BIOLOGICAL FIELD STATION

The SUNY Biological Field Station has been involved in monitoring aquatic macrophyte communities in Lake Moraine, continuously since summer, 1997. This work has focused upon efforts to control the nuisance, non-native Eurasian water-milfoil (Myriophyllum spicatum). After a long history of using mechanical harvesting and non-selective herbicides (i.e., copper sulfate; Simazine), the Lake Moraine Association opted to pursue more selective, environmentally friendly options. Sonar, a selective herbicide, was first applied during the spring of 1996. While research by others and by the BFS could not empirically demonstrate success because of methodological problems, anecdotal observations suggested that water-milfoil was reduced. In 1998 and again in 2000, after any affects of that treatment would have been exhausted, the north basin was stocked with Euhrychiopsis lecontei, a weevil known to feed upon the apical regions of water-milfoil, in hopes of establishing a long-term means of controlling that plant. Monitoring since then has not shown a sustained increase in that insect’s population, nor increased evidence of milfoil damage by it. Sonar was again applied in May 2001, this time throughout the entire littoral area of the south basin. Monitoring throughout that summer documented the near-eradication of water-milfoil there. Additionally, curly leaved pondweed (Potamogeton crispus), another nuisance exotic, suffered severe mortality. Some native plants also were impacted, but most rebounded over the course of that summer. Monitoring throughout the summer of 2002 demonstrated the continued trend of milfoil decimation in the south basin; however, Elodea canadensis, a native macrophyte damaged by th