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RANGELEY – Since ice-out, courtesy boat inspectors have been educating boaters on invasive aquatic plants and animals at seven public boat launches in the Rangeley region.
The Rangeley Town Park had nearly 800 boaters in June and July while staffed with inspectors. Eight of those boats were carrying aquatic plants from other waterbodies. The plants were sent to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection for further identification. Two of those plants were confirmed as Eurasian milfoil; one of the 11 plants on the ME DEP’s 11 Aquatic Plant Invaders list.
“We staff public boat launches at the highest volume times and thankfully this approach has been beneficial this year with two confirmed saves from invasive aquatic milfoil, ” said the program coordinator, Amanda Laliberte. “We each need to be diligent in cleaning, draining, and drying our gear since our community’s economy is intermingled with the health of our lakes. Prevention is key with aquatic invasive plants; eradication is costly, nearly impossible and will take years to recover from.”
The purpose of RLHT’s CBI program is threefold; to educate the publi tof threat aquatic invaders, to teach boaters to inspect their equipment and lastly, to change the behavior of boaters so they instinctively inspect their boats when entering and leaving a water body. It only takes one plant fragment for an infestation to take hold on a lake. Once established, there is no native predator in to slow its progress and it grows at an expediential rate, rapidly taking over shorelines making the area unsuitable for swimming or fishing.
Eradication is nearly impossible and costly. One person can make a difference. Officials ask that any unusual plants growing in a body be reported to RLHT at 207- 864-7311 or the Lake Stewards of Maine at VLMP.org.
Support for the RLHT’s Courtesy Boat Inspector program annually comes from the voters of local municipalities, private donations and grants from the Maine Department of Enfironmental Protection.
