Week of Hand Harvesting Finds Little Milfoil.

A four-diver hand-harvesting crew from Aqualogic came to #chateaugaylake this past week to harvest milfoil. They targeted beds that were not part of the herbicide treatment in late June. The divers found very little milfoil. They checked the part of the Upper Narrows from the bridge to the sand bar that had been treated with herbicide in 2024, to remove any regrowth. They found the boat launch was free of milfoil. Around the islands by the sand bar, CLF scouts had seen some milfoil reaching the surface in early July, but not a healthy color. The dive crew found dead plants lying on the lake bed and collected about 35 gallons of milfoil, to prevent resprouting from any roots that might still be viable. The divers also checked the stretch northeast of the sand bar in the Upper Lake and found a limited number of dead plants.

Similarly limited and stunted milfoil growth was observed by the divers when they harvested in the Lower Lake inlet and lower Narrows on Thursday and Friday. They started in the Lower Lake inlet by checking the cleared boating channel and the growing zones to either side, collecting a limited number of plants. They continued south, checking for milfoil on either side, reaching the area of Harris Road. They harvested one patch of milfoil south of the Lower Lake inlet but otherwise found only occasional growing plants that were not thriving and dead milfoil stalks. The combined impacts from a long-standing program of hand-harvesting in combination with recent herbicide treatments are having an effect, perhaps aided by some other cause such as environmental factors or a plant disease. The good news is that Eurasian watermilfoil is way down, after almost two decades and significant resources spent on control! We appreciate your continued support of our integrated management approach!