Vol. 11, No. 3 Provided free of charge to our monitors and affiliates Winter 2007

Maine VolunteerLake Monitoring Program24 Maple Hill RdAuburn, Maine 04210

Where isthe Ice?

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VLMP 2007 Annual Meeting: July 28, Augusta

Other Up Coming Events:3/2 ~ Maine Milfoil Summit, Lewiston3/21 ~ Maine Water Conference, Augusta6/23 ~ COLA’s Maine Lakes Conference

For more information about any of these events contact the VLMP at 783-7733 or see our websitewww.MaineVolunteerLakeMonitors.org.

Open water on Lake Auburn January 3, 2007

Thinking Like a Lake

In the first half of the past century, the greatconservationist, Aldo Leopold, wrote a won-derful collection of essays, A Sand CountyAlmanac. One essay in particular, ThinkingLike a Mountain, appealed to me as Leopoldascribed a sense of consciousness to the mountain stating that only the moun-tain had existed long enough to listen objectively to the howl of the wolf,understanding the wolf's place in the natural order.

While studying lake and ocean dynamics in college, I found it helpful to 'thinklike a lake' when attempting to understand Lake Michigan's responses to exter-nal stresses, such as a steady wind across the surface of the lake. I came toappreciate lakes as virtual complex living organisms in and of themselves.

I'm sure most of you who monitor the health of your favorite lake, whether itbe the water clarity or the status of the aquatic plant community, also havedeveloped a fondness for, or emotional bond to, your lake, viewing it as morethan simply a physical feature of the landscape. So, go ahead and admit it; youlove your lake. Well, I'm sure in its' own way, your lake would be fond of youtoo.

As you know, our lakes are subject to external stresses much more severe thana gentle breeze across the lake surface. Like humans, lakes can become quiteill when 'stressed out'. I tend to view lake monitors as environmental health-care providers, monitoring the lake's vital signs and providing critical informa-tion to support appropriate management measures to protect or rehabilitatethe lake. On behalf of the VLMP, a heartfelt thanks to all of you who providesuch a valuable service for Maine's lakes. But most importantly, your lakethanks you too.

On a closing note, I wish to thank all who have made monetary contributionsto the VLMP's year end fund-raising campaign. By year's end, donations hadexceeded those received by the end of 2005! As you know, this past year theVLMP was confronted with significant capital expenditures, such as the pur-chase of the new pontoon boat and improvements to the Brackett Center. Allof these have served to enhance the VLMP's ability to provide the myriad ofservices for Maine's lakes, including better training for volunteer monitors.The year 2006 was a very good year for the VLMP, and with your continuedsupport, 2007 will be even better. Thank you all.

What’s InsidePresident’s Message . . . . . . . . . . 2Lakeside Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3A Maine Lake In Winter . . . . . . . 4Aquatic Habitats . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Meet the Monitors . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Brackett Center News . . . . . . . . . 9Littorally Speaking—Battling Milfoil . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

VLMP StaffScott Williams Executive DirectorRoberta Hill Program Director

Maine Center forInvasive Aquatic Plants

Jim Entwood Program CoordinatorJackey Bailey Special Projects Coordinator

Invasive Aquatic PlantsLinda Bacon QA/QC Advisor (Maine DEP)

Board of DirectorsBill Monagle (Winthrop) PresidentMary Jane Dillingham (Auburn) Vice PresidentPeter Vaux (Orono) TreasurerMary Nelson (Lovell) Secretary

Dick Bredeau (Boothbay)Peter Fischer (Bristol)Mark Fuller (Auburn)Ken Holt (North Turner)Philomena McPhee-Brown (Turner)Gerry Nelson (Lovell)Kirsten Ness (Waterville)Tamara Lee Pinard (Westbrook)

To Contact Us:24 Maple Hill RoadAuburn, Maine 04210207-783-7733vlmp@mainevlmp.orgwww.MaineVolunteerLakeMonitors.org

Editorial StaffScott WilliamsRoberta HillRichard JenningsJim Entwood, Layout

Funding for this newsletter is made possible by grantsfrom the US Environmental Protection Agency and theMaine Department of Environmental Protection,through Section 319 of the Clean Water Act.

Printed on Recycled Paper by:Curry Printing & Graphics - Auburn, Maine

2

Bill MonagleVLMP Board President

13

President’sMessage

around project sites. Fragment barri-ers can be nets, screens or plasticsheeting suspended from poles orfloating booms to catch stray frag-ments.

Third, weather and light conditionscan have a significant impact on theefficacy of the project. Work days andthe specific hours of activity should beplanned to optimize weather and lightconditions. If conditions suddenlydegrade, call it a day.

Last, despite your best efforts to main-tain quality control, it cannot always beassumed that every single fragment orplant is removed, or even seen. Someplants may get covered over with sedi-ments during the course of the distur-bance. It may take time for some frag-ments to float to the surface and oth-ers will settle on the bottom, becomeentangled in nearby plants, or remainneutrally buoyant in the water.

For this reason, follow-up monitoringand ongoing control is essential. Afterharvesting, the site should be moni-tored on a monthly basis (more fre-quently if possible) during the grow-ing season. It is preferable to usesnorkelers or divers for this effort asthey will be able to immediatelyremove any invasive plants that arespotted. If surveyors in boats areused for the follow-up monitoring, a

system for directingdivers to preciseplant locationsmust be developedand employed.Whatever the par-ticulars, the systemmust make it as easyas possible fordivers to find themarked plants andremove them in atimely manner.Labeled buoy mark-ers, correspondingto labeled marks ona map, is an exam-

ple of a simple and effective plantmarking system. As with the actualcontrol work, all monitoring activitiesshould be properly documented.

All plant material must be disposed ofproperly--dried and composted distantfrom any body of water (permanent orintermittent), buried, disposed of assolid waste, or burned. If harvestedmaterial is in large enough amounts itmay be feasible to contract with a dis-posal service.

Mapping and marking control sites(recording GPS coordinates if possi-ble) facilitates ongoing monitoring andcontrol. It is important that recordsare kept for all control activities,including dates, times, peopleinvolved, hours spent, amount ofplant material harvested, etc.

And of course the first considerationfor any project of this kind should beSAFETY! All diving involvingSCUBA equipment should be done bycertified SCUBA divers only. (MCIAPhas a list of certified SCUBA diverswho have been trained in invasive mil-foil removal.) Diving and snorkelingsites should be marked with flags ormarkers. The rule is that boaters muststay a minimum of 200 feet frommarked diver areas, but boaters cannotbe relied upon to know or follow the

rules. Divers and snorkelers shouldalways be attended by spotters at thesurface. Spotters should be aware ofthe divers' position in the water at alltimes and keep a careful watch out forunwary boaters.

Like virtually all known methods ofcontrolling invasive aquatic plants,manual harvesting has its drawbacksand limitations. But--especially whenused in combination with other con-trol methods--manual harvesting doeshave an important role to play in theongoing struggle to control the spreadof invasive aquatic plants in Maine.

One of the longest-running and mostsuccessful manual harvesting projectsin the state is being carried out by agroup of dedicated individuals onCushman Pond in Lovell. For moreinformation on the Cushman Pondproject and other manual control proj-ects in Maine, please see the new"Battling the Invaders" link on theMCIAP webpage.

Teamwork is key -- Diver Scott Gregory hands a bagof harvested plants to Scott Williams.

IMPORTANT! - All invasive aquat-ic plant control projects are subjectto regulation under Maine'sNatural Resources Protection Act.Before planning any control proj-ect, contact the Maine Departmentof Environmental Protection forspecific permit requirements. Allnative aquatic plants are strictly protect-ed by Maine law.

When I was young it was oftenpossible, and reasonably safe,to skate on small ponds in

southwestern Maine by Thanksgiving,or shortly thereafter. It is now mid-January, and very few (if any) of Maine'slakes would be considered safe for recre-ation. In fact, many of our large lakesremain free of ice altogether, followingseveral weeks of unusually warm weath-er. The Maine Departments of InlandFisheries and Wildlife and Public Safetyhave recently issued several warnings tostay off lakes and ponds that are frozen,due to dangerously thin ice.

During my regular commute to theVLMPs Brackett Center I drive past thenortherly shoreline of beautiful LakeAuburn. For the past month, while gaz-ing out at the sparkling waves and deepblue water, I have been struck by thefeeling that something is seriously out ofkilter. Let's face it, seeing whitecaps on aMaine lake in January is, in the words ofseveral others who have recently com-mented on this unseasonable phenome-non, kind of weird.

This should all come as no great sur-prise. After all, record-breaking warmtemperatures were documentedthroughout Maine in November andDecember. Speaking of record-keeping,as many of us who have spent time onor near a particular lake over the yearsknow, a good deal of effort has goneinto guessing, and ultimately trackingice-out dates. Some of these "data" wereuniquely recorded as scribbles on the

inside of a barn door, or retained insome other memorable form. For exam-ple, Earl Bacon (father of DEPBiologist Linda Bacon) used to enjoybeing able to make the annual claim thathe had been swimming in MessalonskeeLake in Belgrade just a day or two beforethe onset of ice cover. A few days agohe told Linda that the ice-on date forMessalonskee this year will be severalweeks later than it typically was in the1920's and early 1930's! In other words,his late season swim probably took placein November, as opposed to the middleof January. This is a great story, full ofimagery and potentially useful anecdotalinformation. Perhaps you have some ofyour own to share with us?

