I spent last Sunday out at a friend’s cabin. It’s a place I’ve spent plenty of time going all the way back to high school. We’d reconvene there when we were in college, and especially when we were home in summer, and 25 years later we still get together out there on the occasional summer day.
My friends’ high-school-age kids were waterskiing and tubing and running the boat nonstop. It was cool to see a reflection of ourselves at the same age, and to know it’s carrying on. So many things have changed, but so many are the same, in the best of ways.
So I was sitting in a chair in the water, having a beer, sun in my face, taking it all in. And all the while weeds kept drifting in around my feet. It’s always been a sandy shoreline, with not much more than the occasional lily pad dotting the surface. There’s never been a lot of weeds along this shore, but here they were floating in over the sandy shoreline.
Eurasian watermilfoil is a submersed, rooted aquatic plant native to Europe, Asia and northern Africa, according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. It was first reported in Wisconsin in the 1960s. Eurasian watermilfoil can reproduce via fragmentation, meaning a single stem fragment introduced to a waterbody could take root and establish a new population. It has been verified in less than 10% of waterbodies statewide, but it is present in almost every county in the state. Although Eurasian watermilfoil provides some habitat for fish and invertebrates, it gives lesser quality habitat than the native plants it displaces if it grows too dense and forms a monoculture.
The USDA Forest Service paints a somewhat darker picture, noting that while deceptively delicate and fragile in appearance, Eurasian watermilfoil forms thick mats in shallow areas of a lake, quickly grows and spreads to block sunlight, and kills off native aquatic plants that fish and other underwater species rely on for food and shelter. In North America, the plant threatens the diversity and abundance of native plants as well as the ecological balance of lakes and ponds, which in turn adversely affects recreational opportunities. If left unchecked, invasive watermilfoil will spread through a lake, or even to other lakes by transmission.
Milfoil has been a problem in this area for quite a while now, and sitting there in the water, I couldn’t help but wonder how much this would change the place in the years to come. Would the kids still be here enjoying the water in 30 years? Would it still be a fishing destination? The criticality of water means changes to its quality can have a direct impact on our lives. No, the ability and privilege to enjoy this place isn’t a matter of life and death, but water quality is absolutely a life-and-death issue.
We need to be doing more to protect all our water sources, and your roles in those efforts garner my utmost respect.
Enjoy this month’s issue.
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