Volunteers attend invasive plant patrol workshop

    On Wednesday, July 21, 10 volunteers gave their time to learn how to conduct an invasive aquatic plant survey and identify invasive (non-native and threatening) plants in their lakes. The workshop was sponsored by the Island Falls Lakes Association (IFLA) at the Fish and Game Club on Mattawamkeag Lake in Island Falls. 
    The presenters were Roberta Hill and Christine Guerette of the Center for Invasive Aquatic Plants, part of the Maine Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program (ME-VLMP).  The volunteers, who had learned how to distinguish Maine’s eleven most “unwanted” invasive aquatic plants from native plants at a workshop in 2008, learned how to conduct an invasive plant survey of their lakes. The classroom session was followed by an “on the water” practice limited survey of aquatic plants at the public boat landing area. Twenty native aquatic plants were collected and later indentified; there were no invasives. The goal of the activity is to learn to identify your natives so that you can quickly recognize something “new” in your waters. Four participants are now qualified to be certified by the state to conduct invasive plant patrols.