Posts: 3907
| Didn't read the attached article, but EM is a big problem on all the lakes in SW MI. The smallish lake I live on, about 300 acres, has been infested for years now. A couple points to ponder...
* No way to stop the spread. Only takes one boat to introduce EM to a lake. Just like Zebra mussels. EM is traveling like wildfire from the south to the north.
* Zebra mussels make the problem MUCH worse - they clear the water and allow sunlight to penetrate deeper than ever before, promoting weed growth in deeper water. On our lake, water that was 15' deep 10 years ago, now has EM growing to the surface. Thick #*#*, looks like you can step out on the boat and walk on it, like a big green reef.
* Lake owners fertilize lawns, plus, old septic systems that leak into the lake, provide food for the EM. Worse all the time as more and more people use the waters.
* Lake associations are scammed by outfits that spray herbicides, with promises to eliminate the EM. Never works. All it does is kill a bunch of EM, plus native species of plantlife, which settle to the bottom providing yet additional fertilizer for the next generation of EM. Sandy bottoms become silt-covered, lakes become shallower and shallower, accelerating the natural process of lakes turning into swamps and later fields. Think long term - a shallow lake's life may be cut in half. (If you own on a shallow lake now....) The herbicide people just keep coming back over and over to spray more and more, state govenments have less and less resources to properly regulate ond oversee these guys due to chronic state deficits plus Bush has gutted the EPA.
At this point, the real answer is not poison, but rather a species of water bettle that eat young EM. Most lake associations won't go for it because it takes a few years for the bettles to demonstrate improvement. But they work. Most lake associations around here are run by Chicago Wonderful gentlemans who only want to recreationally boat and want the prob fixxed NOW so they opt for poison. The very few lakes that opted for bettles are starting to show very promising results. Get involved and go for the natural solution, bugs, not poison.
And that's all I got to say based on what little I know.
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