Eurasian watermilfoil Wisconsin lakes – Aquarius-Systems

Lake-Wide Herbicide Treatments May Harm Native Aquatic Plants

Mon, 15 Apr 2024 16:42:43 +0000

Invasive Eurasian water milfoil is flourishing in Wisconsin’s lakes, sometimes outcompeting native plants and creating floating mats that cause problems for people, boats and property values. But new research shows that the benefits of using one type of historical lake-wide herbicide treatment may be outweighed by the costs to native aquatic plants.

Lake management teams often try to tackle their milfoil problems with chemicals, which reduce the size of the milfoil population but can have off-target effects. In most lakes, lake-wide herbicide treatments are associated with more native plant declines than the milfoil, according to the study, published recently in the journal Facets.

For many lakes, it’s likely they may not have to use a lake-wide herbicide treatment on milfoil until native plant species are clearly suffering. For other lakes, a control regime not involving herbicides may work instead.

Study Suggests Most Invasive Species Remain at Low Levels

Mon, 11 Dec 2023 20:08:42 +0000

A study by the Center for Limnology at UW-Madison says invasive species usually exist in low number and that overabundance is NOT the most common scenario.

“Invasive species are often thought of as species that take over wherever they get in,” says Jake Vander Zanden, a UW limnology professor who directed the research. “But, in our experience studying lakes and rivers, in most places they weren’t all that abundant. It was only in a few places where they got out of hand.”

In Wisconsin, for example, research has shown that lakefront property owners see the value of their property plummet if it’s discovered that an invasive aquatic plant, Eurasian water milfoil, is in their lake. But, says Vander Zanden, that’s “only a reaction to the presence of the plant, not a reflection of its impact on that specific lake.”

Vander Zanden argues that if scientists can identify characteristics of the sites where a specific invasive species will flourish or determine what level of abundance constitutes an “invasion,” then the countless hours and millions of dollars spent on invasive species control each year could be better allocated.

Read More https://phys.org/news/2013-10-prevailing-view-invasive-species.html

Cool Spring Leads to Unexpected Milfoil Growth in Wisconsin Lakes

Mon, 11 Dec 2023 19:58:28 +0000

One of the curses of local lake management — Eurasian milfoil — continues to defy expectations.

At Monday’s Salem Town Board meeting, Supervisor Dennis Faber, who also is a commissioner of the Camp/Center Lakes Rehabilitation District in Wisconsin, said conventional wisdom going into this spring and summer was that the heavy snowfall of this year — including on frozen lakes — would mean less milfoil on local lakes.

The actual experience, at least on Camp and Center lakes, was the opposite.

There has been a “tremendous amount of milfoil,” Faber said.

The key may have been that milfoil grows at a lower temperature. Therefore, the milfoil may have actually grown well in our cool spring, Faber said.