats in spring 2007. These mats were put down in the Lake in July and stayed in place
for about a month. When they were moved it was obvious that the mats had eradicated Milfoil - and all other plant life -
from the original placement area.
The 2007 trial did not include hand harvesting – volunteer scuba divers were not available to do it. This was an important omission, since the mats did not always overlap properly, and some Milfoil grew up between them. Matted areas must be made totally free of Milfoil to retard its re-growth as long as possible.
The Pirates quickly discovered that volunteer efforts alone cannot control Milfoil – there is just too much work, some of it
too specialized, for volunteers. ACT has located a Lake Ecology Expert who will be hired to implement its 2008 plans. This
scientist has extensive experience combating Milfoil on other lakes in the Park; he will furnish experienced scuba divers, and will
supervise their activities as well as those of the volunteers
