Lake Wononscopomuc Association
Spring Meeting
June 7, 2008
The 2008 spring meeting of the Lake Wononscopomuc Association was held at the Town Grove meeting hall from 9:30AM to 11:15AM.
Bill Littauer explained briefly that the board of directors voted unanimously at its last meeting, May 17, 2008, to postpone a decision on the 2 acre zoning proposal until a continuing comprehensive lake management study could be implemented. A committee was formed to work with The Hotchkiss School on a project that would have both environmental and educational opportunities. The committee includes David Sims, Jim Morrill, Cathy Shyer, Bruce Shearer and Bill Littauer.
The Association also thanks Ann Hume, Edward Erbacher and Keith Ellis for greeting the fishermen at 5:15AM on opening day and reinforcing the message on protecting the lake from zebra mussel infestation.
Bill reported that we will have two harvesters working on the lake this summer. They will concentrate first on areas near the shore where the Eurasian milfoil growth is heaviest. The selectmen have agreed to the extra expense. However, Charlie Ouelette reports that because the water level is so high this year the milfoil was generally well below the surface in late spring. Harvesting operations had to be suspended because of the heavy storm damage at the Grove last week.
We had two interesting speakers. Mary Silks invited Larry Mariscano, Executive Director of the Candlewood Lake Authority and V.P. of the Connecticut Federation of Lakes. He explained how the Candlewood Educational Program not only benefits from work high school students do in an environmental program, but how the students benefit from the credit on college applications and how the lake benefits much later when the students become adults and sit on governmental boards and commissions that make decisions affecting the lake.
Mariscano referred to several publications with data on the effects of urban development on Lake Wononscopomuc including: Century Changes in Connecticut Lakes, Estimating the Effects of Changing Land Use Patterns on Connecticut Lakes, and information available from the Connecticut Federation of Lakes. www.ctlakes.org. Candlewood Lake also publishes information on buffer gardens and other useful lake information at www.candlewoodlakeauthority.org.
Mariscano said Candlewood is going to experiment with weevils as a means of controlling the Eurasian milfoil. He referred us to Michelle Marko, an expert on weevils at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station.
That was a nice segue into a presentation by Marty Hilovsky, president of Enviroscience Inc. Keith Ellis reported that Hilovsky’s company has been treating Indian Lake with weevils with great success. Dr. Hilovsky had worked on the Brownington Pond project in Vermont in 1988. The weevil, Eurhychiopsis lecontei, is found in many lakes including ours. However, it is usually found in numbers too small to have much effect. This particular bug is as tiny as a pin head and seems to thrive on milfoil. It doesn’t seem to eat much of anything else.
It works by burrowing into the top of the milfoil stem. Its larvae then feasts on the milfoil. It has a life cycle of about 30 days and Hilovsky says you can get 3 or more generations in a season. They can produce tens of thousands of off spring a year and they can survive the winter. The weevils have been introduced in about 150 lakes in 13 states and some Canadian provinces. More information can be found at www.enviroscienceinc.com.
This system is not a quick fix and there are some drawbacks, but it is biological and uses an agent already found in our local lakes. The biggest drawback is that you can not harvest the area where you expect the weevils to work. The milfoil has to grow above the water so the weevils can get into the stem. However, we could designate 10 or 15 acres for a test purpose as we proposed to do with the herbicide treatment. We could harvest the rest of the lake.
Michelle Marko at the CAES says this is a long term solution that is successful in 90% of the cases, but it takes years to work. There is very little if any permitting required for weevil treatments in Connecticut. The cost is about $1200 for each thousand weevils. Hilovsky said we should plan on an investment of about $15,000 per year for 3 years or more.
Prepared by:
Bill Littauer
