Lake summit discusses fish, plant populations, invasive species control

By Jason Emerson

Editor

In the absence of chemical pesticide treatment, if the town had not removed more than 2,500 tons of milfoil from Cazenovia Lake this summer, the lake would have been so choked with weeds as to be all but unusable for recreation.

This was one of the most impressive points made last weekend during the Cazenovia Lake Watershed Council’s annual Cazenovia Lake Summit, an informational meeting by municipal officials and biological experts on the health and status of Cazenovia Lake.

The news was not all bad, however. In fact, it was mainly positive. Efforts have made headway in preventing invasive species and runoff pollutants from entering the lake, the fish populations are holding steady, the plant life is abundant and varied and non-resident users of the lake contributed more than $1.5 million to the local economy last year.

The Lake Watershed Council’s annual forum, which was held last Saturday, Dec. 3, in the village municipal building, was attended by more than 50 people. Officials and experts from the village of Cazenovia, the town of Cazenovia, the state Department of Environmental Conservation, the Cazenovia Lake Association and Cazenovia College each gave presentations on various aspects of lake health on which they manage or consult.

Village and town efforts

Trustee Fritz Koennecke reported on the village’s efforts to manage lake health through its oversight of the two village parks, the village boat launch and lake policing. He said there were 1,763 boat inspections this year, with stewards checking for potential invasive species being brought into and out of the lake by boats, and there were zero failed inspections.

Village statistics show that the majority of boat launch users are Cazenovia residents, while most of the out-of-town users of the lake come from Manlius and Syracuse. More than half of all lake users are there to fish, while the typical boat has a motor of more than 100 horsepower.

Koennecke said the Cazenovia police boat patrol almost doubled its presence on the lake this year, putting in 110 patrol hours on a new, 20-foot boat the village received from the state. There were no major incidents, violations or complaints reported, he said.

Koennecke said the paid kayak storage racks at Lakeside Park, installed this year, sold out so quickly, and were so popular, that a second set of racks was added. Those also sold out. Sign-ups to use the kayak storage racks begin Jan. 2 at the village office.

Finally, the Lakeland Park Master Plan has been completed and approved, and upcoming park improvements will include improving water quality at the beach and in the fountain; repairs to the retaining walls and improvement in park drainage, Koennecke said. He also said the construction of a hand kayak launch behind Carpenter’s Barn — which will eventually be the staging point for the LL Bean Discovery School — is expected to begin during summer 2017.

On the town side, improvements to runoff and drainage into the lake continue, said Tim Hunt, town highway superintendent, although he spent most of his time discussing the town’s weed harvesting program.

The program increased its effectiveness immensely this year due to the purchase of a larger weed harvesting machine, Hunt said. During the four months of weed harvesting on the lake, town crews removed 354 boatloads — 2,656 tons — of invasive milfoil weeds from the lake, Hunt said. The harvesting also removed 11,000 pounds of nitrogen, 17,000 pounds of phosphorous and 5,800 pounds of potassium from the lake, he said.

In 2015, town crews harvested 423 metric tons of weeds from the lake.

Hunt said that while the new harvester was “quite effective” this year, the hot, dry summer with low water levels also made it “challenging.” He said almost the entire north end of the lake was filled with weeds and, in many places throughout the lake, instead of the normal 4-to-6 weeks of time for the weeds to regrow, they were back in one week.

Harvesting “just isn’t going to be the tool that solves this problem,” Hunt said. “If the harvester wasn’t on the lake this year, it probably would have been unusable.”

Sam Woods, a member of the Watershed Council and the Cazenovia Lake Association, also said that harvesting alone will not keep the lake clear of invasive weeds. “The plan is to treat the lake next year with chemicals,” he said. “The town has agreed.”

Ecological and biological experts

Bob Johnson, of Racine-Johnson Aquatic Ecologists, presented the results of his annual rake toss survey of plant life in Cazenovia Lake, and said the invasive species European watermilfoil “is clearly all over the lake.” The amount of medium and dense milfoil in the lake increased from 32 percent to 54 percent out of the 304 sampling points around the lake. He said 288 of the 304 locations tested around the lake contain milfoil, while 10 percent of all species in the lake is milfoil.

“This lake is extremely stable, and that’s good,” Johnson said. “There’s a great diversity of plants, which is also good. That is really holding this together.”

Johnson said his survey did not find any instances of the invasive plant hydrilla in the lake, but the species European Frog-bit and Starry Stonewort are both continuing to expand throughout the lake. He said the numbers of those species are “not problematic yet, but it is there and it is expanding.”

Johnson’s full report on his rake toss results, which he submitted to the town board, can be accessed at the town office.

Thad Yorks, associate professor of environmental biology and biology programs at Cazenovia College, who conducts a fish survey every year on Cazenovia Lake said the five-year walleye stocking plan that started in Cazenovia Lake in 2015 was not done in 2016 due to hatchery production issues. He said it will resume in 2017 and continue stocking 23,000 walleye per year in Cazenovia Lake until 2020.

Yorks said the preliminary results of his fish study this year showed a lot of yellow perch being caught in the survey nets as well as some walleye — although the walleye were too big to be any from the 23,000 that were stocked in 2015.

“If these data reflect anything, it’s that we’re in pretty good shape,” he said.

Yorks also discussed the increased presence of European Frog-bit in the lake and said there needs to be “some kind of effort to control this.” He said the species, which floats on top of the water, essentially blocks off the surface from everything below it, which lowers oxygen levels and drives fish away from the area.

Yorks proposed created a “Frog-bit brigade” of high school and college students who would find and remove the weed. Since Frog-bit floats on the surface it is easy to remove without breaking it up into smaller pieces.

Abigail Kortz, a senior at Cazenovia College, gave a presentation on an economic impact study she did about the lake by surveying boat launch users at Lakeside Park. Kortz, an environmental biology major, asked boaters to complete a survey asking where people spend their money and how much they spend when they visit Cazenovia.

Her survey results showed that lake users mainly spend their money in Cazenovia on dining at restaurants, with gas the next-most purchased item, followed by groceries. Her results showed that lake users spent approximately $800,000 at local restaurants, nearly $500,000 in gas and more than $300,000 on groceries last year. More people purchased gas and groceries en route to Cazenovia, rather than in Cazenovia, the surveys showed.

A copy of Kortz’s report will be posted on the town website.

Finally, Scott Kishbaugh, chief of the lake monitoring and assessment section of the state DEC division of water, talked about Cazenovia Lake health from a statewide perspective. He said milfoil “is by far the most common aquatic invasive species in New York state.” He also urged everyone at the meeting to be on the lookout for water chestnut, hydrilla and Starry Stonewort. He said that water chestnut is increasingly moving west across the state, but the good news is that it can be eradicated from a water body if it is caught early enough. Starry Stonewort, on the other hand, is “really bad” and needs to be vigilantly guarded against.