Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) Activities
11/12/24: The Foundation and the Association started working on our application for a $50,000 Integrated Pest Control Program DNR grant for an for Eurasian Water Milfoil (“EWM”) in early September. As of yesterday, we have submitted our paperwork including letters of support from the LOL Fish and Game Club, the Town of LOL, and Vilas County Land and Water. Now we sit back and wait as the grant awards will not be awarded in February.
In the meantime, we are continuing to work on and finalize our EWM plan for 2025. According to the DNR, Onterra…..and unfortunately us, 2024 was a banner year for EWM state-wide, and we have our work cut out for us. We anticipate using herbicides, DASH and hand-harvesting next year. We applied for the $50,000 grant, as the next level of grants ($50K+) are much more competitive. Having said that, our chances of receiving the grant are at best 50-50. We anticipate our 2025 EWM expenses to approach $80,000. Even if we get the grant we are still looking at a $30,000 deficit.
Over the winter we will finalize our approach for 2025 and let bids for the herbicide application and the DASH/hand-harvesting. Onterra informed us that our strategy should not rely on receiving the grant funds, and we anticipate aggressively hitting the EWM with or without funds from the State. Without the State funds, that $80,000 will quickly drain our treasury. The Association is studying alternate funding strategies. Below is the latest EWM map which shows areas where the herbicide may be used. This map does not reflect our final plan.
We will keep everyone updated as information becomes available.
9.24.24: Please see below the EWM removal report from Aquatic Plant Management ("APM"). Please note that on page 2 you will find this sentence "Dive Highlights and Recommendations: The dive teams spent the about half of their time between sites A-24 and E-24 where they removed about half of the total biomass." That sentence could be confusing. It references that of all the EWM they removed from all the sites, half came from A-24 and E-24. It kind of reads they only removed half the EWM from A-24 and E-24, but that is not the case.
The total cost of this removal was $36,288.00 and the Foundation will be paying that invoice this week.
We are waiting to get Onterra's Late Season EWM survey to see how effective APM was in their efforts, and to determine whether the milfoil in the North bay and between the islands is of a density that can effectively be treated with herbicides. If that is the case Onterra will likely advise us to move forward with that treatment next year.
Finally, we will be working with Onterra to hone our $50,000 DNR grant application prior to its submission deadline of November 15th.
Jan. 8, 2024: Just in case you were wondering about how to identify Eurasian Water Milfoil (EWM), the most pervasive aquatic invasive species found in Forest Lake, click on the link below to view a very short video. A message will pop up to Open Link in New Tab. Click on that message and you can view the video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXgUxiHRf1A
Even though the video talks about Minnesota waters, we have the same types of EWM - both the bad and the good (Northern Water Milfoil). So when you're splashing around the shore, if you see something that you think might be EWM, carefully take it out by the root (trying not to drop any of the little pieces of it) and dispose of it in the trash - far away from the water. You'll be doing everyone a huge favor by taking out the small pieces so they don't become HUGE and need to be removed by the Diver Assisted Suction Harvest (DASH) boats and snorkelers. Thank you.