Local records were very helpful in thereview of information conducted sever-al years ago by USGS Hydrologist,Glenn Hodgkins, in which it was deter-mined that the duration of ice cover fora number of New England lakes hasbeen getting shorter over the past centu-ry. However, there is relatively littleinformation available concerning ice-indates. Perhaps we should be paying clos-er attention to this phenamenon, as well,because the overall annual duration ofice cover on lakes and ponds can cer-tainly influence many of the physical,chemical and biological processes inthese complex ecosystems.

You may recall that the winter of2005/2006 was also unusually warm, ashave been a number of recent winterseasons. If warmer weather increases

over time, as climatologists who studyglobal warming say it will, changes toour lakes will almost certainly occur,although exactly what those changesmight be is the subject of a good deal ofspeculation. At the most simple, basiclevel, an increase in both water tempera-ture and sunlight penetration into thewater column, resulting from reducedice depth and duration of cover, couldcause an acceleration of biologicalprocesses in our lakes. Our lakes andponds could experience increased algalgrowth, reduced water clarity, lower lev-els of dissolved oxygen in the water (asindicated by Green Lake volunteer mon-itor Bob Dunlap in a recent WaterColumn article), and an increase in thespread of invasive aquatic plants. Butthe complexity of lake ecosystems,along with our limited knowledge of theway that they respond to influences,allows us only to venture educatedguesses as to what could happen if dra-matic changes in the weather occur inthe future.

All of this provides another valuableopportunity for volunteers to gatherdata that could significantly improve ourunderstanding of the impact of climatewarming to Maine lakes. If you livenearby the lake that you monitor, con-sider tracking the date when ice cover isfirst observed on the lake in early winter(ice-in), as well as the day when the lakebecomes free of ice in the spring (ice-out). We are working on definitions for

LakesideNotesWhere's the Ice?

Scott WilliamsVLMP Executive Director

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Continued on page 9

unmanageable, then to leave that areato settle, (perhaps shifting to a secondarea away from the plume) thenreturning to the initial plot to "mop-up" the plants that were missed earlier.

Another area where variation in tech-nique and equipment occurs is intransporting plants to the surface. Ifyou are working in very shallow water(or, in deeper water, removing only

one or two isolated plants) gettingplants to the surface is not much of anissue. If you are removing dozens,hundreds, even thousands of plants indeeper water, the way in which theplants are transported to the surfacehas great bearing upon both the effi-ciency and efficacy of the project.

For smaller deepwater projects, diversgenerally use dive bags to collectplants. Dive bags (the type used byurchin divers) are made of lightweightnylon mesh with a wide, aluminum-frame mouth that opens and snapsshut like a clam shell. Bag-size canvary depending on the number ofplants that one is attempting to pullduring the dive, and the personal pref-erences of those who will be handlingthe bags. (Some divers find that cut-ting down standard dive bags to ½ to¾-size makes them more manageable,others prefer larger bags.)

Getting the octopus-like variable mil-foil weeds into the bags can be a chal-lenge. The upper parts of plants maybe coaxed into the bag prior to diggingin after its roots, to keep the plantunder control and to minimize frag-mentation. Larger plants are some-times wrapped around the diver's handlike a forkful of spaghetti prior to bag-ging. It may be necessary to removesome plants in sections--removing the

upper part first, and then the lowerpart and roots.

Once bags are full, divers may swimthem up to the "handlers" in boats atthe surface or alternatively, bags maybe transported to boats by moremechanical means. One fairly simpleand inexpensive mechanical techniqueis to rig up a pulley system. Clips areattached at intervals along a loop ofrope. (The rope should be longenough to extend from the surface tothe bottom, then back again.) Theloop-line is threaded through smallerloop anchored to the bottom andanother smaller loop secured to theboat. Divers clip loaded dive bags tothe line, yank on the line to signalhelpers in the boat, who pull up thebag, empty the weeds into the hold ofthe boat, reattach the bag, signal thediver, and run the bag back to the bot-

tom. Slick. (We have also seen a sys-tem of cables and ropes rigged upacross an infested stream to transport5-gallon buckets full of plants totrucks waiting on shore.)

A much more sophisticated method oftransporting plants to the surface isused in a control method called "diver-assisted suction harvesting." In thismethod, there are no bags. Diversextract plants by hand as above, andthen feed the plant material directlyinto a 4" diameter suction tube forinstant transport to the work platformat the surface, generally a pontoonboat or barge. Diver-assisted suctionharvesting will be the focus of a laterarticle in this series. Also please see "ADay in the Life of a Milfoil Diver" inthe Fall 2006 issue of the WaterColumn.

Quality control is extremely impor-tant. First, the emphasis should be onpatience and diligence. Hand harvest-ing is hard work. If it is not done withgreat care and meticulous attention todetail, all your hard work may be invain. Worse, the activity may result inmore harm than good. It is, for exam-ple, essential that everyone involved inpulling up plants knows how to differ-entiate the target invasive species fromany look-alike native plants in the area.Attending an Invasive Plant Patrolworkshop is a good prerequisite.

Second, every fragment created duringthe course of the control project hasthe potential to cause another infesta-tion, both within the infested lake or--if the proper vector comes along tosome other uninfested waterbody. Aftersafety, fragment control should be the number-one consideration of everyone involved in theproject. Strategies for controlling frag-ments include: choosing the propermeans to approach the plants, extract-ing plants with care to minimize break-age, having spotters and skimmers atthe surface to gather up stray frag-ments, and installing fragment barriers

Volunteers wading into Dingley Brook, in Raymond, to removevariable milfoil.

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When my wife and I moved tosouthern Maine nearly twodecades ago, it was during

winter, and I had not before seen afrozen lake. Several weeks later anunusual late winter rain fell, putting asheet of water above the ice on ourlake (Highland Lake in Windham,Falmouth, Westbrook, not to be con-fused with the much larger and famousHighland Lake in Bridgeton). The icewas still thick enough to support carsand pickups, and some local characterdrove up and down the lake at highspeed pulling behind a water skier! Wewere astonished, called friends andfamily in Texas, saying, "Yankees don'twater ski behind a boat, but behind apickup!" explaining what we saw. Theydidn't believe us.

Nearly all the lake monitoring in Mainetakes place during a season when it ispleasant to get on the lake and appre-ciate the wonderful scenery and relax-ing experience, but there is a lot moregoing on in winter than just ice fishing.Each lake has its own personality. Thefollowing explanation of conditionsencountered during the winter appliesto the lake I monitor, but it may alsoapply to yours if it is deeper than

about 7 to 10 meters, and large enoughfor the wind to induce vertical mixingcurrents.

A Prelude to Winter Conditions

The prelude to winter starts aboutmid-September, as the summer-warmed water begins to slowly cooldown. As autumn progresses, thewarm top layer (epilimnion) of thelake chills, the boundary between thetop warmer layer and the bottom cold-er layer (hypolimnion) sinks deeperinto the lake, until eventually in aboutmid-fall the temperatures match andthe lake "turns over" meaning the lakemixes completely. Mixing takes placebecause cold water is denser thanwarm water, down to a temperature ofabout 4º C or 41º F, so very slow ver-tical currents set up displacing thewarm water with cold. This continuesfor as long as two months, until thesurface freezes. Due to contact withthe air, the mixed water is near maxi-mum saturation with dissolved oxygenand carbon dioxide. Because the ter-restrial plants have been slipping intodormancy and consuming less rainwa-ter and groundwater, stream flow and

A Maine Lake in Winter

By Keith WilliamsCertified Volunteer Lake Monitor on Highland Lake in Windham

Long after most volunteerlake monitors have putaway their Secchi disks forthe year, Keith Williams isdrilling holes in the ice onHighland Lake in Windham,in an effort to expand hisand our understanding ofthe physical, chemical andbiological characteristics ofthat lake's ecosystem. Hisscientific background serveshim well in this effort to doc-ument the dramaticchanges that the lakeundergoes through Maine'sfour seasons.

We often reiterate thateach lake has a unique per-sonality, and because ofthis, Keith's account ofHighland Lake may notstrictly apply to the one thatyou monitor. But many ofthe processes that hedescribes are universal, andperhaps they will motivateyou to explore your lake‘spersonality beyond the endof summer.

Scott Williams

IMPORTANT! - All invasive aquatic plantcontrol projects are subject to regulationunder Maine's Natural Resources ProtectionAct. Before planning any control project,contact the Maine Department ofEnvironmental Protection for specific per-mit requirements. All native aquatic plantsare strictly protected by Maine law.

The depth at which the invasive plantsoccur determines the approach (orcombination of approaches) that areused. For invasive plants occurringalong the shore in shallow water it maybe possible to approach the task bysimply wading from plant to plant.The major problem with this approachis that it is difficult for harvesters to"tread lightly" enough to avoid dis-turbing sediments and causing turbidi-ty. Brown clouds of fine sedimentsobscure visibility and release excessnutrients back into the water column,neither of which is desirable.

