Kootenai County will pay divers to pull milfoil from lake

The Kootenai County Commission approved a contract Tuesday to remove Eurasian milfoil from Hayden Lake this summer.The county will pay A.C.E. Diving up to $24,000 to hand-pull the weed from the lake’s sandy bottom.

Milfoil was first found in the lake six years ago. Since then, herbicides have been used and nearly 200,000 pounds of milfoil have been removed.

Kootenai County Weed Superintendent Nina Eckberg told the commission that 85 acres of the lake was sprayed Monday with herbicide.

The pernicious plant has no natural enemies here and can quickly overtake native aquatic plants. This ruins fish habitat and clogs water intake pipes, and decomposing biomass from the fast-growing weed can starve a lake of precious oxygen. Swimmers can also become entangled in the weed’s long, feathery fronds.