Lake Waramaug Conservancy

A new urgent focus of LWC is a non-native invasive
aquatic plant that if allowed to take hold in the lake will destroy it. There
is a "red-alert" warning going out to Connecticut lake communities to
be on the lookout for hydrilla, an extremely aggressive non-native invasive aquatic
plant species. When hydrilla infests a lake, it chokes out all native aquatic
plants and fish populations, makes large areas of a lake unusable for any kind
of recreation, and degrades water quality. It is commonly known as the "world's worst aquatic invasive plant".

What is the Lake Waramaug Conservancy doing about it?

1) Every year we perform four rigorous shoreline vegetation
surveys, slowly cruising the shoreline mapping
all the native aquatic plant populations and geo-referencing any invasive
species that are spotted. If invasive species are located, we send out our suction
harvest divers to pull and completely remove them from the lake.

2) We now sample the lake water for shards of hydrilla DNA,
pulling water samples from all the areas of the lake that have favorable
habitat, filtering them to send to a lab for screening.

3) We are on call when a lakefront property owner informs
us of an aquatic plant that springs up around their waterfront that they have
not seen before. We use our research boat to take samples around the waterfront
to identify all the plant species to verify that no invasive species are present.

But we all need to do more.

This year we are asking for your support to help build boat decontamination stations. While the three lake towns already inspect each motorized
vessel entering the lake, boats and trailers also need to be decontaminated to insure there are no unseen invasive species trying to hitch a ride into Lake Waramaug.

The addition of a decontamination process will amplify the towns' and LWC's efforts to protect the lake, keeping hydrilla and other invasive species out of the lake.

Your support will help us ensure that Lake Waramaug has a clean water future.