Support a new option for Eurasian water milfoil control

Just as Bonner County was applying for its fourth year of $1 million Eurasian water milfoil control efforts, the news broke that the state is planning to cut $2.3 million out of the milfoil eradication fund.

It was bound to happen sometime that the milfoil money would finally run out. Now it’s more important than ever to find a less expensive and, perhaps, a longer-term solution to this problem.

Left to its own devices, this invasive weed has the tendency to take over and crowd out native plants, tangle up boat props, rob the water’s oxygen and choke fish in the process, and make swimming difficult, and sometimes dangerous.

But even if the milfoil money had kept on coming by the truckload, the herbicides that we’ve relied on are unlikely to eliminate the weed in our enormous Lake Pend Oreille or the Pend Oreille River. Plus, the half-million pounds of herbicides put in Lake Pend Oreille the last three years have made mothers like myself unwilling to let our children swim in these “treated” waters, despite the county and state assurances that there’s nothing to fear.

Partners for Milfoil Control formed recently to promote one alternative that’s been discussed much in the last couple of years, but never found any state support – the milfoil weevil. The Partners – Tri State Water Quality Council, Panhandle Environmental League, Selkirk Conservation Alliance, Sandpoint Mothers for Safe Water and Idaho Conservation League – are teaming up to implement a pilot project on Lake Pend Oreille that will demonstrate and study the use of these minuscule native bugs as a means of milfoil control.

Lake Pend Oreille already has the milfoil weevil in very small numbers. The proposal is to collect these native weevils and breed them in aquariums, and then release them back into milfoil infestations on Lake Pend Oreille and in the Pend Oreille River. So far the Partners have raised more than $90,000, but need to raise another $29,000 for a robust project that will have an impact and give us much needed information about using this method in our lake.

In 2007, Bonner County requested state funding to hire U.S. Army Corps of Engineers researchers to deploy weevils and replant areas treated with herbicides with native aquatic plants. The state did not fund the bio-control method because it is not considered an eradication tool.

Yet, because of the size of Lake Pend Oreille, herbicides are not an eradication tool, either. It’s time to give up on eradication and start managing our milfoil so that it doesn’t interfere with the fish and wildlife, or with our ability to enjoy this beautiful lake.

If successful, the weevils won’t completely eliminate the milfoil, but will help bring the milfoil beds back into balance with the rest of nature.

That’s good enough for me, and even better for my child and all of Sandpoint’s children.