The public boat launch at Veteran's Memorial Park re-opened on Thursday after months of closure due to a quick-spreading infestation of variable milfoil.
Milfoil is an invasive weed transported easily from one lake or pond to another by hitchhiking on boats that haven't been properly cleaned down after leaving one lake and heading to another.
The boat launch has been closed to motorized boats since October in an effort to slow the spread of the invasive weed that grows and spreads rapidly when fragments of drift and re-root. Because motors can easily chop the weed, only non-motorized boats that can be carried into the lake have been allowed in the last seven months.
Motorized boats are now welcome to launch from the Veteran's Park ramp again.
Roger Gettel, with the Lake Naticook Conservation Association, told the town council last month that when the milfoil was discovered in July of last year, about 5 acres of the lake was affected, however, by October, it had spread to about 20 acres of the lake.
During the last seven months, the town has worked with the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services to remediate the weed from the lake. An aggressive attack was made using an herbicide to kill the plants. Gettel told the council that it appears most of the invasion has been quelled, they only found one remaining plant during a recent search of the lake.
But that doesn't mean it invasion is over. Milfoil is notoriously difficult to completely eradicate from a lake or pond and it is easily reintroduced when new boats are put into a clean body of water.
For tips on how to prevent the spread of milfoil, read on: http://des.nh.gov/organization/commissioner/pip/factsheets/bb/documents/bb-1.pdf
Read more on this story: http://merrimack.patch.com/groups/around-town/p/boat-launch-to-remain-closed-until-midjuly
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