When the plants to be removed are invery shallow water, one way to reducedisturbance and turbidity somewhat(remember you are removing plants bytheir roots; disturbance is pretty muchunavoidable) is to approach plantsusing a shallow draft boat such as acanoe or kayak. The obvious draw-back here is the inherent "tippiness" ofthese lightweight craft, but avoidingcalamity is possible by working in two-person teams: one person(the harvester) bending overthe gunnels to work the plantfrom the muck, and one per-son (plant collector, fragmentscout, and counterbalance)carefully shifting his or herweight in the boat to keepthings stable.

Another way to minimize dis-turbance when harvesting invery shallow areas is to use asnorkel, mask and --if condi-tions are suitable and care istaken--fins. (Fins keep the

feet buoyant at the surface, reducingthe disturbance of the bottom, butwhen they come in contact with thebottom they are even more destructivethan feet.) As with the method above,it is helpful (and safer) to work inteams: one or two snorkelers in thewater pulling plants, and one or twospotters in a boat, keeping an eye onthe snorkelers, handling plants as theyare removed, and retrieving stray frag-ments.

In deeper water--greater than 3 or 4feet--the approach is made by way ofSCUBA divers or divers using a"hookah," a system that allows multi-ple divers to breathe air from a com-pressor at the surface through longflexible air tubes. Most of the manualharvesting currently being done inMaine is being done by trained divers.Again teamwork is key--divers work-ing in teams of two or three, attendedby spotters in boats at the surface,skimming fragments, and handlingplants that are pulled up by the divers.(Please contact the VLMP for moreinformation on manual control train-ing opportunities.)

There are a number of techniques forextracting invasive plants from thesubstrate. The factors at play include:composition of the substrate, number

of plants to be removed, whether theyoccur in dense single-species patchesor are scattered among native plants,time of year, the size of the plants, andthe resources that can be brought tobear upon the project. The primarytools used for extracting plants are thehands. The harvester, wearing gloves,finds the base of the plant, reachesdown into the substrate gingerly loos-ening the root hairs, then lifts theplant, roots intact, from the sediments.In some cases, small hand-tools, suchas those used for weeding a garden,may be needed to gently prize plantsloose. Whether the work is beingdone by hand or with hand tools, it isVERY IMPORTANT to rememberthat any small stem or root fragmentleft behind is capable of sprouting anew plant. Great care must be taken tominimize fragmentation.

Removing plants causes turbidity; somuch of this hand work is done inconditions of poor visibility, com-pelling divers to learn to recognize thetarget invaders as much by feel as bysight. The visibility problem can bemitigated somewhat by workingmethodically in one direction, andstriving to keep ahead of the leadingedge of the sediment plume. Anothersolution is to work a defined area, or"plot," until the turbidity becomes

SCUBA divers, divers using a floating hookah system, and spotters in boats at arecent MCIAP training event.

10 5

groundwater seepage into the lakegenerally increases during autumn.Vertical mixing continues even after"turn-over" (a.k.a.: mixing) until thewater temperature drops to watermaximum density, 4° C, sometime inearly to mid-December.

The Onset of Lake Ice

Lake surface freezing starts on verycold, clear windless nights, startingfirst along the shoreline (the lake hasnever frozen over in just one night).Some years our lake may freeze over ina very thin layer, only to be followedby some hours of high winds andwarmer temperatures that break upthe ice. Sometimes Mother Naturemay try two or three times before thelake is solidly frozen for the rest of thewinter. At first, additional ice accumu-lates on the bottom of the cover dueto thermal transfer through the ice tothe air, but later far more ice accumu-lates on the top of the ice surface, due

to water freezing there, especially insnowy mild winters. On warmer daysthe sun heats the snow enough to melta small amount, which then re-freezesduring cold nights. Occasionally Ihave observed a layer of waterbetween two layers of ice, due to wateron top of the base ice freezing on avery cold night, before the layer ofwater itself freezes.

Lake ice has a columnar structure,from the size of a pencil down to thesize of pencil lead. The undersurfaceof the ice may be smooth, or frazzled,or have ridges up to a couple of inch-es tall, or stalactites up to a couple ofinches in size. The lake ice on north-ern Maine lakes may occasionallybecome more than a yard thick, butvaries from year to year. Snow on icehas an insulating effect, so winters ofheavy snow and light winds are likelyto cause thinner lake ice. Ice free ofair bubbles and coloration transmitsnearly as much sunlight as liquid water,but fresh snow cover greatly diminish-

es the light penetration, the moreso the thicker the snow cover.Wind can redistribute the snowsuch that there may be barren icepatches but other spots with moresnow in drifts. Most winters theice wrinkles up in pressure ridgesfrom a few inches to over a yardtall, usually near a shoreline.Those ridges form because freez-ing water expands about 8.5%, andeven when several inches thick,high wind can drag the ice, settingup ever so slight waves, that inducevery small long wave movement inthe water under the ice. The loca-tion and height of ice ridges on mylake varies from year to year. Oneyear it traversed the width of mylake at "The Narrows." Duringvery cold days and nights when

new ice is forming, cracking ice cansound like snap crackle and pop, orrattling sheet metal, while flexing icecan be heard making groaning

sounds, or you may hear a "blup"sound as water waves reverberateacross the lake, moving in and out ofridge cracks.

Water Movement

Under the ice, water movement ismuch slower than it is during the sum-mer, because wind-induced waves andcurrents are absent, so circulationdoesn't reach deep below the surface.Except for the top one meter or so ofthe water (just below the ice), the lakewater column is a uniform 4º C (41ºF), temperature at which water is atmaximum density. Streams feedingthe lake don't freeze completely, andforest ground doesn't freeze soliddown to the water table. As a result,more water typically enters the lakeduring the winter than during the sum-mer, although variations in watershedhydrology and precipitation during theyear can change this generalization.On the average, more water enters thelake in January and February than inJuly and September. The stream wateris near freezing in the deep of winterdue to contact with the cold air and icein the streams. Stream water is thusever so slightly lighter than the waterin the rest of the lake. It thus spreadsout upon entering the lake and slidesunder the ice to the lake outlet. Mostof the water movement in winter isfrom the stream inlets, in a layer abouta yard thick, flowing to the lake outlet.The remainder of the lake water does-n't exit until spring turn-over, whichoccurs after the ice is off the lake sur-face. Groundwater usually seeps intothe lake near the fringes, and is usuallya little above freezing.

Heat from the metabolism of organicdecay, and from sunlight warming thesediments can result in very slow verti-cal density currents that set up as thewarmer water rises and is displaced by

This profile of an ice core taken fromHighland lake shows the horizontal strati-fication lines that were created as theice formed.

Continued on page 6

Littorally Speaking

By Roberta Hill, Laurie Callahan, and Jackey Bailey

Though many of the variable milfoilcontrol efforts in Maine involve a

combination of manual control methods,most involve some use of the methodknown as "manual harvesting." Manualharvesting is a useful technique forremoving scattered individual plants andcontrolling small infested "patches."With manual harvesting, plants and theirroot systems are individually removedfrom the infested area, collected, andtransported away from the waterbody fordisposal. The means by which the plantsare approached, handled, and even theway in which they are disposed of mayvary, but the basic concept remains thesame. Think "weeding the garden byhand, or with hand tools." Now think"weeding the garden under several feet ofwater." This should give you a prettygood sense of the work.

Battling Invaders with Our Bare Hands:Manual Harvesting

Jim Chandler, one of Maine’s most experienced milfoil divers, arrives atthe surface with a bag full of variable milfoil

This article is the second in a four-part series focused on the challenge of controllinginvasive aquatic plants in Maine. In the fall issue of the Water Column the topic wasaquatic herbicides. For the remaining three installments, the focus will be on various"non-chemical" control methods (alternately referred to as "manual," "physical" or"mechanical" methods). Most groups currently involved in combating variable milfoilinfestations in Maine are utilizing one (or more) of these non-chemical control meth-ods. The first we will look at is manual harvesting.

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Many Thanks!We would like to recognize the many supporters of theBrackett Environmental Center this year. The Auburn WaterDistrict has continued their help with the development of theCenter. This past summer the District replaced the roof ofthe Bracket Center with all new shingles.

The Brackett Center continues to develop with the assistanceof volunteers. Special thanks to Dick Thibodeau for donatinga large chest freezer and to Jarrett Poisson for facilitating thedonation of two laptop computers and a network server fromTD Banknorth. Thanks to Mark Fuller, Richard Jennings,Phoebe Hardesty and the VLMP Building and MaintenanceCommittee members for contributing their time and skills.

New at the Brackett CenterIn partnership with the Delta Institute we now offer fieldguides and nature texts at the Brackett Center with a portionof each sale going to support VLMP programs. Stop by to seethis unique collection including titles like Pond Watchers: Guideto Ponds and Vernal Pools of Eastern North America. For a com-plete listing of titles offered through the Delta Institute seetheir website www.vfthomas.com.

Brackett Environmental Center NewsMaine’s Lake Campus and Volunteer Training Center

New or quality usedOffice FurnitureDisplay Tables Conference Table

Professional ServicesElectricianPaintingCarpentryBrush hogging

Wish ListWe are seeking financial support and in-kind donations for the following:

both, in order to insure consistency indata provided by volunteers, recognizingthat ice-in may be a more difficult call,and that both dates could be difficult forlarge lakes with complex shapes. Beyondthe implications that this informationmay have for lake water quality, the pub-lic has had an interest in local informa-tion concerning ice cover on lakes forcenturies. Ice-in and ice-out data wouldostensibly be of general interest if madeavailable on the VLMP website link toindividual lakes, with the potential todraw the general public in to considerthe broader implications of lake data.

