For the 2024 season, the Lake St Catherine Association was awarded a DEC-ANC Grant-in-Aid through the Department of Environmental Conservation for $25,926 to support our AIS (aquatic invasive species) prevention and control programs which include our Boat Launch Greeter Program, and our Diver Assisted Suction Harvesting (DASH) Program. This funding is crucial to supporting our seasonal programs for prevention and control of AIS at Lake St Catherine.
2024 Greeter Program:
Each year Greeters are trained to identify AIS - including Eurasian watermilfoil, spiny waterflea, golden clams, water chestnut, starry stonewort and zebra mussels (and many others) - to stop them from entering LSC at the Fish and Wildlife boat launch in Wells. They also educate boaters about the importance of looking for these invasives, cleaning their boat, trailer, and live wells so they are not contributing to the spread to LSC or another lake. This year we had a great team of 9 greeters trained in the spring along with several other volunteers many of them taking a day long in person course hosted in Wells by the DEC. They were on duty from Memorial Day through Labor Day - working on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and also covering holidays and fishing tournaments. Over 1,000 vessels were greeted, 970 were inspected, and 451 had AIS debris removed. We are grateful for the leadership that Trustee John Belnavis has provided, coordinating, scheduling, and hiring our seasonal greeters. After many years, John will be retiring from his formal role as Trustee and Greeter Coordinator. We are always looking for interested people to become part of our team to greet and engage lake users to Lake St. Catherine. Please contact us for more information.
2024 Milfoil Control Program:
Our Milfoil Control Program continues to consist of a pragmatic, multi-faceted approach, focusing on the areas of milfoil regrowth as noted by our spring and fall surveys. The spring survey was conducted on April 26th, and along with the fall 2023 survey, and input from our DASH team, a map was created to show areas where DASH and spot treatments would take place. This map was submitted to the DEC and approved for our 2024 program.
Our DASH contractor, Sinclair Commercial Dive Services began hand-pulling in June, with full DASH operations starting on July 1st, covering over 51 acres, and collecting 269 17.5 gallon buckets of milfoil. Our DASH team was encouraged to see light to moderately dense areas of growth which led to the least amount of material removed in over 10+ years.
An application of ProcellaCOR EC was used in 7 areas with a total of 34.55 acres covered. Limited ProcellaCOR treatments, along with the other components of our Milfoil Control Program, have been the most up to date and successful management techniques permitted and used. Without this program, it would be a very short time to see the lake back to the difficult conditions of the 1980’s. Knowing that eradication may never be possible, milfoil management is ongoing and necessary.
While this funding is great news, it is only a fraction of our budget for these programs this year. Other sources of our funding for these programs come from our lake community through membership dues, additional contributions, donations, and support from the towns of Poultney and Wells. We are a volunteer organization that works hard for the good of the lake and its environment. We are thankful for the partnerships and support we receive.
Visit us at: www.lakestcatherine.org to find out more.
