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8/8/2016 Light boat lets Belgrade Lakes conservation group battle milfoil around the clock - Central Maine

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INCREASE FONT SIZEOUTDOORS Posted September 19, 2015 Updated September 19, 2015

Light boat lets Belgrade Lakes conservationgroup battle milfoil around the clockThe Belgrade Lakes Conservation Alliance uses underwater lights to find patches of the invasiveaquatic plant during nighttime surveys.

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A Belgrade Regional Conservation Alliance boat and group members are illuminated by lights both on board theboat and in the water while searching for milfoil plants Thursday evening in Great Pond in Belgrade. Sta� photo byDavid Leaming

BELGRADE — It was a clear, warm, still night on Great Pond, and in the darknessthe late summer sky unfolded in a tapestry above.




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It was a perfect night for stargazing, but out on the lake a team from the Belgrade

Lakes Conservation Alliance was training their eyes under the lake’s surface for aninvader that could threaten to overtake parts of the largest water body in the

watershed.

Joe Menyo, of North Attleboro, Massachusetts, and

Sebastien Dumont, of Skowhegan, two recent

University of Maine at Farmington graduates,

operated the conservation alliance’s light boat, arugged 21-foot flat-bottom fishing skiff retrofitted

for nighttime operations against invasive variable

leaf milfoil.

On Thursday night, Menyo and Dumont

maneuvered the light boat away from the public

landing on the south end of the lake. After getting

out into deeper water, the two cut the motor and

began setting up their equipment for a night survey.

Standing on the bow, Menyo and Dumont clamped

trolling motor mounts onto either side, then fit an

extra long shaft attached with three high-powered

LED lights into the mounts and tilted the poles into

the water, until the lights were fully submerged.

A quick connection to a standard 12-volt car battery,

and a cone of bright light poured out of the boat’sbow, illuminating the lake bottom. Menyo slowly

directed the boat along the shoreline. In the bow,

Dumont and Charlie Baeder, director of




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purchase: Photo Store → conservation alliance, kept watch, turning the lightsevery so often to sweep across the lake bottom.

The beams brought an underwater world into focus, catching debris on the lakebottom, clumps of waving eelgrass, and hundreds of silvery minnows and larger fish,such as white perch and bass.

The team was hunting for frilly strands of milfoil, an invasive aquatic plant that hasbeen discovered in the Belgrade Lakes watershed within the past decade. A singlemilfoil follicle can take root and grow rapidly in thick mats that can choke out theshoreline of lakes and rivers. A full-blown infestation can make swimming, fishingand boating almost impossible.

In 2010, milfoil infestation was identified on Great Meadow Stream and North Bay,in the northeast end of Great Pond. The Belgrade Lakes Conservation Alliance startedefforts to mitigate the infestation in 2012. Regular milfoil surveys and hand-pickingby divers have kept the weed corralled, but experts worry about it spreading.

Milfoil grows in water up to 15 feet deep, and more than half of Great Pond is thatshallow. If milfoil breaks out of North Bay, it could cause a much larger infestation.

“If we were to let it go, in any number of years it could be really bad,” Baeder said.

The light boat, which went into operation for the first time in July, adds to the arsenalin the campaign against milfoil.

The plant is typically identified through shoreline surveys from a kayak or a boat, orby divers and snorkelers. Both techniques are effective but time-consuming and takea lot of manpower, said Toni Pied, the conservation alliance’s milfoil director.

In theory, the light boat would allow a smaller team to survey a larger area, she said.




“The plan is that it is one tool we can use so we can cover a lot of ground quickly,” shesaid.

The light boat goes out about twice a week, working from sundown to midnight. Onemember of the crew pilots the boat at its lowest speed while others keep watch for theinvasive weeds. If they find one, the crew drops a buoy near the plant and enterscoordinates into a GPS so divers can come back the next day and clear it out.

So far, they have found least 20 plants during their night maneuvers, Dumont said.Surveys during the day usually turn up a lot more plants, but it helps to have teamslooking around the clock.

Members of the conservation alliance got the idea for the light boat from the LakesEnvironmental Association, headquartered in Bridgton. Peter Lowell, director of thatgroup, said he got the idea for a light boat after watching biologists from theDepartment of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife use high-powered lights to find fish theystunned and tested. He thought the Lakes Environmental Association could put thesame technique to find milfoil at night.

There are limitations. Unless the water is glass-still, light will reflect off the ripples,making it hard to see the bottom. The same problem comes up when water clarity ispoor.

Despite the limits, the Lakes Environmental Association has been pleased with theway the boat has worked out and is retrofitting the lights onto a portable platform thatcan be attached to different boats.

“You can have three or four people looking at the same time,” Lowell said. “It is soefficient, it is pretty hard to beat.”




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When Belgrade Lakes Conservation Alliance designed its own light boat, memberswanted to try to fix some of the problems Lakes Environmental Associationencountered, Pied said. For example, when milfoil field director Justin Leavittdesigned the system, he opted to mount the lights underwater, instead of shining aspotlight through the surface.

Even that design has its limitations, Dumont and Menyo said. The surface still needsto be glass-clear to be able to pick out plants on the bottom, and the direction of thelight could be stronger.

But as they pulled away from the public launch for a second survey round, the teamalready was talking about how to make the boat more effective for next season. It’sthat type of experimentation and creative thinking that has driven a lot of the tactics,such as suction boats and burlap plant coverings, that have become common practiceamong groups tackling the milfoil problem in lakes across Maine.

“It’s about innovation,” Pied said. “It’s about trying new tools and seeing whatworks.”

Peter McGuire — 861-9239

[email protected]

Twitter: PeteL_McGuire

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Welcome. This is your 1st of 10 free articles. Sign in ... · LED lights into the mounts and tilted the poles into the water, until the lights were fully submerged. A quick connection