We recently discovered a benthic cyanobacteria species Stigonema in both Echo Lake and Parker Pond. Stigonema looks like little green balls and can look more like a mat when there's a lot of it together. It can easily be suspended if you to swirl your paddle into it. It rests on the bottom, in shallow, and often sandy areas where it takes up nutrients from the lake bottom. Whitney entered the observations (with good photos) into iNaturalist, which can be seen here for Echo: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/181244974and here for Parker: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/239971504. You can also see the green "moss like" mats when a lot of it's resting on the bottom together in this video from Echo: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1TNCxCSvnoLESFP-xa2Klb1n1C6w__zHA?usp=drive_link.
Not much is known about Stigonema, as it's generally understudied in Maine and elsewhere, but we have no concern and reason to believe the species is harmful to the public. The lab has told us not to bother sending in a sample, as Stigonema tends to not be a toxin producer.
As you all are out on your lake or pond surveying for invasive plants, we're wondering if you think you've possibly come across or seen something similar to Stigonema in your surveying. If so, please let me know, as we're curious to where else Stigonema may be in the watershed.
Please also pass this along to your IPP team members, as well as others you think might be interested and/or have maybe seen it.
I just wanted to give you an update of what happened on Wednesday during this session. Silas explained the plant in details and showed it to those in attendance. He also found a Non-invasive bladderwort flowering plant that looks very similar to Swollen with the exclusion of the wagon wheel flowering on Tilton. I have attached pictures again of both so you can see both invasive and non invasive species again as many were unable to attend. Also attached are our results of what was pulled out of the pond.
Silas also mentioned having a session on a weekend day for those who cannot make a weekday.
It was a very informative session, explaining how to properly collect it, and dispose of it.
We had 3 pond residents, one David pond resident and one nearby neighbor attend this session.
30 Mile River Association holds the permit for Tilton Pond residents who have:
watched the attached video in the previous email
collect Swollen Bladderwort
drain it on land, weigh it and dispose of it properly
email or call Lori Beaulieu at lbeaulieu63@gmail.com 207-576-9830 with date/ # of people who collected/ time spent and drained weight
Lori will then report that to the DEP and 30 Mile River. It is illegal to remove any plant from a body of water without a permit.
Silas please add anything I may have missed.
If anyone would like to go out on Tilton Pond at any time, I am happy to start a "bucket brigade removal process" which is pretty easy, anytime! I am just not available on Monday or Wednesday afternoons. I have buckets and extra kayaks too so those of you from other ponds don't have to wash yours after being in Tilton.
Lori Beaulieu
6/17
The removal session previously mentioned in John McPhedran's email has been scheduled for Wednesday, June 19th at 9am. Lori Beaulieu has graciously offered to host on her shorefront. I expect the session to be around an hour long with a goal of getting all property owners looking to remove the plant together and on the same page. We will go through things such as what the plant looks like, how to carefully remove it, how communication regarding time spent removing, amount of plant material removed, etc. will work with Lori and Chris as the points of contact.
Silas Mohlar, Program Leader & Field Technician for 30 Mile River Watershed Association, and his assistant finished surveying all of David Pond, with no discovery of Swollen Bladderwort.
The MDEP was also on David Pond inspecting the David Pond inlet from Tilton Pond.
6/7
To Tilton Pond Property Owners,
I am John McPhedran and I lead Maine Department of Environmental Protection’s Aquatic Invasive Species Unit. I’m writing also on behalf of the 30 Mile River Watershed Association about the extensive flowering of swollen bladderwort in Tilton Pond this year. This plant was added last year to Maine’s list of aquatic invasive plants.
While there were fewer flowers in 2023 than this season, we knew from 2023 surveys that swollen bladderwort existed in much of Tilton Pond. Lowering a rake to the bottom last year revealed swollen bladderwort vegetation in most areas. We suspect that the flowers we’re seeing this year are from this extensive vegetation seen last season.
There is not a lot of information for effective management of this plant in Maine or in other New England states. We are working on Little Ossipee and Mousam lakes in southern Maine – lakes with smaller infestations than Tilton – to determine the most effective methods to manage the plant.
I know several people on Tilton have already removed some of the swollen bladderwort and want to continue removal while the plants are obvious. We support that – thank you for your efforts. Your work on Tilton and any observations or insights regarding the invasive bladderwort, combined with the southern Maine efforts, will help us all move forward with management in the coming years.