If you, or someone you know has kepttrack of ice data for the lake that youmonitor, please consider sharing thisinformation with all of us. It just might

complement some of the other data thathave been collected on your lake overthe years. We're also working on devel-oping a way for volunteer monitors topost lake ice data directly to our website.Stay tuned.

Global warming is a frighteningprospect not just because of the conse-quences that are thought to be under-stood about this process, but more sobecause of what is not known. There isno question that volunteer lake waterquality monitors and invasive plantpatrollers will play a vital role in our

understanding of this phenomenon.This is a particularly critical time for vol-unteers to be gathering data, because itis possible that the influence of climatechange will exacerbate many of theknown threats to Maine lakes, includingcultural eutrophication and the spreadof aquatic invaders. Time will tell, butnot without your help! As Bill Monaglesuggests in this newsletter, VLMP vol-unteers have their fingers on the pulseof Maine's lakes and ponds. Regardlessof the nature of the threat to our lakes,the information that volunteers collectwill have a strong bearing on our abilityto understand and protect our lakes,now and for the foreseeable future.

Where is the Ice? - Continued from page 3

Where's the ice? --We’ll wait to hear from you.

Please share your knowledge and experiences with all of us. Both historical dataand personal accounts relating to lake ice are welcome. Please send tovlmp@mainevlmp.org or VLMP, 24 Maple Hill Rd, Auburn, ME 04210

colder water. When the water reaches auniform 4º C, resulting in uniformdensity, the lake turns over and mixeswith relatively little wind energy.Much less energy is required to turnover the lake in the spring, because ofthe relatively low temperature varia-tion in the water column (compared toconditions in the summer/fall).

Biology Under the Ice

The creatures at the bottom of thefood chain, bacteria and fungi, are notoften measured in most lakes. Theseorganisms decompose the dead algae,zooplankton, fish, leaves, and twigsthat end up in the bottom of the lake.The sediments under my lake havebeen sampled only once under ice foranimal life. In a 1-meter square sam-ple (about 1.2 square yards) there werenearly 2,000 individuals, including thelarvae of the phantom midge, truemidges, mollusks, sludge worms, watermites, and seed shrimp. The totalweight of those creatures was aboutone-tenth of an ounce in the 1.2square yard sample.

In my lake during the winter, the algaeare most abundant near the surface,peaking about 10 feet below the ice,six times as dense as deeper in the lake,but quickly falling off just three feetdeeper. The winter production ofalgae, and zooplankton populations,are about one-tenth what they are inthe summer.

At the top of the food chain, the fishpopulation has been heavily manipu-lated to benefit fishermen. There arechain pickerel, and the most commongame fish are brown trout, salmon,and smallmouth bass, but no sunfish,eel, nor white sucker are caught underthe ice. Good fishing depth is gener-ally about six to ten feet under the ice,and on the bottom where the fish cangraze on the insect larvae.

Winter Chemistry

Since early 1999 our Water QualityCommittee has sampled my lake underthe ice for alkalinity, pH, and carbondioxide. Stream water entering thelake in winter tends to be more acid,higher in carbon dioxide, and morevaried in alkalinity than the summerlake water. Dissolved oxygen diffusesthrough the ice, so throughout thewinter the water just below the ice isnear saturation with oxygen. If youwere to monitor your lake under theice, you would probably find as thewinter progresses, dissolved oxygendiminishes with depth, due to themetabolic consumption of oxygenduring organic decay, as describedabove. In late winter, before ice-outthe concentration of dissolved oxygennear the bottom of the lake may be afraction of what it is just below the ice.

Carbon dioxide accumulates due tothe respiration incident to decomposi-tion, such that its concentration nearthe lake bottom may be more than fivetimes that just under the ice by thetime of ice-out. Acidity increases (pHdecreases) somewhat with depth aswinter proceeds, due, in part, toincreasing levels of carbon dioxide.Alkalinity (a measure of the ability ofthe water to resist, or "buffer" changesin pH) doesn't vary as much withdepth. Sometimes the liquid layerabout three feet thick under the ice isstrongly influenced by stream water asit slides just below the ice upon enter-ing the lake, as described above. Thiscan result in very different conditions.

Ice-Out

Come warmer temperatures in lateMarch and April, with increasinghours of sunshine, the snow and thetop of the lake ice begins to soften andmelt (sometimes known as "rotten" or"candle" ice). Little melting takesplace at the bottom of the ice, most

melting is internal to the ice and topsurface. Sunshine warming the darksediments in shallow water inducesmelting around the shoreline, andwarming stream inflow causes meltingaround the stream mouths. As "mudseason" progresses and stream flowpeaks, the stream water warms to 4º C,which is close to the density of thelake water column. This begins toimpinge into the lake, spreading out inplumes into the depths of the lake,even just above the sediments, induc-ing both vertical and horizontal cur-rents. This, combined with the forceof the wind on the open water, causes"spring turnover" to occur. Completeturnover can take place as rapidly as intwo days, but generally it takes longer,depending on weather conditionswhen the ice finally leaves the lake.

Carbon dioxide is "out-gassed" as thelake exhales (the lake "burps"), andbottom oxygen is replenished as thewater circulates vertically, so its entirecontents come in contact with the airat the surface. Melting of the mainbody of the lake may take place in fitsand starts, and parts of the lake mayactually re-freeze on cold days. Someyears it may take the lake two weeks tocompletely thaw, finishing betweenlate March and late April. After that,wind-driven and vertical density cur-rents due to warming completely mixthe lake. This marks the end of thewinter cycle on our lake. By early May,the water has already started to warm,and the first effects of the summerthermal stratification cycle can bemeasured.

Would you like to tell the story of yourlake? We would love to hear it!

Articles need not be of a technicalnature, and may be in the form of apersonal account or history of effortsto protect the lake. Contact us at783-7733 or vlmp@mainevlmp.org.

Most of us Maine folks have had the chance to visita rural lake or pond whose shore-line is totallyundeveloped - that is, no visible signs of houses,

docks, roads, unnatural clearings or human-made beaches.Perhaps you spent considerable energy and time hiking intothis environment and as you rest to eat your lunch, you arerefreshed by the variety of shoreline birds, and if you arevery fortunate, larger mammals and birds, such as deer,moose, beaver, otter, osprey, and eagles.

What you don't readily see, unless you look very closely intothe shallow depths along the shoreline of the lake, is thevariety of aquatic life, fish, bugs, crayfish, frogs, and more.As a rule, the more remote and undeveloped a waterbody -the greater abundance and diversity of resident aquaticorganisms.

Perhaps you brought along a fishing rod. If you're lucky(or skilled), you may catch a sample of what lies beneaththe surface of the shimmering waters. Native brook troutabound, as they have since the retreat of the glaciers, 10,000years ago! Maybe you catch several good-sized trout anddecide to cook them up for dinner. While cleaning them,you notice their stomachs are full. You open them up andfind partially digested remains of smaller fish. Pearl andredbelly dace, lake and creek chub, fallfish and commonshiner are some of the native minnow species common asforage fish for the larger brook trout. The trout also willfeed on their own young (they're cannibalistic!!). Whentrout are younger, they primarily feed on larger aquatic andshoreland invertebrates, or 'bugs'.

This great abundance and diversity of aquatic life (rangingfrom trout to minnows to amphibians to bugs) is found inundisturbed waters. Remote and relatively undevelopedlakes and ponds are not very common in southern NewEngland and are less common in southern Maine than areasin the northern woodlands. In northwestern Maine, a his-tory of land use by large forestry companies, whose focuswas not on developing their lands, has served to protectponds by maintaining mostly undisturbed lake shorelinesfor resident critters. Excessive disturbance and removal ofthe vegetation along the shore, such as overhanging shade

trees and shrubs and submerged or floating tree trunks andbranches, certainly reduce and can alter much of the exist-ing aquatic life.

Recent studies in Maine and Vermont woodland lakes haveconfirmed the importance of maintaining natural vegeta-tion and woody debris along lake shorelines to have ahealthy aquatic community. Our lakes are now facing muchgreater development pressures, as older seasonal cottagesget converted to year round dwellings and what is left ofthe undeveloped lakeshores are carved up. But this prob-lem, long recognized in populated areas, is now happeningelsewhere. Large-scale residential development is a loom-ing reality in our less populated towns and unorganizedregions. Wherever lakes are developed, it is very importantto protect critical shoreline habitat for all aquatic life. So, ifyou want to keep catching those fat brookies, leave theshoreline of the lake as natural as possible.

Lake Shoreline Aquatic HabitatsPart 1: An IntroductionBy Dave HalliwellAquatic (Fisheries) Biologist with Maine DEP

Last summer Dave Halliwell (above) sampled the littoralzones of lakes in northwestern Maine that are part of theDeboullie Ecoreserve. These remote lakes with undisturbedshorelines are home to a great diversity of aquatic life.

In the next issue of the Water Column, Dave continues hisseries on lake shorelines with a detailed look at the impactsof development on these important habitats.

