By Mary Jewett

Lakes Environmental Association

Ella Sulloway of Bridgton made a big “save” this summer.

On Sunday, July 21, Ella was working as a courtesy boat inspector from the Lakes Environmental Association at Sebago Lake State Park. Ella was about halfway through her eight-hour shift when a jet-ski came to the ramp, traveling from the Mystic River in Massachusetts. The jet-ski looked clean until Ella crouched down to look at the intake area on the bottom, where she discovered a large clump of plants hanging down. She removed as much as possible and bagged it up. The boater seemed to be unaware of how serious it was to transport plants on watercraft and wasn’t concerned.

It is, in fact, illegal to transport any aquatic plant over land in Maine.

After removing as much as possible, the boater launched the jet-ski into Sebago Lake.

“When they returned two hours later, the owner appeared to be more conscious and apologized for their lack of attentiveness,” LEA reported. “Sebago Lake has several infestations of variable milfoil throughout the lake and the boater may have seen several areas marked with yellow buoys.”

Ella brought the fragments to the LEA office, where most of it was immediately identified as Eurasian Milfoil. Lake Stewards of Maine and the Maine DEP quickly confirmed the identification. There was also a large amount of native hornwort mixed in, which looks similar at first glance.

The Mystic River Watershed Association is currently working on eradicating water chestnut, but there is almost no mention of control measures for what is obviously a healthy population of Eurasian milfoil. Eurasian milfoil is an aggressive invasive plant, most commonly treated with herbicides. This plant was discovered in Cobbossee Lake in Winthrop last summer, but is only found in two other small ponds in southern Maine.

While this was a good opportunity for the boat inspector to inform the jet-ski owner about this issue, it was also another reminder that many boaters are not taking this threat seriously. Clearly, more education about and enforcement of the laws in Maine is needed.