Hello LSC.
We'd like to announce a milfoil cleanup 'Community Day' in the Channel and Little Lake on Sunday, July 25th, and give you an update on our Milfoil Control efforts so far this season.
Milfoil Cleanup 'Community Day': Members of the LSCA and LSCCF have been planning for a 'Community Day' in the Channel and Little Lake areas to organize volunteers to collect all the floating milfoil they can find as an educational and hands-on 'Stop The Spread' event to benefit the lake on Sunday, July 25th, beginning at 9 AM. We have been informed that neighbors in the Channel would like this to expand past a single day event, to become a season-long effort - which is FANTASTIC - and we have made arrangements to make this happen.
A very generous member of the lake community from West Lake Road (thanks Heather!) has loaned a floating platform so it can be used as an easily accessible drop-off point in the Channel. This platform was installed in the Channel this weekend:
If you are heading towards the Little Lake from the bridge, this platform is set up in front of the last camp on the left (thanks Dawn & Joel!) in the Channel before getting to Little Lake. That's Dawn on her kayak testing it out.
Also, very generous Little Lake residents on Clayton Tract (thanks Karla & Mike!) will make one of their docks available as a drop-off point in the Little Lake.
The orange dots on the map on the left indicate where the designated drop-off points are.
We'll be asking volunteers to get out on the Channel and on the Little Lake to collect all the floating milfoil they can find and deposit it on one of our 2 drop-off points. Then, the Lake St. Catherine Association's DASH team will come down and pickup the collected milfoil for disposal.
After this initial milfoil cleanup Community Day, the two drop-off points will stay in place, and weekly pickups will be made. The milfoil will be collected and delivered to the DASH team for disposal.
Thank you to all the volunteers who have gotten us this far - the project has been planned and a workflow is in place.
Now we need you!
So, we hope to see you out there on the lake in your kayak, on your boat or SUP, or in or on any other kind of floating craft you can bring to be ready to do some milfoil scooping!
We'll provide additional details as we get closer to the event. Mark your calendar for Sunday, July 25th! Thanks.
ProcellaCOR treatment: As you know, 3 areas were treated for milfoil this year: Halls Bay, a small area north of the Channel, and an area of Little Lake.
Based on the reports we've received from many of you, and our own observations, the treatment has been very effective. In Little Lake, you can actually see the line where the treatment area ends (see the map on the left).
This does not mean that the work is done for the season.
We still need your help to make sure these excellent results are not squandered.
It's up to all of us to stop the spread of milfoil.
We recently posted the document "What You Can Do To Help Stop The Spread Of Milfoil" which outlines the best practices that you can follow to help to stop the spread. The LSCA Boat Launch Greeters have also been handing this flyer out around the lake, so you may have already received a printed copy.
We hope you can follow these best practices which apply lake-wide. There are also Little Lake specific best practices for 2021:
Please help to do your part.
The treatment in Little Lake this season is part of a 3-year plan to help get milfoil under control there. In March, the LSCA and LSCCF reached out to the lake community and launched a fundraiser to help pay for this plan. Within just a few weeks, we reached our goal of $12,000, which covered a third of the $36,000 estimate. The LSCA and LSCCF each contributed $12,000 to cover the full amount of the year 1 treatment.
Donations have continued to come in, and we have currently raised over $5,000 to be used for year 2. You can contribute to the 3-year Little Lake plan, and read more about it by clicking here: https://lakestcatherine.org/little-lake-milfoil-control.
Soon, there will be a 1 month post treatment survey, and in late September, there will be a detailed lake-wide aquatic plant survey (you can see our 17 years of aquatic plant surveys on LSC by clicking here). Using the data and information collected from these surveys, a plan of action will be created for year 2.
Diver Assisted Suction Harvesting (DASH): As you can see in the flyer image above which includes the map of LSC, the areas highlighted in green are designated to be worked on by our DASH team. They hand pull the milfoil from the bottom of the lakebed by the roots and then suction the full plant to the surface for safe removal from the lake.
The divers started hand pulling milfoil in the designated areas in late June, and were able to begin full operations using the suction equipment on July 1st. They will continue working throughout the summer.
The DASH team is reporting that the milfoil they are seeing in their work areas on the Big Lake have low / sparse milfoil density, and plants are single strands with small root masses.
Each Monday, we'll post an update as to where the DASH team will be working during that week.
Thank you to everyone who has contributed to these milfoil control efforts this season. Many in our lake community have made donations, and many are putting in the work to get as much milfoil out of the lake as they can.
If we are all pitching in, we can collectively make a huge impact - please speak to your neighbors and help to get the word out.
Let's do this!
Thank you.
