Lake Holcombe (WQOW) - Eurasian
Water Milfoil. It's a mouthful, and a
problem on Lake Holcombe. The DNR is pinning its hopes on an
insect.
Lake Holcombe
is one of many Wisconsin lakes with a Eurasian
Water Milfoil problem.
"Eurasian water milfoil
is a really aggressively invasive non-native plant. Once it got here, it
started to hitchhike it's way from lake to lake on boats. "It gets so
dense and thick that it can change the ecology of a lake, but it also becomes a
problem for recreation, too," says Amy Thorstenson, with Golden Sands Resource
Conservation.
The lake association and the DNR are
hoping a tiny bug is the answer.
"These weevils like
Eurasian Water Milfoil, and that's where they go and eat," says Doc Dougherty with the
Lake Holcombe Improvement Association.
Several years ago, the lake
association tried using chemicals to combat the problem.
"You don't know the
side effects of what's the chemical going to do on a long-term basis, you know
kids are out here swimming, grandkids are out here swimming and we want to put
them in a clean body of water," says Doc.
Now, they're using weevils.
"We started with
the weevils last year, and this is the second of a three year project," Doc
says.
The lake association bought the
weevils for $22,000. It's been raising
them so they can be released to fight off Eurasian Water Milfoil.
"Once we get the
population going, it won't be something that you'll have to do every year, but
when you're getting started with stocking, it is recommended to do it multiple
years and give that population a good boost to where you start seeing some
control of Eurasian," Amy says.
Lake Holcombe
is one of three Wisconsin lakes involved in a
study about the effectiveness of the tiny bug.
"We're hoping that
we can release it statewide so that any lake group can use it, and it might
make biological control more affordable for them," says Amy.
The Lake Holcombe
improvement association paid for the weevils using fundraisers and private
donations, along with matching grants from the DNR and Xcel Energy.
