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Milfoil Committee sets treatment plan for next year
 
 
by Brendan Berube
Staff Writer
 
December 20, 2007
BARNSTEAD — There was good news and bad news to report last week in Barnstead's battle against the invasive aquatic plant known as milfoil.

The good news, according to Milfoil Control Committee Chairman Ed Neister, is that the state has agreed to pick the tab for treating the Suncook River as part of a research grant, and UNH has agreed to supply a handful of environmental science students to assist in treatment and data collection.

The bad news, he said, is that there are no state funds available for Brindle Pond, which could cost as much as $19,350 to treat.

Neister explained during the committee's review of next year's treatment schedule on Dec. 15 that his application for a research grant to treat Brindle Pond was denied on the grounds that several ponds throughout the state have already been treated, and are no longer considered viable parts of a research program.

As a solution, Neister proposed treating a 25-acre patch of the 75-acre pond with a double dose of the herbicide 2,4-D, which he said would be equivalent to hitting the entire pond with a single dose.

"The problem is going to come down to money," he said. "This year's going to be tough."

The committee currently has $18,000 in its "kitty," and plans to ask the town for the final $10,000 installment they were promised at the 2005 Town Meeting. With several big-ticket proposals likely to appear on the Warrant this year, however, including a new municipal complex and a renovation and expansion of the elementary school, the committee felt that they would be pushing their luck a bit too far to ask for any more than that.

As a compromise, Neister suggested that the committee cut funding for next year's treatment schedule back to $15,000, leaving them a $13,000 cushion to fall back on as a contingency fund.

The current plan for the Suncook, Neister said, calls for a total of 30 sites to be treated using either the traditional single-dose method or a double dose. Following the initial treatment and re-treatment, he explained, the UNH students and committee members will gather data on water flow measurement, the percentage of plants killed, and the percentage of plants that come back after re-treatment.

The students, he said, should find themselves on the river a minimum of four days a week.

"What's going to be amazing," he said, "is how much data we're going to get, and how this is all going to correlate at the end.

"I think it's going to be a cool program," he added.

The committee also plans to assist the Locke Lake Colony Association in treating a mass of 50 plants at one end of the lake with a single dose of 2,4-D, and another three areas of milfoil growth at the opposite end (near the main beach) with divers and a minimal dose of herbicide.

The estimated cost for treating Locke Lake is $17,250.

NEXT MEETING

The Milfoil Control Committee normally meets on the second Thursday of each month at the Oscar Foss Memorial Library.

Their next meeting has been scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 10, at 7 p.m.

Brendan Berube can be reached at 569-3126 or bberube@salmonpress.com
 
 

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