BRADFORD, Vermont (STPNS) -- FAIRLEE??Folks, we?re losing the battle,? said Fairlee Selectboard chair Jay Barrett on Aug. 2. He was addressing a group of state and regional officials who had been invited to the selectboard meeting for an update on Eurasian milfoil in Lake Morey.

Lake Fairlee Commission member Don Weaver, who has been leading the fight against milfoil for the past 15 years, kicked off the discussion. This is not just Fairlee?s problem, he told senators George Coppenrath and Jane Kitchel, Karen Horn of the Vermont League of Cities and Towns and Peter Gregory of Two Rivers-Ottauquechee Regional Commission. ?Not only Lake Morey but also the State of Vermont can no longer tolerate this,? he said.



Eurasian milfoil was first recognized in the lake in 1991. Since then, more than $1 million of state, local and private funds have been spent in an attempt to control the invasive, non-native plants. Every method the state will allow has been used?hand pulling, suction harvesting, and bottom barriers, Weaver said.

He had taken Kitchel and Coppenrath on a boat ride around the lake last September to view the milfoil situation. ?Then it was bad,? he said, ?but this year it has grown exponentially.?

?We?ve lost the battle,? said Lake Morey commissioner Bill Scott, ?we?ve got to do something different.? The bottom barrier is regularly moved around, but it covers only three acres, and more than 50 acres are now infested with milfoil, he pointed out. Furthermore, in the past 10 years, the number of Vermont lakes with 20 acres or more of milfoil has grown from 30 to 60.

?A great amount of wealth is derived from these lakes,? Weaver pointed out, stating that half of Fairlee?s property tax is paid by people with lake frontage, lake access or lake views. The town?s two largest taxpayers, the Aloha Foundation and Lake Morey Resort, are both dependent on the lake and are critical to the survival of this town, he said. They pay taxes, hire people and bring in visitors.

?We ship a lot of money to the State of Vermont? in the form of education property taxes and other taxes, he added.

Weaver thanked the two senators for sponsoring a bill last year but, expressing his frustration with Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation?s (DEC) permitting process, said more help was needed. This is a statewide problem, he said, adding, ?We need more proactivity?not just volunteers for one small lake.?

Although the bottom barrier kills the roots of the plants, it is not enough. Now the question is what chemical or biological solutions (such as ground barriers, sonar and sterilized carp) might be effective, and what the state DEC will permit.

In the search for ?the best possible solution,? Fairlee has hired a consulting firm, Aquatic Controls Technologies (ACT), to visit the lake on Aug. 10 and 11. ACT will conduct a full assessment of the lake and make recommendations for solutions, based on their findings. The following week, Weaver said, he and others will be meeting with a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers expert on milfoil to seek his advice.

Weaver asked the state officials to become more active in finding ?effective and cost effective methodologies to address the situation? and to get more action and cooperation from the DEC. He noted that Washington state allows higher concentrations of chemicals that have been effective in eradicating non-native plants. As for the argument that chemicals would harm native pond weed, Weaver said, ?native pond weed won?t be around much more?it?s being killed off by the milfoil.?

Sen. Coppenrath said that, when he and Sen. Kitchel had met with DEC officials last year, ?they seemed very hesitant about chemical treatment.? While all acknowledged that chemical or biological options would be controversial politically, Greg McGrath of Fairlee pointed out that ?all other options have proved ineffective.?

?Volunteers are probably a greying group,? said Barrett, adding that, as properties on the lake are transferred to new people, it is likely that, in 10 or 15 years, ?we won?t get volunteers.? Property values affect not just Fairlee but the entire state, he pointed out, so the milfoil threat to the health of the lake is ?of equal concern to the state legislators, VLCT and regional planners.?

He called on the senators to ?make sure all your fellow legislators really understand the problem and the long term effects? and start to ?deal with the DEC folks? to change their permitting process and the overall direction of the program. Barrett predicted that a chemical solution will probably be necessary, while acknowledging the political ramifications of that.

The senators agreed that this was a statewide problem and that legislation would be the key to solving it. ?It is in every town?s interest to get this problem solved,? said Coppenrath.

?When we have 60 lakes, there?s probably not a senator that?s not affected,? said Kitchel, asking Horn, ?Is VLCT hearing the same level of concern??

?This hasn?t been in the forefront for us,? Horn replied but said that she had done some research since being invited to this meeting and was hearing more about the problem. This could be addressed by VLCT lobbyists and included in their draft legislation, she said.

Coppenrath suggested that milfoil would be a good topic for a joint hearing of the house and senate with the Agency of Natural Resources. Gregory identified three issues to be addressed: appropriations, awareness and education of the legislature and general population, and addressing the bias against the use of chemicals. Kitchel added that they needed to address the DEC culture and permitting process.

West Fairlee Selectboard member Patricia Crawford concluded the discussion, thanking Fairlee for taking the lead on a problem that is also being seen in Lake Fairlee, which is surrounded by West Fairlee, Thetford and Fairlee. She said that leadership at the local level was another key element, citing Fairlee as a model.