The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services has found two more lakes in New Hampshire that have been infested with milfoil, an invasive aquatic plant. DES announced that Otter Pond in Greenfield and Naticook Lake in Merrimack both have well-established milfoil infestations.
Andrea LaMoreaux from the New Hampshire Lakes Association says the plant appears to have been growing in both water bodies for two or three years. She says unfortunately neither water body had a lake hosts to check boats for exotic plants, or weed watchers to detect them before they get established.
LaMoreaux: When groups do the Lake Hosting and the weed watching, lakes that are doing both of those programs have not become infested.
LaMoreaux says New Hampshire has around a thousand lakes, 78 of which are now infested with milfoil.
A partnership between the New Hampshire Lakes Association and DES hires 226 people to volunteer as Lake Hosts to inspect boats going in and out of public boat ramps, checking for "hitch-hiking" aquatic weeds.
