Good morning LSC,

We would like to invite you to our annual Milfoil Cleanup Community Day & Milfoil Control Meeting at the Wells Lakeside Park on Little Lake on Saturday, June 17th at 9 AM.

All are welcome to attend to learn about our milfoil control plans for the season, and then those who would like to participate can head out onto the lake to do some milfoil & detached plant cleanup.

All the details are included below. We hope to see you on the 17th!

Milfoil Control Program Meeting

As we have for the past 2 seasons, we'll be holding a Milfoil Control Meeting and volunteer Milfoil Cleanup Community Day.

On Saturday, June 17th at 9 AM, we'll have a meeting at the Wells Lakeside Park on Little Lake to discuss our Milfoil Control Plans for the season. We recently outlined our plans in a previous email, and on our website here: https://lakestcatherine.org/blog/13207138

We'll discuss our plans for the season, and answer any questions you may have.

Here is a quick summary of our plans for the season:

After reviewing all the data, and discussing the current milfoil conditions, our Milfoil Control Committee and our DASH team have concluded that we will not need to perform a spot treatment this year. All the hard work of our Milfoil Control Committee, our DASH team, and all of you who have been removing milfoil from the lake have helped to get us to this point. Milfoil is an extremely fast growing invasive weed, so a spot treatment may be needed in the future. However, we will be working very hard to keep milfoil at sparse, controllable levels that our DASH team can manage to the extent possible. This season, our DASH team will be expanding by adding a new member to their crew, and this team will be able to handle the milfoil identified in the surveys. Soon, we’ll share a map showing the locations the DASH team will be working in this season. There has been regrowth of milfoil in the northern section of Little Lake. Since DASH is not feasible there because the depth and loose sediments making it difficult to work, we are exploring a hand-pulling pilot program there this year. We’ll provide details on this potential new program soon.

We hope to see you on the 17th at the park!

Milfoil Cleanup Community Day Kick Off

After the Milfoil Control Meeting, we invite volunteers to help us kick off our Milfoil Cleanup Community Day by heading out onto the lake to collect detached and floating milfoil (and other detached and floating plants) to get them out of the lake and on to our drop off point. 

Volunteers that would like to participate can head out onto the lake in kayaks, boats, canoes, and SUPs to scoop up floating milfoil and other detached plants and place them on the drop off float that has just been set up in the Channel south of the bridge.

Milfoil spreads easily via fragmentation, so getting milfoil out of the lake helps to prevent it from infesting new locations.

If you can't participate on the kick off day on June 17th, that's OK - you can still contribute throughout the season. This initiative will continue throughout the summer, and the LSCA will collect the deposited detached plants as the float fills up. So, cleanup can continue until the drop off float is removed in the late fall. 

Read on about how you can help to stop the spread of milfoil in all areas of the lake.

What Else Can You Do To Help To Stop The Spread Of Milfoil?

• As a general rule, get as much milfoil out of the lake as possible and dispose of it..
• Don’t drive through milfoil patches with your boat which will create fragments.
• If you have milfoil on your prop, don’t just reverse and drive away, please remove it from the lake.
• If you have milfoil growing in your dock or swimming area, pull it out by the roots and remove it from the lake.
• If you see milfoil floating anywhere in the lake, near your dock, or along your shoreline, remove it from the lake.
• Become a member of the LSCA to help support our efforts!

The LSCA has always employed evidenced-based decision making when evaluating lake related issues, and we continue to do so with our Milfoil Control Program. Working with the State and lake scientists & experts, following the science and the data, and evaluating the results of our efforts show that we are doing the right things for the long-term health of LSC. To our members, and all who love LSC, if you ever have any questions or concerns, reach out to us, we’d be happy to answer them. You can always reach us at info@lakestcatherine.org.

Read more about Eurasian watermilfoil (milfoil, EWM, Myriophyllum spicatum) - what it is, what it does when introduced into a lake, and why we work to control it in Lake St. Catherine on our Milfoil Control Program here: lakestcatherine.org/milfoil-control-program