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Weed & Algae Program Update Through the first week of August, McCloud personnel have spent 10 full days on our lakes monitoring and treating our waterways as necessary to control problematic weed and algae growth. This included a full lake treatment using a combination of liquid and granular Sonar herbicide throughout all of Beaver & Half-Moon Lake in an effort to control the very invasive Curlyleaf Pondweed that has proven to be a serious problem in this lake. In addition to the full lake treatment on Beaver & Half-Moon Lake, several of our channel areas on Goose and Lincoln Lakes have received the normal algae treatments during McCloud’s regularly schedule visits that take place every two weeks. In addition to the above, McCloud personnel have completed 9 additional special weed treatments through the 1st week of August. This included the following: May 12th completed special treatment in selective areas on Lincoln Lake to control unwanted growth of Curlyleaf Pondweed and Northern Water Milfoil.- May 25th completed special treatment in Beaver & Half-Moon Lake to control the unwanted growth of Northern Water Milfoil. June 8th completed special treatments in both Beaver & Half Moon Lake and Lincoln Lake to control unwanted growth of Northern Water Milfoil. June 21st completed special treatment in Beaver & Half Moon Lake to control Northern Water Milfoil and on Goose Lake within the village channel areas to control problematic growth of Duckweed & Watermeal. July 7th completed special treatments in both Beaver & Half Moon Lake and Lincoln Lake to control unwanted growth of Northern Water Milfoil. August 4th completed special treatment for Duckweed & Watermeal on Goose Lake in the channel located between Goose Lake Road and Bluegill Court. The GLA Board of Directors and Weed Control Committee are continuously working to utilize the most effective but least invasive solution for protecting the ecological balance and integrity of our lakes. Thank you for your continued support and cooperation. Goose Lake Association Weed Control Committee ********************************************************************************
Keeping Those Troublesome Weed & Algae Problems Under Control With summer and the warm weather finally here, our 2010 Weed and Algae Control Program is in full swing. Although it is early in the season, this year is proving to be a very challenging year when it comes to controlling unwanted weed and algae growth in some of our lake areas. As of the end of May, McCloud personnel have spent 5 full days on our lakes monitoring and treating our waterways as necessary to control problematic weed and algae growth. This included a full lake treatment using a combination of liquid and granular Sonar herbicide throughout all of Beaver & Half-Moon Lake in an effort to control and significantly reduce the very invasive Curlyleaf Pondweed that has proven to be a serious problem in this lake. In addition to the full lake treatment on Beaver & Half-Moon Lake, several of our channel areas on Goose and Lincoln Lakes have received the normal algae treatments during McCloud’s regularly schedule visits that take place every two weeks. In addition to the above, special weed treatments were performed on Lincoln Lake on May 12th and on Beaver & Half-Moon Lake on May 25th to control the native Northern Water Milfoil in areas where boat navigation problems were starting to develop. During the week of June 7th, McCloud personnel are scheduled to do a special weed treatment in selective areas on Lincoln and Beaver & Half-Moon Lakes in an ongoing effort to control the unwanted growth of Curlyleaf Pondweed and Northern Water Milfoil. A Special Notice will be sent to those property owners who will be affected with specific details on water use restrictions. As you can see, the GLA Board of Directors and Weed Control Committee are continuously working to utilize the most effective but least invasive solution for protecting the ecological balance and integrity of our lakes. Thank you for your continued support and cooperation. Goose Lake Association Weed Control Committee **************************************************************** 2010 Weed & Algae Control Program Update The GLA (Goose Lake Association) Weed Control Committee is once again gearing up to meet the challenges of maintaining our beautiful lake resources. We are happy to report that at the January 2010 GLA Board Meeting, the Board of Directors voted to once again enter into an annual aquatic weed & algae control agreement with McCloud Aquatic Services Division for the 2010 season at an annual cost of $29,304. During the 2009 season, McCloud spent 12 full days on our lakes (one day every two weeks between late April and late September) collecting critical lake information and treating our lakes so that problematic weed & algae growth was kept to a minimum. Although we experienced mixed results in controlling the invasive Curlyleaf Pondweed specifically in Beaver and Half Moon Lake, we were pleased with the overall results of the first year in the maintenance phase of our program. As a result of the problems we have experienced with controlling the invasive Curlyleaf Pondweed in Beaver & Half Moon Lake, the standard maintenance program we had planned on following for controlling problematic weed growth in this lake will need to be adjusted, thus causing an increase in cost to our weed control budget by $11,820 over our 2009 cost. During the early part of 2010, Beaver & Half Moon Lake will receive a full lake treatment using the Sonar herbicide, similar to what was done in 2007 & 2008. This full lake treatment will be done in the early to mid April time frame when the Curlyleaf Pondweed is in its early growth stage. A special communication will be mailed to all members with property bordering Beaver & Half Moon Lake prior to the start of treatment period explaining in detail what will be taking place and the lake water use restrictions associated with this special treatment. In addition to the above mentioned full lake treatment on Beaver & Half Moon Lake, as part of our ongoing weed & algae control maintenance plan, starting in early to mid April and continuing on through the end of September, McCloud personnel will spend approximately 1 day every two weeks on all of our lakes monitoring and treating our waterways as necessary to control