While the discovery of starry stonewort at five locations near the public access on Lake Sylvia’s west side is bad news for the area, it was detected early and a treatment plan is already in the works.
"It’s the earliest that any outbreak has been caught in Minnesota. But once it’s been introduced into a lake it has never been eradicated," said Blaine Barkley, chair of the Greater Lake Sylvia Association’s aquatic invasive species committee. "I think it probably comes down to managing the issue rather than eliminating it."
The treatment plan involves closing the public access for about three weeks while a half-acre area is enclosed with a containment barrier.
As of last weekend, the lake association reported that the expected closing date was Wednesday, Oct. 19. Even before the accesses closes, the association hopes that boaters will avoid the public access since traffic can spread particles of the algae around the lake. The association is directing boaters to the Camp Chi Rho access toward the south end of the west lake for all boat launches and removals both before and during the closure.
"The areas where (the DNR) found it probably don’t go out more than 150 or 200 feet from the boat access," said Barkley. "You can’t afford to treat a huge area of the lake with chemicals. If this gets away from you it ends up being really problematic."
Once the area is cordoned off scuba divers will pull the algae concentrations by hand. The algae looks like a weed, but is difficult to kill with chemicals because if its segmented nature. If left unattended it grows in thick mats on the surface, and chemicals can only kill the portions of the mat that they touch.
To prevent particles of the starry stonewort from spreading during the pulling process, divers will use suction hoses to vacuum the area, including the sediment around the algae concentrations, to filter out any pieces that could lead to reproduction.
After the pulling and suction work is complete, the area will be given two doses of chemical treatments to try to eliminate the starry stonewort.
"The GLSA Aquatic Invasive Species Committee has combined two of the DNR-approved treatment methods, which we feel is the most aggressive approach known at this time in Minnesota," the association said.
Barkley was realistic about the odds of success, however.
"If you can’t knock it out the first time it becomes a management process. And it’s here now, so what’s to keep it from coming back with another boat?" he said. "If you get a little piece of this stuff floating outside the area that will be treated – if there are already pieces out there floating around in the lake, then it becomes a management issue where each year we’ll have to repeat the process. So this is just something that is just going to become a new way of life around here."
Initial find, reaction
According to Russ Fortner, also a member of the GLSA’s aquatic invasive species committee, the starry stonewort was discovered by a survey team from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources during the last week of September.
Fortner said his initial reaction to the news was frustration with the DNR for not taking more rigorous action to contain the starry stonewort to Lake Koronis in Paynesville, where the algae was first discovered in Minnesota in August of 2015.
Barkley said that closing a public access to prevent the spread of such invasives was more difficult than the association initially thought, however, and was not only a decision for the Minnesota DNR. In fact, since some federal money was used to establish the public access on Lake Sylvia, federal permission must be given before it can be closed.
"You can imagine the degree of difficulty to get all the bureaucracy in line in multiple organizations that have some kind of jurisdiction," said Barkley.
Fortner also said it was ironic that Lake Sylvia, one of the most active in Wright County when it comes to AIS inspections and the lake upon which the county-wide boat inspection program is based, should be the first in the area to discover starry stonewort.
"We’re one of the few lakes that have the four worst invasives that have come down the pike so far: curly leaf, milfoil, zebra mussels and starry stonewort," said Fortner. "It’s not fun to be a lake owner at this point."
Spreading stonewort
Dense mats of the grass-like algae can prevent swimming, fishing and boating. Some vegetation making up the mats on the surface periodically dies, creating a putrid rotten egg smell as well.
Lake Koronis has an $800,000 treatment plan in place, but the starry stonewort has spread rapidly there since its initial discovery last year. The algae has since been discovered on a handful of additional lakes as well.
Though it is growing late in the season, Lake Sylvia officials said there was no time to lose in pursuing treatment.
"This stuff grows in the winter, so if you let it sit any period of time, it will expand all winter under the ice," said Barkley. "It’s not like a lot of weeds that die during the winter. This stuff continues to grow year-round, so we have to get it out as quickly as we can."
"The sooner we get at it, the better. Everyone agrees to that," said Fortner. "If it was yesterday it wouldn’t be fast enough."
In the meantime, the GLSA is urging every boater leaving the lake not to travel to any other lakes, or at least to contact the DNR to request decontamination first.
"The risk factors for this kind of infection are the number of accesses you have, as well as the number of boat launches in a year," said Barkley. "There are other lakes in the area that have more launches than Lake Sylvia does, so I’m kind of surprised that we ended up with it first, especially given the fact that from early spring into the fall we actually have someone at that public landing 13 hours a day inspecting boats to try to eliminate this problem. Some other lakes aren’t doing anything like that. So I would be surprised if it doesn’t also show up in other lakes."
Funds for the fight
While Barkley said the DNR has been helpful in providing advice and aiding with the process to get the access shut down, it has few if any funds available to pay for treatment.
"At meetings we were at (last) week we heard there is a chance there will be some funds available from the DNR, but it won’t pay for this," said Barkley. "The county also has some money available from the state for this type of thing, so we’ll probably approach the county too. Hopefully things go well with the county, but by and large Lake Sylvia is on the hook for the tab on this."
Barkley said that despite that situation, Sylvia is in a better position than many smaller lakes that wouldn’t have the ability to fund extensive treatments. The overall cost will not be known until all of the necessary contracts are signed and the work is completed.
Fortner said there was little choice in pursuing the treatment on Sylvia.
"(If we didn’t) it would ruin what we know of lake life since the ’50s. No more kids playing in the shallows or fishing off the dock. That would be gone," he said. "It’s going to have to be something we continually manage. We have to stay after it."
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