The “Jar & Stick Test” to distinguish between good algae and cyanobacteria

A Guide to Aquatic Plants in Massachusetts, 36 pgs

Your actions can affect the quality of a lake, even if you don't live on the lake, stream, or river, but simply within thelake watershed.
25 pgs. by COLA.

A Guide to Selective Invasive Non-native Aquatic Species in Massachusetts, 20 pgs
 

Stop
Aquatic Hitchhikers!
Handout Card

"This book is a starting point for concerned citizens who wish to learn about lake ecology and ways they can protect the future of their lake or pond."
55 pgs

Volunteers manually removed the European water chestnut
from the north basin of Lake Mirimichi

Water chestnuts form dense, floating mats that can take over a lake.

Click on each picture for larger view.

Kayak piled high	Canoe with a full load	Towing a full "barge"	It's not a clean job.
And, now to unload	Happy to bring in their last load	A pile of removed water chestnut	Sharp, barbed seed pod

Click here for an online active Aquatic Plant Identifier.

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Could an invasive weed threaten boating and fishing this summer?

By Heather Steeves, Bangor Daily News

With boating season comes the risk of infecting clean Maine lakes with invasive plants. These plants can overtake entire bodies of water, clogging them with dense, thick weeds that can render the lakes and ponds essentially useless for boating, swimming and fishing.

The invasive plants, which have no predators, are dangerous both environmentally and economically, as they deteriorate water quality, threaten tourism and sink property values, according to Roberta Hill, program director of the Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program’s center for invasive aquatic plants.

“They basically take over areas that were inhabited by native plants, and they can outgrow those habitats and become a complete monoculture,” Hill said.

Pieces of invasive plants from one body of water can stick to boat trailers or propellers, and when a boater travels to a clean lake and launches the boat, the plant takes root and spreads almost immediately.

Aquatic, exotic invasive plants include varieties of milfoil and hydrilla that can overtake a lake from shore to shore.

“They look like wet fields,” Hill said.

So far 32 Maine lakes have been infected, according to Paul Gregory, an environmental specialist for the invasive species program for the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. Of those bodies of water, 28 have milfoil, two have hydrilla, one has curly leaf pondweed and one has European naiad.