problematic weed and algae growth. The overall goal of the Weed & Algae Control Program is to strike the right balance for controlling problematic weed & algae growth while preserving the right type and balance of weeds & algae growth to support a healthy fishery while promoting a lake environment that maintains and enhances our property values. GLA Weed Control Committee ****************************************** Weed Control Committee Report 2009 Goose Lake Association Annual Meeting ( 09/19/2009 ) Weed & Algae Control Program – Since the start of this year’s weed & algae control season, McCloud personnel has spent a total of 12 full days on our lakes (one day every two weeks starting in late April) collecting critical lake information and treating our lakes so that problematic weed and algae growth is kept to a minimum. Although we have seen mixed results in controlling the invasive Curlyleaf Pondweed specifically in Beaver and Half Moon Lake, we are pleased with the overall results of our first year in the maintenance phase of our program. As part of the program, in an effort to control some of the more problematic weed growth that was occurring in certain areas of our lakes, McCloud also completed (4) special weed control treatments (May 21st, June 18th, July 6th, and July 30th) in selective areas on all of our lakes to control the nuisance growth of Duckweed, Northern Water Milfoil, and Curlyleaf Pondweed.The overall goal of the Weed Control Committee is to strike a balance for controlling problematic weed and algae growth that preserves the right type and balance of weeds and algae to sustain a healthy fishery while promoting a lake environment that maintains and enhances our property values. Special thanks to our GLA Weed Control Committee members Rich Bulicek, Nick Connor, Craig Herrick, Gordy Kriechbaum, Jurate Pezze and Joe Turk for their time and effort in making the GLA Weed & Algae Control Program a huge success. Water Quality Improvement Program – As many of you may know, this year we started to focus some of our attention on improving water quality conditions in many of our shallow, narrow channels by utilizing a product called Aquaclear. This pelletized product is a specifically blended micro organism that is designed to accelerate the biological decomposition of organic waste (black muck) that has been left to accumulate over many years on our lakes bottom. Throughout the spring and summer, a total of 6 applications of Aquaclear pellets were completed on several of our populated channel areas on Goose and Beaver Lakes. As a result of this effort, we are beginning to see positive signs where the Aquaclear pellets are helping to improve the overall water clarity in many of our channel areas. As part of our overall comprehensive weed program, we plan to propose expanding this water quality improvement program next year to other lake areas that will benefit from the use of the Aquaclear product. Special thanks to Greg & Chris Breausche, Rich Bulicek, Rick Querio, George Ursitti, Craig Herrick and Joe Turk who volunteered several hours of their time to apply the Aquaclear pellets to our lakes. Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program – Once again partnered with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency by participating in the Illinois Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program where we have local volunteers who have monitored Goose, Beaver & Half Moon Lakes for water clarity and other key lake environmental data. Each of our volunteers spend approximately 20-30 hours of their own time between the May and October time frame collecting this very important lake data. This data is collected and forwarded to the Illinois Protection Agency and is used to track how our lakes are developing as our lake watershed conditions change over time. Unfortunately this year we lost our Lincoln Lake volunteers, Gordy & Lois Kriechbaum as they have sold their home and decided to move on so they could be closer to their family members. Because this monitoring program is so very important to our lakes, we will be looking for two new volunteers to take this effort forward on Lincoln Lake next year. Special thanks to our Goose Lake Association Lake Monitoring Volunteers Jim and Barb Arnold for monitoring Beaver & Half Moon Lake and Craig Herrick & Joe Turk for monitoring Goose Lake. Respectfully Submitted, Joe Turk – Weed Control Committee Chairman ******************************************************************* Use of Lake Friendly Fertilizers Did you know that Phosphorus is a nutrient that boosts plant and algae growth in your lake? That's right; most of the lawn and garden fertilizers we are using today contain phosphorus which is bad for lakes, streams, and rivers. These types of combination fertilizers contain three main ingredients, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. For example, a 10-6-4 fertilizer contains 10 percent nitrogen, 6 percent phosphorus, and 4 percent potassium. The middle number represents the percent of phosphorus in the fertilizer. According to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, studies have shown that lawns in the Midwest rarely need phosphorus to maintain healthy, good looking lawns. Examples of phosphorus-free fertilizers would be Scotts Lawn Pro Weed & Feed 26-0-3 which can be found at either of the Matteson Ace Hardware stores in Diamond and Morris or the Expert Garden Weed & Feed 28-0-3 or All Purpose Fertilizer 12-0-12 which can be found at Walmart in Morris. For those of you who contract with local professional lawn care companies such as TruGreen Chemlawn, Spring-Green Lawn and Tree Care, or Trotter Landscape who appear to be some of the main companies that service the Goose Lake area, please request that they also use lake friendly phosphorus-free lawn care products to help us maintain a healthy lake environment. With the amount of money that the GLA (Goose Lake Association) is investing in controlling unwanted weed and algae growth within our lakes, we are highly recommending that all GLA property owners (whether your property directly borders one of our lakes or not) highly consider using lake friendly phosphorus-free fertilizers. Thank you for your continued support of this very important program. Submitted by: Goose Lake Association Weed Control Committee
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Weed Committee Report