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Herbicide treatment of invasives in Lake Arrowhead

Lake Arrowhead is known to have three invasive aquatic plants. Variable Leaf Milfoil Brittle Naiad Swollen Bladderwort The battle against milfoil has been fought since about 2000, initially with manual removal of plants and then later with benthic barriers, and a suction harvester, and then with two suction harvesters, every summer. Milfoil is found throughout the lake. It cannot be eradicated through mechanical means (harvesting). Efforts are now aimed at trying to manage the plant. Brittle Naiad is relatively new in the lake, having being discovered in 2020, and removed by hand in 2021 and 2022. Mechanical removal of plants is impractical. It only appears in significant numbers from July onwards and produces seeds by August. It is an annual and the plants disintegrate in the fall, spreading thousands of seeds for subsequent summers. The Swollen Bladderwort discovered in 2021 is found throughout the lake, and the decision was made in 2022 not to attempt eradication. The Maine Departme...

2023 Aquastrike application DEP notice

Lettter from John McPhedran of the Maine DEP July 17, 2023 Dear Lake Arrowhead shorefront owner: A contractor for the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) will apply herbicide in portions of Lake Arrowhead this Thursday, July 20, 2023 to control the invasive aquatic plant brittle naiad (scientific name Najas minor ). I am writing because your property is within or near the treatment area. DEP will post notification at boat access sites and beaches near the treatment area. The treatment objectives are 1) to reduce spread of brittle naiad within Arrowhead and to other waters and 2) enable future control of this infestation with non-chemical means. The treatment is timed to kill the brittle naiad before it forms seeds. The herbicide Aquastrike will be applied because of its effectiveness on brittle naiad. The following water use restrictions on the Aquastrike label apply to the treatment areas (product label found here http://www.cdms.net/ldat/ldBRQ006.pdf): Do not drink la...

Naiad Discovery

My husband, Dale, and I live on Lake Arrowhead’s lakefront in York County. Our lake is infested with Variable water-milfoil, and our Conservation Council uses a diver assisted suction harvester to keep it from choking up our boating areas. At the beginning of July, we participated in the free online Aquatic Species Plant identification course run by the Lake Stewards of Maine. It was a perfect thing to do during our COVID-19 shelter-in-place measures. Up until then, we classified aquatic plants into Variable water-milfoil, and NOT Variable water-milfoil. Part of the LSM coursework was to collect and identify a few plants, using the online key and distinguishing characteristics that Roberta had taught us, and share our findings on Zoom. We passed our tests, and became certified Plant Patrollers. After the course, I continued looking carefully at the plants and fragments being washed up in my cove because I’d discovered a new-found interest. I was fascinated, and keen to practice my new ...

Lake level drop 2202-10-06

Update 2022-10-20 Water level is now about 32" below normal. Update 2022-10-19 The water is now actually only 2' lower than normal, the numbers from Eagle Creek just don't add up. Update 2022-10-17 As of this morning, the Lake is about 1 foot above the intended level with all the rain lately. The intended level (i.e., about 4 feet below typical level) should be met in approximately 2 days. As you're aware, that estimate will ultimately depend on weather conditions. Following a site inspection this morning, the estimated duration of the low water conditions is 3 weeks. This timetable would have lake refill beginning on approximately 11/9/2022. This duration may change as the maintenance work begins and more details become available. As things progress, I will provide a weekly update with the next iteration on or about 10/24/2022. Eagle Creek Renewable Energy During the Q&A part of the LACC annual meeting on 2022-08-27 we heard that the dam operators are planning to...

Brittle Naiad reported from Sokokis Lake, Limerick

This time some bad news, the invasive Brittle Naiad (Najas minor) has also been reported from Sokokis Lake in Limerick, Maine. Najas minor in Lake Arrowhead

A lakeside lighthouse

My son and I have constructed a small (41") lighthouse, and placed it on our property at the edge of Lake Arrowhead.

Field characteristics to identify Utricularia inflata

An earlier draft of this has now been replaced with the content published in the Maine Natural History Observer 2023, Issue 1 Untangling the Bladderworts By Debbie Broderick & Dale Schultz (Photos by the authors) We discovered that Lake Arrowhead (York County) has a well-established population of Large Floating Bladderwort ( Utricularia inflata ), a native to the southeastern parts of the United States, in late 2021 (The Observer 2022, Issue 2). It was curious to us that it hadn’t been previously detected or documented, since it appears to be pervasive, and in places, plentiful. We realized that this plant may have gone undetected because its distinctive floating radial arms only appear during early spring and late fall, when human activities on the water are minimal. Additionally, flowering specimens were only found in protected, shallow coves that are not frequently traversed. As amateur aquatic plant patrollers, we had been mistaking the non-blooming, floating foliage of U....

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(c) Dale Schultz & Deborah Broderick 2022-2023