Last week, the City of Worcester Department of Public Works & Parks (DPW&P) once again raised the bar in new and creative ways to help manage a problem that has been a challenge at Indian Lake (and many others throughout Massachusetts) for years: Eurasian milfoil. This aggressive non native invasive plant can quickly spread throughout a water body, overpowering native vegetation. It can also leave a lake nearly unusable for recreation, which longtime residents may remember from the 1980's at Indian Lake. Up until now, there has been no way to completely eradicate this plant from a water body. Our annual draw down has been successful at managing it but the entire plant is not removed and therefore residents begin to notice the growth again in late summer. 

DASH is an acronym for Diver Assisted Suction Harvesting. It is a manual method for removing invasive aquatic plants by the root for a more permanent reduction in plant density without the use of chemicals. SCUBA Divers with a boat-mounted suction device were at Indian Lake for 2 days last week identifying the underwater  plants and removing them from the bottom sediments, being sure not to disturb native vegetation. Divers targeted the Eurasian milfoil in the eastern side of the Indian Lake.

 

This was the first time that DPW&P used the DASH method to remove invasive aquatic plants in the City of Worcester. Use of this method is possible because the infestation of Milfoil was still relatively small when identified, as large scale implementation of DASH is not feasible. 

We look forward to providing a report on results along with photos as the company had underwater cameras and a drone! 

A special thanks to the residents who detected and reported this invasive early!