Photo by Ryan Burton

7

Meet Maine's LakeMonitors

I have been monitoring Wesserunsett Lake in Madison since 1982.My wife Margaret (she's holding the eaglet in the photo) and I havehad a camp on that lake since 1974, a log cabin built by her great-uncle for her father in the late 1920's. Margaret's grandparents andparents had camps on the lake and now we have children andgrandchildren who spend summers at our daughter Elizabeth'scamp and at our camp.

When I was a boy, I spent countless hours exploring and fishing asmall pond near my house. This was the beginning of a life-longinterest in natural resources, especially aquatic, and a desire toprotect them. I have pursued that interest and desire academical-ly, professionally, and as a volunteer. Being a VLMP monitor was anopportunity to contribute data that could be used to help protecta lake our family has personal ties to. I have enjoyed seeingElizabeth become actively involved in this program as a certifiedVLMP monitor (Secchi disk, dissolved oxygen, and total phospho-rus) and a regional coordinator.

I have participated over the years in a number of other volunteerefforts relating to natural resources. These include investigatingcrayfish distribution in Maine with Matt Scott, contributing data tothe Maine Amphibian and Reptile Atlas project (MARAP), survey-ing vernal pools in Madison and Skowhegan for the MaineAudubon Society, participating in the Maine Damselfly andDragonfly Survey (MDDS), chairing the Skowhegan ConservationCommission, being a trustee of the Lake Wesserunsett Associationand chairing its water quality and invasive aquatic plants commit-tees, and participating in the Maine Audubon Society AnnualLoon Count since 1983.

In addition to the volunteer work, I have completed several studiesin the past two years relating to Wesserunsett Lake. These include acomprehensive report about the lake for the LWA and a vernalpool report. I have also served as the Executive Director of theSomerset Woods Trustees (SWT), a land trust with a number of hold-ings. One of those is a bald eagle nest site in Skowhegan that pro-duced the eaglet Margaret is holding. Hopefully, this bird will jointhe other eagles that we often see at the lake. One of the areaseagles frequent at Wesserunsett is on a property that is for sale, andboth the LWA and the SWT would like to see that land acquired forconservation purposes and not developed. Elizabeth and I areworking with the LWA, SWT and others to achieve that goal.

Each volunteer has their own story of how they gotinvolved in monitoring and protecting their lake.For some it may have started with childhood mem-

ories of the family camp, others may have fallen in lovewith their lake late in life, or may have taken action inresponse to a possible threat to their lake or pond. Eachstory is unique but shares a common commitment to vol-unteer service and protecting Maine’s lakes and ponds.

Stories and photos sent to us by certified monitors are nowavailable on the VLMP website. To see them click on Meetthe Monitor on the VLMP home page. Individual lakepages on the VLMP website also have a link and photo forcertified monitors on that lake.

Certified Water Quality Monitors and certified InvasivePlant Patrollers can now share their personal stories of lakemonitoring on the VLMP website. On the webpage foryour lake there will be a “Meet the Monitor” button thatlinks to a page with your photo and bio.

To submit your bio, please write up a couple of paragraphsabout yourself and email it with your photo tovlmp@mainevlmp.org.

Some questions you might want to answer when writingyour bio include:

Why did you become a volunteer?What is it about your lake that makes it special to you?Are you involved with any other activities that you'd like toshare?

Certified Monitors:Share Your Stories

Meet The Monitor For more Meet the Monitor storiessee the VLMP website.

Will Reid

Wesserunsett lake waterquality monitor

www.MaineVolunteerLakeMonitors.org

8

96

Many Thanks!We would like to recognize the many supporters of theBrackett Environmental Center this year. The Auburn WaterDistrict has continued their help with the development of theCenter. This past summer the District replaced the roof ofthe Bracket Center with all new shingles.

The Brackett Center continues to develop with the assistanceof volunteers. Special thanks to Dick Thibodeau for donatinga large chest freezer and to Jarrett Poisson for facilitating thedonation of two laptop computers and a network server fromTD Banknorth. Thanks to Mark Fuller, Richard Jennings,Phoebe Hardesty and the VLMP Building and MaintenanceCommittee members for contributing their time and skills.

New at the Brackett CenterIn partnership with the Delta Institute we now offer fieldguides and nature texts at the Brackett Center with a portionof each sale going to support VLMP programs. Stop by to seethis unique collection including titles like Pond Watchers: Guideto Ponds and Vernal Pools of Eastern North America. For a com-plete listing of titles offered through the Delta Institute seetheir website www.vfthomas.com.

Brackett Environmental Center NewsMaine’s Lake Campus and Volunteer Training Center

New or quality usedOffice FurnitureDisplay Tables Conference Table

Professional ServicesElectricianPaintingCarpentryBrush hogging

Wish ListWe are seeking financial support and in-kind donations for the following:

both, in order to insure consistency indata provided by volunteers, recognizingthat ice-in may be a more difficult call,and that both dates could be difficult forlarge lakes with complex shapes. Beyondthe implications that this informationmay have for lake water quality, the pub-lic has had an interest in local informa-tion concerning ice cover on lakes forcenturies. Ice-in and ice-out data wouldostensibly be of general interest if madeavailable on the VLMP website link toindividual lakes, with the potential todraw the general public in to considerthe broader implications of lake data.

If you, or someone you know has kepttrack of ice data for the lake that youmonitor, please consider sharing thisinformation with all of us. It just might

complement some of the other data thathave been collected on your lake overthe years. We're also working on devel-oping a way for volunteer monitors topost lake ice data directly to our website.Stay tuned.

Global warming is a frighteningprospect not just because of the conse-quences that are thought to be under-stood about this process, but more sobecause of what is not known. There isno question that volunteer lake waterquality monitors and invasive plantpatrollers will play a vital role in our

understanding of this phenomenon.This is a particularly critical time for vol-unteers to be gathering data, because itis possible that the influence of climatechange will exacerbate many of theknown threats to Maine lakes, includingcultural eutrophication and the spreadof aquatic invaders. Time will tell, butnot without your help! As Bill Monaglesuggests in this newsletter, VLMP vol-unteers have their fingers on the pulseof Maine's lakes and ponds. Regardlessof the nature of the threat to our lakes,the information that volunteers collectwill have a strong bearing on our abilityto understand and protect our lakes,now and for the foreseeable future.

Where is the Ice? - Continued from page 3

Where's the ice? --We’ll wait to hear from you.

Please share your knowledge and experiences with all of us. Both historical dataand personal accounts relating to lake ice are welcome. Please send tovlmp@mainevlmp.org or VLMP, 24 Maple Hill Rd, Auburn, ME 04210

colder water. When the water reaches auniform 4º C, resulting in uniformdensity, the lake turns over and mixeswith relatively little wind energy.Much less energy is required to turnover the lake in the spring, because ofthe relatively low temperature varia-tion in the water column (compared toconditions in the summer/fall).

Biology Under the Ice

The creatures at the bottom of thefood chain, bacteria and fungi, are notoften measured in most lakes. Theseorganisms decompose the dead algae,zooplankton, fish, leaves, and twigsthat end up in the bottom of the lake.The sediments under my lake havebeen sampled only once under ice foranimal life. In a 1-meter square sam-ple (about 1.2 square yards) there werenearly 2,000 individuals, including thelarvae of the phantom midge, truemidges, mollusks, sludge worms, watermites, and seed shrimp. The totalweight of those creatures was aboutone-tenth of an ounce in the 1.2square yard sample.

In my lake during the winter, the algaeare most abundant near the surface,peaking about 10 feet below the ice,six times as dense as deeper in the lake,but quickly falling off just three feetdeeper. The winter production ofalgae, and zooplankton populations,are about one-tenth what they are inthe summer.

At the top of the food chain, the fishpopulation has been heavily manipu-lated to benefit fishermen. There arechain pickerel, and the most commongame fish are brown trout, salmon,and smallmouth bass, but no sunfish,eel, nor white sucker are caught underthe ice. Good fishing depth is gener-ally about six to ten feet under the ice,and on the bottom where the fish cangraze on the insect larvae.

Winter Chemistry

Since early 1999 our Water QualityCommittee has sampled my lake underthe ice for alkalinity, pH, and carbondioxide. Stream water entering thelake in winter tends to be more acid,higher in carbon dioxide, and morevaried in alkalinity than the summerlake water. Dissolved oxygen diffusesthrough the ice, so throughout thewinter the water just below the ice isnear saturation with oxygen. If youwere to monitor your lake under theice, you would probably find as thewinter progresses, dissolved oxygendiminishes with depth, due to themetabolic consumption of oxygenduring organic decay, as describedabove. In late winter, before ice-outthe concentration of dissolved oxygennear the bottom of the lake may be afraction of what it is just below the ice.

Carbon dioxide accumulates due tothe respiration incident to decomposi-tion, such that its concentration nearthe lake bottom may be more than fivetimes that just under the ice by thetime of ice-out. Acidity increases (pHdecreases) somewhat with depth aswinter proceeds, due, in part, toincreasing levels of carbon dioxide.Alkalinity (a measure of the ability ofthe water to resist, or "buffer" changesin pH) doesn't vary as much withdepth. Sometimes the liquid layerabout three feet thick under the ice isstrongly influenced by stream water asit slides just below the ice upon enter-ing the lake, as described above. Thiscan result in very different conditions.

