Little Muskego Lake Weed Treatment Yields Good Results

The Little Muskego Lake District Board heard from Lake and Pond Solutions, the firm hired to apply chemical treatments to areas of the lake, and the news was encouraging.

Jeff Stelzer, who oversaw the review and application of the pesticide, 24D, told the board that the findings were great news, as the presence of Eurasian water milfoil (EWM), an aggressive and invasive plant species that can quickly choke of other beneficial vegetation in a lake, was greatly diminished.

Results from an application in Schubring Bay revealed a 54% decrease in EWM, and more importantly according to Stelzer, a spike in wild celery, which he called "highly beneficial."

Applications were made in mid June, which Stelzer said was later than he would recommend for next year; application sites included Kingston bay and Schubring bay on the lake's south end and shoreline areas on either side of the mouth of Idle Isle bay.  Repeated applications can ultimately mean that less surface area of the lake will need to be treated after a period of five or six years, Stelzer explained.

"In a six-year period on Whitewater Lake, which is larger but similar in its density of milfoil - it was literally present at 100% of the shore - we treated about 150 to 160 acres every year in the first 4 years, but then only came back to treat 40 to 50 acres every year after that," he said.

The board will need to determine a course of action going forward, but the results, both on paper and what they had seen personally, were encouraging.

"I looked at Kingston Bay before the application, and it looks fantastic now," board member Larry Lefebvre said.