Invasive PlanT Monitoring

 In addition to a statewide water clarity program, Lake Stewards of Maine also collaborates with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection to monitor the growth of invasive aquatic plants across the state. The introduction of non-native or invasive aquatic plant and animal species to Maine lakes has been escalating with widespread destructive consequences including habitat disruption, loss of native plant and animal communities, reduced property values, impaired fishing and degraded recreational experiences, and enormous and ongoing control costs.

 With over 6,000 lakes and ponds and thousands of miles of stream habitat, the task of preventing the spread of invasive aquatic species in Maine waters is one of the greatest environmental challenges of our time. Invasive plants and animals are moved about in complex and often unseen ways, and the speed at which a new introduction can explode into an ecologically and economically disastrous infestation is well documented. Once an invader is well established, eradication is extremely difficult and costly, if not impossible. Prevention is the first step to fighting this invasion, but no matter how comprehensive and aggressive our statewide prevention effort, some invasive organisms will slip through the cracks. In such cases, it is crucial that the invaders are detected as early as possible- before they have an opportunity to cause significant damage or to spread to other waterbodies. Early detection provides the best hope of eradication.  HWPA has several volunteers (led by Rich Auren on Hogan Pond and Sylvia Wilson on Whitney Pond) trained to identify invasive plants and these volunteers conduct intensive surveys in the late summer each year and report to Lake Stewards of Maine about their activity. They are part of a group of thousands since training was initiated in 2002.