On August 17, we hosted the first ever Invasive Plant Paddle on Chemo Pond! It was a blast. We would like to give a great big thank you to Roberta Hill and the team from Lake Stewards of Maine who led us on our journey. We met at Crossroads Christian Camp and had a brief introduction on the importance of invasive plant surveillance, how to collect samples and the easy steps to determine if a plant in possibly an invasive or not. Next it was into our boats to survey the local area for all types of aquatic plants. Lastly we gathered again on shore to review what we had found. Luckily NO invasive plants were found but we identified over 30 varieties of aquatic plants in Chemo Pond. All this data will be recorded at www.lakesofmaine.org. This is the first time that any aquatic plant data has ever been recorded for Chemo Pond. Knowing what plants naturally occur in our pond will help citizen scientists and researchers in the future understand the health of our lake.
Another big benefit of this plant paddle is that I have begun to form our very own Invasive Plant Investigative Team. We have 5 members and we surveyed other areas of the lake later in the summer and fall. I plan to expand on this in future years. To that goal, we will try to host another Invasive Plant Paddle in conjunction with Lake Stewards of Maine next summer. Watch the website for details.
Kathy Trenholm
