No hydrilla found in Lakeville Lake, but worries linger

SALISBURY — While no evidence of the invasive aquatic plant hydrilla verticillata was found during a survey of Lake Wononscopomuc, also known as Lakeville Lake, on Thursday, Sept. 28, the boat launch entrance at the Town Grove will remain gated and locked for the season, according to lake and town officials.

“We are safe at the moment, but we have to be alert of the threat going forward. The lake remains closed to boat launches for the time being,” said Bill Littauer, president of the Lake Wononscopomuc Association. 

“We are indeed relieved, but it’s a perplexing problem now. What do we do next? Fortunately, it’s the end of the season so there is no pressure to do anything, but we can’t keep the launch closed forever.”

Responding to threat from East Twin Lake

Littauer had asked Salisbury First Selectman Curtis Rand on Sunday, Sept. 24, after learning of the discovery and recent treatment of the non-native hydrilla at the nearby East Twin Lake marina, to prohibit the launching of boats at the Town Grove to prevent the plant’s spread to the 348-acre Lakeville Lake.

Rand, who backed the ban after talks with the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEEP) the following day, said he is also looking into restricting boat access to Long Pond, also known as Wononpakook Lake, which is just over 150 acres in size and is located less than half a mile south of Lakeville Lake.

“We’re not sure what we are going to do,” Rand said of blocking launch access at Long Pond, a popular spot for fishing and recreational watercraft such as canoes and kayaks. “That would be more difficult. We would have to take a very big concrete barrier down there, so we’re trying to figure that out.”

Littauer said the concern is that “there is no protection” from hydrilla infection currently at Long Pond, home to the Camp Sloane YMCA summer camp, and that another option might be to block the access road leading to the lake near the local dog park. 

Littauer said he had met with the lake association’s consulting limnologist, George Knoecklein of Northeast Aquatic Research (NEAR) mid-morning on Sept. 28, and judging from an initial walk around the docks, “it looked like nothing is there,” he had reported prior to the survey being conducted. 

In addition to the boat launch, Littauer said Knoecklein also inspected the launch area around Hotchkiss School, where the rowing club has a boathouse, as well as Factory Pond.

 “He found no evidence of the invasive weed hydrilla,” noted the lake association president. “How we escaped it, I don’t know. But we escaped invasive zebra mussels about 20 years ago,” said Littauer, who credited vigorous lake management at the Town Grove for keeping invasives at bay.

The lake association president predicted the hydrilla survey will cost between $2,000 and $3,000, and that the town has agreed to cover the expense.

He said Knoecklein left some photos of hydrilla infestations with Stacey Dodge, who oversees the launch area, to help with identification of the noxious weed, which looks similar to some native aquatic plants.

“Current thinking is that hydrilla is most likely to be introduced into lakes and streams by kayaks and canoes,” according to Littauer. “People often take them with them on visits and vacations and don’t think they may be carrying a fragment of an invasive weed that would infect a whole body of water like Twin Lakes.”

Littauer said now that fishing season is a year-round activity, the impact on the sport is disheartening, so a plan still needs to be put in place as far as if, when and how Lakeville Lake’s launch will reopen if hydrilla remains a serious threat to its and other water bodies’ ecosystems.

“It would be unfair to keep a boat launch closed and not let people come and fish,” said Littauer. “It’s a great fishing lake. We are the deepest lake in the state. The fish have plenty of space and time to winter over and get bigger.”

‘This is a long-term problem’

Meanwhile, local lake and town officials are anxiously awaiting results in early October of a recent chemical treatment of hydrilla hot spots within a four-acre area of O’Hara’s Landing Marina on Sept. 19.

The hope is that a high-dose application of the herbicide ProcellaCOR will knock back the novel, Connecticut River variant of hydrilla, which until the East Twin Lake infestation, had only been found in the Connecticut River, where it has been spreading since 2016.

Commenting on the proposed boating bans at lakes in town, Grant Bogle, president of the Twin Lakes Association (TLA), said the decision could have multiple impacts.

 “The first would be to raise awareness,” he noted. “As boaters become more aware of the potential harm of invasive species due to things like ramp closures, perhaps they will take more seriously the need to clean, drain and dry their boats and trailers after each visit to a water body.”

The second implication, according to the TLA official, “may be that that they just find another lake or water body to go to. In that case, the spread will continue.”

Bogle said he can understand the immediate step taken by Salisbury to close public access to certain lakes in the community “until we know more and can develop a more robust response. That said, this is a long-term problem that will require multiple layers of defense and treatment.”

 Everyone has a part, said Bogle, and that includes boaters, the lake associations, towns, state and federal authorities.

 “I wish there was a simple solution for prevention but, at present, in Connecticut, I am not aware of one.”

The boat launch at the Town Grove on Lake Wononscopomuc, commonly also referred to as Lakeville Lake, was found to be free of hydrilla, an aggressive non-native aquatic plant. Photo by Debra A. Aleksinas