New plan for fighting milfoil deserves support

In Bonner County, common ground is actually water.

One thing all of us can agree on: We love the vast waters of Lake Pend Oreille. And we can agree that aquatic weeds spreading in the lake are a threat to our way of life.

That shared love of our waters has inspired the work of the Bonner County Aquatic Invasive Species Task Force. This diverse task force should be commended for hammering out a proposed plan for wrestling Eurasian water milfoil into submission.

The plan isn't perfect. Nor does it seek to completely eradicate milfoil from the lake — a goal deemed unrealistic by the task force and the Bonner County Commissioners.

But like most good compromises, the plan has allowed polarized parties to find agreement because it floats on a shared value — in this case, the health of Lake Pend Oreille.

More importantly, if approved, the plan would funnel millions of dollars to make a significant impact on the estimated 1,800 infested acres of the lake and river this year while providing important knowledge and tools for determining a long-range plan.

In mid-March, the commissioners unanimously approved the task force's recommended grant application to the state Department of Agriculture for $2.4 million to fund an integrated approach to the pernicious problem of the noxious milfoil.

On April 18, we'll learn the fate of the plan, after a state selection committee pores over this and other applications from around the state. Celia Gould, the director of the state Department of Agriculture, will make the final decision.

The lion's share of the proposed funding — $1.6 million — goes toward herbicides. But what makes this plan unique and exciting is the partnership with national experts from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center.

The experts' proposed research into using the native weevil to control Eurasian water milfoil and planting treated areas with native aquatic plants has great potential. Chances of success are good, because unlike past milfoil bio-control projects in the region, this proposal includes plenty of hungry bugs to have an impact on the weeds.

If the stocking of weevils and the strategic planting of native vegetation succeeds in keeping Eurasian water milfoil at bay, then certainly the future is brighter for a long-term, affordable path to aquatic weed control. Instead of re-applying costly herbicides year after year in a whole lake approach, herbicides may eventually become a targeted tool for site-specific control, much like diver dredging and bottom barriers are now. The nursery of native plants can be used to fill voids created by herbicides or other disturbances, where milfoil may otherwise take root.

Whatever the outcome of research effort, the knowledge gained will benefit others throughout the state, and will instruct the larger scientific community, too. In fact, an independent review panel convened last year to examine the state's Eurasian water milfoil management program recommended that the state fund such research projects as a means to guide future treatment decisions.

Both the previous and current Board of County commissioners had the foresight to create and support the task force and a collaborative, community-based solution for a problem that not only threatens the health of our lake, our recreation opportunities and economy, but also threatens us with more summers of divisiveness and controversy.

Now let us hope that the guardians of the state's grant money have the wisdom to give this proposal a chance to work

? Susan Drumheller is the North Idaho Associate for the Idaho Conservation League and a member of the Bonner County Aquatic Invasive Species Task Force.