(Wahpeton)– Treatment for Eurasian Watermilfoil in several areas of West Lake Okoboji is about to get underway. Mike Hawkins, a fisheries biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, tells KUOO news they now have all of the permits they need and that the treatment will get underway tomorrow (Tues.) in the Miller’s Bay canals, the Harbor, and Lazy Lagoon areas. He says this treatment will be targeted to those specific areas, unlike the much more widespread ones made last year to the lower chain of lakes…
“Because of the confined nature of the plant, at this time we can use a different product that actually acts more like a contact herbicide so it will kill the plant on contact. It’s very fast acting. The treatment that we did on the East Okoboji chain last winter was a very slow acting herbicide that needed several months of contact with the plant to actually kill it, which is two different strategies but two very different situations in how the plant has presented.”
Hawkins adds that as of now, there have been no additional discoveries of eurasian watermilfoil in the Iowa Great Lakes…
“None of those surveys have turned up any eurasian watermilfoil. We did have one suspect plant over on West Okoboji in Smith’s Bay but that plant was actually sent off for genetic analysis and it turns out that it is a native variety of plants that we have here in Okoboji so. We’re doing the best we can to monitor that situation and identify any additional plants. But everything we have is still confined to those canal areas.”
Hawkins says the treatment process should take just one day to complete. He adds the DNR is also applying treatments to several other bodies of water in the region where Eurasian Watermilfoil has also been discovered…
“One of those is at Lost Island Lake in Palo Alto county. That discovery was made at about the same time as we made the discovery in East Okoboji Lake last year. We’re also doing treatment work at Stolley’s Pond in Spencer where eurasian watermilfoil was discovered this year, and also Mill Creek Lake down near Paullina, and that treatment is underway.”
Hawkins adds the herbicide that’s being used has no label restrictions for swimming, fishing, recreation of irrigation purposes. He says the results should be pretty immediate.