Ice-Out

Come warmer temperatures in lateMarch and April, with increasinghours of sunshine, the snow and thetop of the lake ice begins to soften andmelt (sometimes known as "rotten" or"candle" ice). Little melting takesplace at the bottom of the ice, most

melting is internal to the ice and topsurface. Sunshine warming the darksediments in shallow water inducesmelting around the shoreline, andwarming stream inflow causes meltingaround the stream mouths. As "mudseason" progresses and stream flowpeaks, the stream water warms to 4º C,which is close to the density of thelake water column. This begins toimpinge into the lake, spreading out inplumes into the depths of the lake,even just above the sediments, induc-ing both vertical and horizontal cur-rents. This, combined with the forceof the wind on the open water, causes"spring turnover" to occur. Completeturnover can take place as rapidly as intwo days, but generally it takes longer,depending on weather conditionswhen the ice finally leaves the lake.

Carbon dioxide is "out-gassed" as thelake exhales (the lake "burps"), andbottom oxygen is replenished as thewater circulates vertically, so its entirecontents come in contact with the airat the surface. Melting of the mainbody of the lake may take place in fitsand starts, and parts of the lake mayactually re-freeze on cold days. Someyears it may take the lake two weeks tocompletely thaw, finishing betweenlate March and late April. After that,wind-driven and vertical density cur-rents due to warming completely mixthe lake. This marks the end of thewinter cycle on our lake. By early May,the water has already started to warm,and the first effects of the summerthermal stratification cycle can bemeasured.

Would you like to tell the story of yourlake? We would love to hear it!

Articles need not be of a technicalnature, and may be in the form of apersonal account or history of effortsto protect the lake. Contact us at783-7733 or vlmp@mainevlmp.org.

10 5

groundwater seepage into the lakegenerally increases during autumn.Vertical mixing continues even after"turn-over" (a.k.a.: mixing) until thewater temperature drops to watermaximum density, 4° C, sometime inearly to mid-December.

The Onset of Lake Ice

Lake surface freezing starts on verycold, clear windless nights, startingfirst along the shoreline (the lake hasnever frozen over in just one night).Some years our lake may freeze over ina very thin layer, only to be followedby some hours of high winds andwarmer temperatures that break upthe ice. Sometimes Mother Naturemay try two or three times before thelake is solidly frozen for the rest of thewinter. At first, additional ice accumu-lates on the bottom of the cover dueto thermal transfer through the ice tothe air, but later far more ice accumu-lates on the top of the ice surface, due

to water freezing there, especially insnowy mild winters. On warmer daysthe sun heats the snow enough to melta small amount, which then re-freezesduring cold nights. Occasionally Ihave observed a layer of waterbetween two layers of ice, due to wateron top of the base ice freezing on avery cold night, before the layer ofwater itself freezes.

Lake ice has a columnar structure,from the size of a pencil down to thesize of pencil lead. The undersurfaceof the ice may be smooth, or frazzled,or have ridges up to a couple of inch-es tall, or stalactites up to a couple ofinches in size. The lake ice on north-ern Maine lakes may occasionallybecome more than a yard thick, butvaries from year to year. Snow on icehas an insulating effect, so winters ofheavy snow and light winds are likelyto cause thinner lake ice. Ice free ofair bubbles and coloration transmitsnearly as much sunlight as liquid water,but fresh snow cover greatly diminish-

es the light penetration, the moreso the thicker the snow cover.Wind can redistribute the snowsuch that there may be barren icepatches but other spots with moresnow in drifts. Most winters theice wrinkles up in pressure ridgesfrom a few inches to over a yardtall, usually near a shoreline.Those ridges form because freez-ing water expands about 8.5%, andeven when several inches thick,high wind can drag the ice, settingup ever so slight waves, that inducevery small long wave movement inthe water under the ice. The loca-tion and height of ice ridges on mylake varies from year to year. Oneyear it traversed the width of mylake at "The Narrows." Duringvery cold days and nights when

new ice is forming, cracking ice cansound like snap crackle and pop, orrattling sheet metal, while flexing icecan be heard making groaning

sounds, or you may hear a "blup"sound as water waves reverberateacross the lake, moving in and out ofridge cracks.

Water Movement

Under the ice, water movement ismuch slower than it is during the sum-mer, because wind-induced waves andcurrents are absent, so circulationdoesn't reach deep below the surface.Except for the top one meter or so ofthe water (just below the ice), the lakewater column is a uniform 4º C (41ºF), temperature at which water is atmaximum density. Streams feedingthe lake don't freeze completely, andforest ground doesn't freeze soliddown to the water table. As a result,more water typically enters the lakeduring the winter than during the sum-mer, although variations in watershedhydrology and precipitation during theyear can change this generalization.On the average, more water enters thelake in January and February than inJuly and September. The stream wateris near freezing in the deep of winterdue to contact with the cold air and icein the streams. Stream water is thusever so slightly lighter than the waterin the rest of the lake. It thus spreadsout upon entering the lake and slidesunder the ice to the lake outlet. Mostof the water movement in winter isfrom the stream inlets, in a layer abouta yard thick, flowing to the lake outlet.The remainder of the lake water does-n't exit until spring turn-over, whichoccurs after the ice is off the lake sur-face. Groundwater usually seeps intothe lake near the fringes, and is usuallya little above freezing.

Heat from the metabolism of organicdecay, and from sunlight warming thesediments can result in very slow verti-cal density currents that set up as thewarmer water rises and is displaced by

This profile of an ice core taken fromHighland lake shows the horizontal strati-fication lines that were created as theice formed.

Continued on page 6

Littorally Speaking

By Roberta Hill, Laurie Callahan, and Jackey Bailey

Though many of the variable milfoilcontrol efforts in Maine involve a

combination of manual control methods,most involve some use of the methodknown as "manual harvesting." Manualharvesting is a useful technique forremoving scattered individual plants andcontrolling small infested "patches."With manual harvesting, plants and theirroot systems are individually removedfrom the infested area, collected, andtransported away from the waterbody fordisposal. The means by which the plantsare approached, handled, and even theway in which they are disposed of mayvary, but the basic concept remains thesame. Think "weeding the garden byhand, or with hand tools." Now think"weeding the garden under several feet ofwater." This should give you a prettygood sense of the work.

Battling Invaders with Our Bare Hands:Manual Harvesting

Jim Chandler, one of Maine’s most experienced milfoil divers, arrives atthe surface with a bag full of variable milfoil

This article is the second in a four-part series focused on the challenge of controllinginvasive aquatic plants in Maine. In the fall issue of the Water Column the topic wasaquatic herbicides. For the remaining three installments, the focus will be on various"non-chemical" control methods (alternately referred to as "manual," "physical" or"mechanical" methods). Most groups currently involved in combating variable milfoilinfestations in Maine are utilizing one (or more) of these non-chemical control meth-ods. The first we will look at is manual harvesting.

114

When my wife and I moved tosouthern Maine nearly twodecades ago, it was during

winter, and I had not before seen afrozen lake. Several weeks later anunusual late winter rain fell, putting asheet of water above the ice on ourlake (Highland Lake in Windham,Falmouth, Westbrook, not to be con-fused with the much larger and famousHighland Lake in Bridgeton). The icewas still thick enough to support carsand pickups, and some local characterdrove up and down the lake at highspeed pulling behind a water skier! Wewere astonished, called friends andfamily in Texas, saying, "Yankees don'twater ski behind a boat, but behind apickup!" explaining what we saw. Theydidn't believe us.

Nearly all the lake monitoring in Mainetakes place during a season when it ispleasant to get on the lake and appre-ciate the wonderful scenery and relax-ing experience, but there is a lot moregoing on in winter than just ice fishing.Each lake has its own personality. Thefollowing explanation of conditionsencountered during the winter appliesto the lake I monitor, but it may alsoapply to yours if it is deeper than

about 7 to 10 meters, and large enoughfor the wind to induce vertical mixingcurrents.

A Prelude to Winter Conditions

The prelude to winter starts aboutmid-September, as the summer-warmed water begins to slowly cooldown. As autumn progresses, thewarm top layer (epilimnion) of thelake chills, the boundary between thetop warmer layer and the bottom cold-er layer (hypolimnion) sinks deeperinto the lake, until eventually in aboutmid-fall the temperatures match andthe lake "turns over" meaning the lakemixes completely. Mixing takes placebecause cold water is denser thanwarm water, down to a temperature ofabout 4º C or 41º F, so very slow ver-tical currents set up displacing thewarm water with cold. This continuesfor as long as two months, until thesurface freezes. Due to contact withthe air, the mixed water is near maxi-mum saturation with dissolved oxygenand carbon dioxide. Because the ter-restrial plants have been slipping intodormancy and consuming less rainwa-ter and groundwater, stream flow and

A Maine Lake in Winter

By Keith WilliamsCertified Volunteer Lake Monitor on Highland Lake in Windham

Long after most volunteerlake monitors have putaway their Secchi disks forthe year, Keith Williams isdrilling holes in the ice onHighland Lake in Windham,in an effort to expand hisand our understanding ofthe physical, chemical andbiological characteristics ofthat lake's ecosystem. Hisscientific background serveshim well in this effort to doc-ument the dramaticchanges that the lakeundergoes through Maine'sfour seasons.

We often reiterate thateach lake has a unique per-sonality, and because ofthis, Keith's account ofHighland Lake may notstrictly apply to the one thatyou monitor. But many ofthe processes that hedescribes are universal, andperhaps they will motivateyou to explore your lake‘spersonality beyond the endof summer.

