BY Jason Emerson

editor

The Cazenovia Town Board this week unanimously approved a resolution to undertake chemical treatment of Eurasian Watermilfoil in Cazenovia Lake next year. The work will be done by the company SOLitude Lake Management, of Hackettstown, N.J., and will consist of the herbicide Trichlopyr, which has the brand name of Renovate.

About 200 acres will be treated with Renovate, said town Supervisor Bill Zupan, although the exact locations of the treatments have not yet been decided.

“We decided to treat next year because of the dense milfoil all over the lake that was shown in the 2016 rake toss study,” Zupan said. “We’ll see how much money we can raise next year for more treatments.”

After two years without chemical herbicide treatment, the latest rake toss study of aquatic plant life in Cazenovia Lake, conducted by Racine-Johnson Aquatic Ecologists, showed an increased presence of medium and dense milfoil in the past year from 32 percent to 54 percent out of the 304 sampling points around the lake.

That report, which was discussed during the 2016 Cazenovia Lake Summit on Dec. 3, showed that Eurasian watermilfoil “declined significantly” with the use of triclopyr applied to the lake in 2009 and 2010, but increased again in 2011 when no treatment was made. Milfoil populations declined again in 2012 and 2014, which were treatment years, but rebounded in years when Renovate was not used.

In 2014, approximately 176 acres were treated with herbicide.

The town weed harvesting program in 2016 removed 354 boatloads — 2,656 tons — of invasive milfoil weeds from the lake, according to Tim Hunt, who heads the town weed harvesting program. The rapid rate of regrowth of the milfoil, however, has made it clear that harvesting alone will not keep the lake free of invasive plant life, he said.

To read the full Racine-Johnson plant survey, along with all the presentations on lake health and maintenance from the 2016 Cazenovia Lake Summit, visit the town of Cazenovia website at townofcazenovia.org.