Lake Garfield Fall 2018 Report
October 4, 2018
On September 19, 2018 New England Aquatic Services, LLC commenced the second phase of Lake Garfield’s 2018 Milfoil Removal Project. The focus of this phase of the project was to remove Eurasian Milfoil from a large growth area to begin reducing the size of the patch. The patch, which appears to run across the width of the lake, was extremely dense and growing in depths of 12-16 feet of water. The project consisted of 10 days, a total of 68.81 hours, and resulted in clearing 1.98 acres and removing a total of 682 bags of weeds. Each bag holds the equivalent of two 5 gallon buckets, or approximately 1.5 cubic ft.
The method used for removal was Diver Assisted Suction Harvesting. The equipment used allows for 2 divers to work simultaneously to remove the plants by the roots and send them to the surface via 4” suction hoses where the material collects in mesh bags so that it can be removed offsite.
The points shown on the attached maps are the locations where the boat was initially stopped. Due to the windy conditions that occur on Lake Garfield the method of work is usually to start at one point and once the area around the boat has been cleared to drift with the wind back to the next area of plant growth.
Attached to the end of this report is the spreadsheet used to keep track of the work during the 10 days of the project. The project started by working into the “patch” where it begins after entering the big bowl from the channel. That growth area was the focus for the first 5 days. After that point we changed course to focus our attention working across the big bowl at the direction of the representative from the Lake Garfield work group. There still remains dense growth to the south and west of the area that we worked, as well as across the width of the lake to the east of where we worked.