Scott Williams

IMPORTANT! - All invasive aquatic plantcontrol projects are subject to regulationunder Maine's Natural Resources ProtectionAct. Before planning any control project,contact the Maine Department ofEnvironmental Protection for specific per-mit requirements. All native aquatic plantsare strictly protected by Maine law.

The depth at which the invasive plantsoccur determines the approach (orcombination of approaches) that areused. For invasive plants occurringalong the shore in shallow water it maybe possible to approach the task bysimply wading from plant to plant.The major problem with this approachis that it is difficult for harvesters to"tread lightly" enough to avoid dis-turbing sediments and causing turbidi-ty. Brown clouds of fine sedimentsobscure visibility and release excessnutrients back into the water column,neither of which is desirable.

When the plants to be removed are invery shallow water, one way to reducedisturbance and turbidity somewhat(remember you are removing plants bytheir roots; disturbance is pretty muchunavoidable) is to approach plantsusing a shallow draft boat such as acanoe or kayak. The obvious draw-back here is the inherent "tippiness" ofthese lightweight craft, but avoidingcalamity is possible by working in two-person teams: one person(the harvester) bending overthe gunnels to work the plantfrom the muck, and one per-son (plant collector, fragmentscout, and counterbalance)carefully shifting his or herweight in the boat to keepthings stable.

Another way to minimize dis-turbance when harvesting invery shallow areas is to use asnorkel, mask and --if condi-tions are suitable and care istaken--fins. (Fins keep the

feet buoyant at the surface, reducingthe disturbance of the bottom, butwhen they come in contact with thebottom they are even more destructivethan feet.) As with the method above,it is helpful (and safer) to work inteams: one or two snorkelers in thewater pulling plants, and one or twospotters in a boat, keeping an eye onthe snorkelers, handling plants as theyare removed, and retrieving stray frag-ments.

In deeper water--greater than 3 or 4feet--the approach is made by way ofSCUBA divers or divers using a"hookah," a system that allows multi-ple divers to breathe air from a com-pressor at the surface through longflexible air tubes. Most of the manualharvesting currently being done inMaine is being done by trained divers.Again teamwork is key--divers work-ing in teams of two or three, attendedby spotters in boats at the surface,skimming fragments, and handlingplants that are pulled up by the divers.(Please contact the VLMP for moreinformation on manual control train-ing opportunities.)

There are a number of techniques forextracting invasive plants from thesubstrate. The factors at play include:composition of the substrate, number

of plants to be removed, whether theyoccur in dense single-species patchesor are scattered among native plants,time of year, the size of the plants, andthe resources that can be brought tobear upon the project. The primarytools used for extracting plants are thehands. The harvester, wearing gloves,finds the base of the plant, reachesdown into the substrate gingerly loos-ening the root hairs, then lifts theplant, roots intact, from the sediments.In some cases, small hand-tools, suchas those used for weeding a garden,may be needed to gently prize plantsloose. Whether the work is beingdone by hand or with hand tools, it isVERY IMPORTANT to rememberthat any small stem or root fragmentleft behind is capable of sprouting anew plant. Great care must be taken tominimize fragmentation.

Removing plants causes turbidity; somuch of this hand work is done inconditions of poor visibility, com-pelling divers to learn to recognize thetarget invaders as much by feel as bysight. The visibility problem can bemitigated somewhat by workingmethodically in one direction, andstriving to keep ahead of the leadingedge of the sediment plume. Anothersolution is to work a defined area, or"plot," until the turbidity becomes

SCUBA divers, divers using a floating hookah system, and spotters in boats at arecent MCIAP training event.

When I was young it was oftenpossible, and reasonably safe,to skate on small ponds in

southwestern Maine by Thanksgiving,or shortly thereafter. It is now mid-January, and very few (if any) of Maine'slakes would be considered safe for recre-ation. In fact, many of our large lakesremain free of ice altogether, followingseveral weeks of unusually warm weath-er. The Maine Departments of InlandFisheries and Wildlife and Public Safetyhave recently issued several warnings tostay off lakes and ponds that are frozen,due to dangerously thin ice.

During my regular commute to theVLMPs Brackett Center I drive past thenortherly shoreline of beautiful LakeAuburn. For the past month, while gaz-ing out at the sparkling waves and deepblue water, I have been struck by thefeeling that something is seriously out ofkilter. Let's face it, seeing whitecaps on aMaine lake in January is, in the words ofseveral others who have recently com-mented on this unseasonable phenome-non, kind of weird.

This should all come as no great sur-prise. After all, record-breaking warmtemperatures were documentedthroughout Maine in November andDecember. Speaking of record-keeping,as many of us who have spent time onor near a particular lake over the yearsknow, a good deal of effort has goneinto guessing, and ultimately trackingice-out dates. Some of these "data" wereuniquely recorded as scribbles on the

inside of a barn door, or retained insome other memorable form. For exam-ple, Earl Bacon (father of DEPBiologist Linda Bacon) used to enjoybeing able to make the annual claim thathe had been swimming in MessalonskeeLake in Belgrade just a day or two beforethe onset of ice cover. A few days agohe told Linda that the ice-on date forMessalonskee this year will be severalweeks later than it typically was in the1920's and early 1930's! In other words,his late season swim probably took placein November, as opposed to the middleof January. This is a great story, full ofimagery and potentially useful anecdotalinformation. Perhaps you have some ofyour own to share with us?

Local records were very helpful in thereview of information conducted sever-al years ago by USGS Hydrologist,Glenn Hodgkins, in which it was deter-mined that the duration of ice cover fora number of New England lakes hasbeen getting shorter over the past centu-ry. However, there is relatively littleinformation available concerning ice-indates. Perhaps we should be paying clos-er attention to this phenamenon, as well,because the overall annual duration ofice cover on lakes and ponds can cer-tainly influence many of the physical,chemical and biological processes inthese complex ecosystems.

You may recall that the winter of2005/2006 was also unusually warm, ashave been a number of recent winterseasons. If warmer weather increases

over time, as climatologists who studyglobal warming say it will, changes toour lakes will almost certainly occur,although exactly what those changesmight be is the subject of a good deal ofspeculation. At the most simple, basiclevel, an increase in both water tempera-ture and sunlight penetration into thewater column, resulting from reducedice depth and duration of cover, couldcause an acceleration of biologicalprocesses in our lakes. Our lakes andponds could experience increased algalgrowth, reduced water clarity, lower lev-els of dissolved oxygen in the water (asindicated by Green Lake volunteer mon-itor Bob Dunlap in a recent WaterColumn article), and an increase in thespread of invasive aquatic plants. Butthe complexity of lake ecosystems,along with our limited knowledge of theway that they respond to influences,allows us only to venture educatedguesses as to what could happen if dra-matic changes in the weather occur inthe future.

All of this provides another valuableopportunity for volunteers to gatherdata that could significantly improve ourunderstanding of the impact of climatewarming to Maine lakes. If you livenearby the lake that you monitor, con-sider tracking the date when ice cover isfirst observed on the lake in early winter(ice-in), as well as the day when the lakebecomes free of ice in the spring (ice-out). We are working on definitions for

LakesideNotesWhere's the Ice?

Scott WilliamsVLMP Executive Director

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Continued on page 9

unmanageable, then to leave that areato settle, (perhaps shifting to a secondarea away from the plume) thenreturning to the initial plot to "mop-up" the plants that were missed earlier.

Another area where variation in tech-nique and equipment occurs is intransporting plants to the surface. Ifyou are working in very shallow water(or, in deeper water, removing only

one or two isolated plants) gettingplants to the surface is not much of anissue. If you are removing dozens,hundreds, even thousands of plants indeeper water, the way in which theplants are transported to the surfacehas great bearing upon both the effi-ciency and efficacy of the project.

For smaller deepwater projects, diversgenerally use dive bags to collectplants. Dive bags (the type used byurchin divers) are made of lightweightnylon mesh with a wide, aluminum-frame mouth that opens and snapsshut like a clam shell. Bag-size canvary depending on the number ofplants that one is attempting to pullduring the dive, and the personal pref-erences of those who will be handlingthe bags. (Some divers find that cut-ting down standard dive bags to ½ to¾-size makes them more manageable,others prefer larger bags.)

Getting the octopus-like variable mil-foil weeds into the bags can be a chal-lenge. The upper parts of plants maybe coaxed into the bag prior to diggingin after its roots, to keep the plantunder control and to minimize frag-mentation. Larger plants are some-times wrapped around the diver's handlike a forkful of spaghetti prior to bag-ging. It may be necessary to removesome plants in sections--removing the

upper part first, and then the lowerpart and roots.

Once bags are full, divers may swimthem up to the "handlers" in boats atthe surface or alternatively, bags maybe transported to boats by moremechanical means. One fairly simpleand inexpensive mechanical techniqueis to rig up a pulley system. Clips areattached at intervals along a loop ofrope. (The rope should be longenough to extend from the surface tothe bottom, then back again.) Theloop-line is threaded through smallerloop anchored to the bottom andanother smaller loop secured to theboat. Divers clip loaded dive bags tothe line, yank on the line to signalhelpers in the boat, who pull up thebag, empty the weeds into the hold ofthe boat, reattach the bag, signal thediver, and run the bag back to the bot-

tom. Slick. (We have also seen a sys-tem of cables and ropes rigged upacross an infested stream to transport5-gallon buckets full of plants totrucks waiting on shore.)

