Eastern Lake Ontario Upper Watershed AIS Response Team: Final Project Report 2010

Adirondack Watershed Institute

Daniel Kelting

The Eastern Lake Ontario – Upper Watershed AIS Response Team was established in September 2010 as a landscape level aquatic invasive species Early Detection / Rapid Response (EDRR) team. The EDRR team worked within the Great Lakes portion of the Adirondack Park (Figure 1). The EDRR team began work in the summer of 2011 with an initial focus on rapid response work in the Fulton Chain of Lakes to eradicate a new population of Eurasian watermilfoil that was discovered during a lake survey in 2010. During the winter of 2011/2012 a priority waters list for surveillance was developed collaboratively with Hilary Smith and Meghan Johnstone of the Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program (APIPP), and early detection surveillance work commenced in the summer of 2012. We performed EDRR using two teams, an Early Detection (ED) team surveyed lakes and a Rapid Response (RR) team performed eradication.

The ED team surveyed 30 lakes in 2012. Ten of these lakes had AIS present (1 Eurasian watermilfoil (EWM) and 9 Variable-leaf milfoil (VLM)), with 9 of these lakes with well established populations of VLM and 1 of these lakes with a scattered low-density population of EWM. The EWM was found in Meacham Lake in late summer and we decided to forgo any management until the following year. The RR team performed EWM eradication in Second, Fourth, and Fifth Lakes within the Fulton Chain of Lakes. EWM eradication from Second and Fourth Lakes was initiated prior to this project and no new plants were observed in either of these lakes in 2011 or 2012. EWM eradication from Fifth Lake was initiated in 2011, with 4,050 pounds removed that summer and 175 pounds removed in 2012. The lack of EWM regrowth in Second and Fourth Lakes in the two years proceeding removal indicate a successful eradication and the large year-to-year reduction in EWM removal from Fifth Lake suggests eradication is likely within this water body as well, though more years of removal effort and follow-up monitoring will be needed. Our very positive results with EWM removal from the Fulton Chain highlight the value of EDRR in managing AIS, as in the absence of the EDRR team EWM and other AIS could rapidly become established. The Eastern Lake Ontario – Upper Watershed AIS Response Team continues its early detection and rapid response work.