Herbicide Treatment of Curly Leaf Pondweed

Dear Friends of the lake;

I have had several inquiries about what the small buoys are that many of you see out in the water. Forest Lake has a heavy infestation of Curly Leaf Pondweed (CLP) which is an Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS).   CLP is a early growing AIS that grows up to the surface. CLP if left untreated grows very quickly until around the middle of July and then dies back causing an abundant amount of phosphorus to enter into the water column.

The Comfort Lake Forest Lake Watershed District (WD) has been doing an outstanding job each year in contracting and paying for herbicide treatment of CLP. The herbicide treatment early in the year prevents the heavy release of the phosphorus back into the water. This treatment is usually done each year around this time while CLP is young and not very robust.

On May 20th 99 acres were treated on Forest Lake. The small buoys you see are markers that generally outline the area that was treated. A delineation by Blue Water Science was completed a few weeks ago that identified the areas to be treated. The areas treated were mapped with GPS and the WD obtained a permit from the DNR for this treatment.

Hopefully that answers your questions.

Forest Lake Board of Directors

Jerry Grundtner - President