A much more sophisticated method oftransporting plants to the surface isused in a control method called "diver-assisted suction harvesting." In thismethod, there are no bags. Diversextract plants by hand as above, andthen feed the plant material directlyinto a 4" diameter suction tube forinstant transport to the work platformat the surface, generally a pontoonboat or barge. Diver-assisted suctionharvesting will be the focus of a laterarticle in this series. Also please see "ADay in the Life of a Milfoil Diver" inthe Fall 2006 issue of the WaterColumn.

Quality control is extremely impor-tant. First, the emphasis should be onpatience and diligence. Hand harvest-ing is hard work. If it is not done withgreat care and meticulous attention todetail, all your hard work may be invain. Worse, the activity may result inmore harm than good. It is, for exam-ple, essential that everyone involved inpulling up plants knows how to differ-entiate the target invasive species fromany look-alike native plants in the area.Attending an Invasive Plant Patrolworkshop is a good prerequisite.

Second, every fragment created duringthe course of the control project hasthe potential to cause another infesta-tion, both within the infested lake or--if the proper vector comes along tosome other uninfested waterbody. Aftersafety, fragment control should be the number-one consideration of everyone involved in theproject. Strategies for controlling frag-ments include: choosing the propermeans to approach the plants, extract-ing plants with care to minimize break-age, having spotters and skimmers atthe surface to gather up stray frag-ments, and installing fragment barriers

Volunteers wading into Dingley Brook, in Raymond, to removevariable milfoil.

Thinking Like a Lake

In the first half of the past century, the greatconservationist, Aldo Leopold, wrote a won-derful collection of essays, A Sand CountyAlmanac. One essay in particular, ThinkingLike a Mountain, appealed to me as Leopoldascribed a sense of consciousness to the mountain stating that only the moun-tain had existed long enough to listen objectively to the howl of the wolf,understanding the wolf's place in the natural order.

While studying lake and ocean dynamics in college, I found it helpful to 'thinklike a lake' when attempting to understand Lake Michigan's responses to exter-nal stresses, such as a steady wind across the surface of the lake. I came toappreciate lakes as virtual complex living organisms in and of themselves.

I'm sure most of you who monitor the health of your favorite lake, whether itbe the water clarity or the status of the aquatic plant community, also havedeveloped a fondness for, or emotional bond to, your lake, viewing it as morethan simply a physical feature of the landscape. So, go ahead and admit it; youlove your lake. Well, I'm sure in its' own way, your lake would be fond of youtoo.

As you know, our lakes are subject to external stresses much more severe thana gentle breeze across the lake surface. Like humans, lakes can become quiteill when 'stressed out'. I tend to view lake monitors as environmental health-care providers, monitoring the lake's vital signs and providing critical informa-tion to support appropriate management measures to protect or rehabilitatethe lake. On behalf of the VLMP, a heartfelt thanks to all of you who providesuch a valuable service for Maine's lakes. But most importantly, your lakethanks you too.

On a closing note, I wish to thank all who have made monetary contributionsto the VLMP's year end fund-raising campaign. By year's end, donations hadexceeded those received by the end of 2005! As you know, this past year theVLMP was confronted with significant capital expenditures, such as the pur-chase of the new pontoon boat and improvements to the Brackett Center. Allof these have served to enhance the VLMP's ability to provide the myriad ofservices for Maine's lakes, including better training for volunteer monitors.The year 2006 was a very good year for the VLMP, and with your continuedsupport, 2007 will be even better. Thank you all.

What’s InsidePresident’s Message . . . . . . . . . . 2Lakeside Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3A Maine Lake In Winter . . . . . . . 4Aquatic Habitats . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Meet the Monitors . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Brackett Center News . . . . . . . . . 9Littorally Speaking—Battling Milfoil . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

VLMP StaffScott Williams Executive DirectorRoberta Hill Program Director

Maine Center forInvasive Aquatic Plants

Jim Entwood Program CoordinatorJackey Bailey Special Projects Coordinator

Invasive Aquatic PlantsLinda Bacon QA/QC Advisor (Maine DEP)

Board of DirectorsBill Monagle (Winthrop) PresidentMary Jane Dillingham (Auburn) Vice PresidentPeter Vaux (Orono) TreasurerMary Nelson (Lovell) Secretary

Dick Bredeau (Boothbay)Peter Fischer (Bristol)Mark Fuller (Auburn)Ken Holt (North Turner)Philomena McPhee-Brown (Turner)Gerry Nelson (Lovell)Kirsten Ness (Waterville)Tamara Lee Pinard (Westbrook)

To Contact Us:24 Maple Hill RoadAuburn, Maine 04210207-783-7733vlmp@mainevlmp.orgwww.MaineVolunteerLakeMonitors.org

Editorial StaffScott WilliamsRoberta HillRichard JenningsJim Entwood, Layout

Funding for this newsletter is made possible by grantsfrom the US Environmental Protection Agency and theMaine Department of Environmental Protection,through Section 319 of the Clean Water Act.

Printed on Recycled Paper by:Curry Printing & Graphics - Auburn, Maine

2

Bill MonagleVLMP Board President

13

President’sMessage

around project sites. Fragment barri-ers can be nets, screens or plasticsheeting suspended from poles orfloating booms to catch stray frag-ments.

Third, weather and light conditionscan have a significant impact on theefficacy of the project. Work days andthe specific hours of activity should beplanned to optimize weather and lightconditions. If conditions suddenlydegrade, call it a day.

Last, despite your best efforts to main-tain quality control, it cannot always beassumed that every single fragment orplant is removed, or even seen. Someplants may get covered over with sedi-ments during the course of the distur-bance. It may take time for some frag-ments to float to the surface and oth-ers will settle on the bottom, becomeentangled in nearby plants, or remainneutrally buoyant in the water.

For this reason, follow-up monitoringand ongoing control is essential. Afterharvesting, the site should be moni-tored on a monthly basis (more fre-quently if possible) during the grow-ing season. It is preferable to usesnorkelers or divers for this effort asthey will be able to immediatelyremove any invasive plants that arespotted. If surveyors in boats areused for the follow-up monitoring, a

system for directingdivers to preciseplant locationsmust be developedand employed.Whatever the par-ticulars, the systemmust make it as easyas possible fordivers to find themarked plants andremove them in atimely manner.Labeled buoy mark-ers, correspondingto labeled marks ona map, is an exam-

ple of a simple and effective plantmarking system. As with the actualcontrol work, all monitoring activitiesshould be properly documented.

All plant material must be disposed ofproperly--dried and composted distantfrom any body of water (permanent orintermittent), buried, disposed of assolid waste, or burned. If harvestedmaterial is in large enough amounts itmay be feasible to contract with a dis-posal service.

Mapping and marking control sites(recording GPS coordinates if possi-ble) facilitates ongoing monitoring andcontrol. It is important that recordsare kept for all control activities,including dates, times, peopleinvolved, hours spent, amount ofplant material harvested, etc.

And of course the first considerationfor any project of this kind should beSAFETY! All diving involvingSCUBA equipment should be done bycertified SCUBA divers only. (MCIAPhas a list of certified SCUBA diverswho have been trained in invasive mil-foil removal.) Diving and snorkelingsites should be marked with flags ormarkers. The rule is that boaters muststay a minimum of 200 feet frommarked diver areas, but boaters cannotbe relied upon to know or follow the

rules. Divers and snorkelers shouldalways be attended by spotters at thesurface. Spotters should be aware ofthe divers' position in the water at alltimes and keep a careful watch out forunwary boaters.

Like virtually all known methods ofcontrolling invasive aquatic plants,manual harvesting has its drawbacksand limitations. But--especially whenused in combination with other con-trol methods--manual harvesting doeshave an important role to play in theongoing struggle to control the spreadof invasive aquatic plants in Maine.

One of the longest-running and mostsuccessful manual harvesting projectsin the state is being carried out by agroup of dedicated individuals onCushman Pond in Lovell. For moreinformation on the Cushman Pondproject and other manual control proj-ects in Maine, please see the new"Battling the Invaders" link on theMCIAP webpage.

Teamwork is key -- Diver Scott Gregory hands a bagof harvested plants to Scott Williams.

IMPORTANT! - All invasive aquat-ic plant control projects are subjectto regulation under Maine'sNatural Resources Protection Act.Before planning any control proj-ect, contact the Maine Departmentof Environmental Protection forspecific permit requirements. Allnative aquatic plants are strictly protect-ed by Maine law.

Vol. 11, No. 3 Provided free of charge to our monitors and affiliates Winter 2007

Maine VolunteerLake Monitoring Program24 Maple Hill RdAuburn, Maine 04210

Where isthe Ice?

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VLMP 2007 Annual Meeting: July 28, Augusta

Other Up Coming Events:3/2 ~ Maine Milfoil Summit, Lewiston3/21 ~ Maine Water Conference, Augusta6/23 ~ COLA’s Maine Lakes Conference

For more information about any of these events contact the VLMP at 783-7733 or see our websitewww.MaineVolunteerLakeMonitors.org.

Open water on Lake Auburn January 3, 2007