The top priority for 2024 is to prevent spread to downstream waters and to lakes in other watersheds. 30 Mile River Watershed and DEP installed a net June 6 just downstream of the dam to decrease risk of plants moving directly from Tilton to David. Your efforts to remove plants near the carry-in access point will help reduce risk of plants carried away by visitors to Tilton.
Following are our expectations for residents removing this invasive plant to ensure that only the swollen bladderwort is removed and to have a rough accounting of your effort and material removed:
One or two pond residents agree to be points of contact for other residents who want to remove plants. Lori Beaulieu and Chris Riley are willing to volunteer in this capacity. They will be available to advise other residents on where to deposit plants, confirm identification of swollen bladderwort, and forward removal information and any questions to 30 Mile River Watershed Association to streamline communication. They will need to be told who on the pond is conducting removal.
Residents removing plants must attend a brief removal session organized by 30 Mile River Watershed Association.
Residents removing plants will track the time they spend removing and the amount of plants removed. It will be helpful to generally know the effort required to make a dent in this population. Lori and Chris have already begun to track removal can provide guidance.
A removal session coordinated by 30 Mile River Watershed Association will be scheduled soon. In the meantime, residents on the pond who want to begin removal should contact Lori or Chris.
Removal on Tilton will be done under a permit held by 30 Mile River Watershed Association.
Bottom line: there is no magic bullet and this plant is not going away. That is sobering, but it’s reality.
Thank you for all you do on the pond.
Sincerely,
John
5/29/2024 - Message from Bob Capers:
Greetings,
I want to reiterate a couple of points that John McPhedran of the DEP made during his conversation with Lori yesterday, just so no one has unreasonable expectations.
We are not going to try to pull out the bladderworts everywhere in Tilton Pond. That is not possible, we are not trained to do that kind of work, and we are not authorized by the state to do it.
Any removal of aquatic plants from a Maine lake requires a permit from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.
The 30 Mile River Watershed Association is applying to the DEP for a permit for some limited swollen bladderwort removal from Tilton Pond this year.
The Tilton Pond property owners have never been on their own in dealing with this invasive bladderwort. Since last summer, 30 Mile has been working closely with the DEP on the bladderwort infestation, and they have developed a management plan for this summer. That will include regular monitoring of plant growth, removing the bladderwort near the boat launch to reduce risk of its speading to other lakes via boat traffic, and working to prevent flow downstream into David Pond by installing one or more fragment nets in the stream channel.
We can expect to see the folks from 30 Mile and the DEP on Tilton every couple of weeks this summer. As the person coordinating invasive aquatic plant surveys for Basin, David, Tilton Pond Association, I will be on the pond as well. In fact, I have been collecting swollen bladderwort from Tilton since February, collecting the plants from under the ice, and I have been out in my canoe several times this spring, collecting more of the bladderwort, keeping the state, 30 Mile and the Lake Stewards of Maine informed about the situation there. Tilton Pond is not being ignored.
I will join you Thursday and Saturday, when our focus will be on removing the plants near the boat launch. The emphasis will be on doing the work carefully, preventing any breakage of the fragile plants as they are removed. Otherwise, we could be doing more damage than good. Any piece of the plant that is broken off can establish a new plant, so it is imperative that we avoid breaking the plants as we remove them, although this is difficult.
30 Mile will keep everyone informed about what is known about the bladderwort and plans for Tilton Pond during the summer.
Bob Capers
April 2024
Register now for workshops offered by Lake Stewards of Maine (LSM):
Aquatic Plant Identification Workshop at the Mount Vernon Community Center
Planning for 2024 Invasive Plant Surveys has begun. Please read an important message from Bob Capers, who is a local resident and a retired botanist with extensive knowledge of invasive plants. We need volunteers for the upcoming season.
The 30 Mile River Watershed Association has water quality webpages for all three of the association ponds on the 30 Mile website. On each "lake page" you can find links to the most recent annual water quality reports (also attached), historical data, depth maps, and more.
Most importantly, these webpages are updated after every monitoring trip so that lake residents can view near-live data as it is collected throughout the current monitoring season.
Basin and David Ponds have been monitored annually since 2016 by 30 Mile staff (bi-weekly, May through October). Tilton Pond is typically monitored annually as well (1x per season), but 30 Mile did not monitor in 2020 or 2021 due to staffing issues during/after covid. However, this year 30MRWA was successful in securing new funding to support more monitoring on Tilton Pond (monthly, July through Sept) and we hope to continue next season if funding allows. Thank you to Whitney Bakeer, 30MRWA Program Director. If you have questions, contact Whitney at whitney@30mileriver.org
