Little Muskego Lake Weed Control Could Cost $20,000 More in 2013

It's been noted by anyone who's been on the lakes recently that the continuing above average temps since last fall have been a virtual greenhouse for invasive weeds, creating a nuisance for swimmers and boaters. While Little Muskego Lake isn't bad compared to other area lakes, district officials are proposing to increase their budget for weed treatment by $20,000 from this year's $30,000 budget.

Earlier, on that lake, and Little Muskego officials have been looking at what affect adding a second chemical treatment to kill off the invasive Eurasian milfoil would be. The weeds have been flourishing after a warm winter that didn't kill them off from last year, and only expanded from spring going forward.

Jeff Stelzer of Lake and Pond Solutions, which has applied chemicals to Little Muskego already this year, weighed in during the Little Muskego Lake District meeting Thursday night to help the board decide on what additional money should be budgeted for in 2013. He explained a second application would likely not impact the lake, however made other suggestions to alleviate the problem.

After a survey of the lake on August 24, Stelzer explained that expanding the spring treatment of the lake would serve the district better, as later season treatments have not been shown to have any effect in the following year.

"While some areas could have potentially used a second treatment, other areas were sparse. Your better bet would be to look at those bays where the weeds have been bad, and go beyond the first 100 feet of shoreline, which we normally treat."

Stelzer said specifically Kingston bay on the southern end of the lake as well as Schubring bay along the eastern shore were the worst, and the survey revealed the shorelines were in better shape than the centers of those bays.

"Generally, you see about 10 percent regrowth of these species in a normal year. This year, that regrowth was about 20 to 25 percent on most lakes," Stelzer said.

He added that currently 60 acres of about 250 acres of identified weed beds were treated, leaving room for expansion of treatment during the coming spring.

However, the good new is that Little Muskego's plan of coupling treatment with mechanical harvesting has kept it ahead of the curve versus other lakes, like Pewaukee Lake in western Waukesha County and Potter's Lake in Racine County.

"Lakes that do treatments only are much worse off; and harvesting only in areas that are heavy with milfoil areas can lead to its spread elsewhere on a lake," he explained.

Looking ahead at their 2013 budget the LMLA board decided to craft a resolution to increase spending an additional $16,000 to the already budgeted $34,000, bringing the total treatment budget to $50,000. This would translate to an increase for each lake resident of $20 (total yearly fee of $430), and $4 for off-lake district residents ($86). District residents will have an opportunity to vote on the resolution at their annual meeting on Thursday, Oct. 4.