Two years ago, at the beginning of our Demonstration Project, Scott Williams pointed to the pretty, tall, spiky flowering plants along our shoreline and said," they’re not good for the lake…they replace growth which is good for wildlife." This was new to me! All these years we’d been admiring purple loosestrife (shown to left) and now remove it? A hard new lesson but one that we all must learn.

Along with Eurasion Milfoil, another nemesis not yet in Maine, purple loosestrife fills in wetlands wherever it’s permitted to grow unchecked. This non-native invasive species of flora poses a threat to Maine’s habitats. It chokes out native vegetation like cattails, bulrushes, grasses and sedges, diminishes the availability of food plants for wildlife, alters the behavior of native animals such as pollinators, plant-eating insects and fruit-eating birds, and destroys habitat for frogs, turtles and other native species.

We must learn to identify it and, as soon as it blooms, remove it’s flowers carefully, cutting them off and placing them in a plastic bag. Send it to the dump, not into a mulch pile. It’s very difficult to pull up all of its roots, but that should be done after the flowers have been removed, to prevent the seed from spreading.

We’d like to take a census of loosestrife around the lake. We’ll remind you at the annual meeting, but if you can’t come, please take note of where it grows so we can plan our attack. It usually becomes noticeable in July. Little by little, we can start to eradicate this beguiling threat to our lake.

Eurasion milfoil, an aggressive water plant that clogs lakes and ponds, can be transported into Maine via out-of-state boats and motors. We have signs at boat launches telling boaters to remove all signs of vegetation from their boats/ motors before entering the lake

April Update: The State passed a law making it a civil violation with fines from $50-$500 to transport, cultivate, possess, distribute or sell 11 invasive aquatic plants, including Eurasion or variable watermilfoil. It also directs the DEP to develop a campaign to control these plants and to educate the public about them.