Maine Milfoil Initiative IAP Control Roundtable 11/20/2010
Season wrap up meeting was held at St. Joseph?s College in Standish. There was a brief update from Maggie Shannon of the Maine Congress of Lakes, Peter Lowell from the Lakes Environmental Association, Roberta Hill from the Maine Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program, Paul Gregory from the Maine DEP and Jackie Bailey from the Maine Milfoil Initiative. It was announced that grants from the DEP for Courtesy Inspector Program and Milfoil will be the same in 2011.
Federal funding for the MMI for 2011 is in a holding pattern right now with things as they are in Washington.
Representatives from the 7 test bed lakes shared information on their progress for the season and also areas of challenge.The interactive conversations amongst the participants produced a wealth of information and suggestions. Those areas included fundraising efforts, membership, issues with rashes on Like Arrowhead and technology with the dash boats.
It was a pleasure to see the enthusiasm of the groups in dealing with their management plans and the hopefulness in regards to where their efforts will bring them as far as mitigation. As always there is a thankfulness for this opportunity to participate in this first ever initiative.More information will be forthcoming from Bob Mills in regards to our grant requests. As a final note, Peter Lowell urged that all of us do not become complacent in keeping the support of this initiative alive.We can accomplish this by networking and contacting those who may be influential to keep this in front of our Washington constituents as a worthy and vital program. Everyone of us can make a difference!