(Orleans)– Curly leaf pond weed is causing issues on Big Spirit Lake. John Smeltzer, President of the Spirit Lake Protective Association, says it has reached a new level this year…
“They’ve seen more weeds in more areas, up in particularly Angler’s Bay, over the last two years. But we’ve actually got big stands that have occurred out in areas of the lake that you might not expect it. Stevens Cove seems to have been particularly hit. We’ve actually been working on our own personal pieces of beach here lately. The interesting thing is with it, if you rake it up and get it out of the surf zone and allow the sun to pick up on it, it doesn’t take very long and it goes from being 100 percent down to about 10 percent and pretty much is almost gone. And I’ve seen some folks talking about raking it up, letting it dry, and then just basically using it as mulch. That’s an issue that, a solution, that’s actually quite nicely done. The other thing is, on Spirit Lake you’ve got zebra mussels and you have to be a little cautious that you’re not taking and pulling those things out and putting zebra mussels in an area they’re not supposed to be in, so.”
Smeltzer says he’s currently gauging interest in possibly holding a public meeting on the matter…
“I posted an inquiry on our Spirit Lake Protective Association Facebook page just to try to assess the interest, and a lot of people have looked at it and I’ve got upwards of about 80 people who have said if the time’s right they would be interested in attending and about 20 have said under any circumstance I’ll show up and talk, so that’s enough to hold a public meeting anyway so I would anticipate after the fourth sometime. We’ll figure out how schedules work out and probably pull something together to talk.”
On another matter, the Spirit Lake Protective Association will hold its annual Pancake Breakfast this coming Monday, July 3rd. We’ll have more on that in upcoming newscasts.
