SUMNER – Plants in Pleasant Pond suspected to be milfoil have been identified as native plants protected by state law.
Administrative Assistant Cynthia Norton said Tuesday that resident Richard Rosenbluth came into the town office last week with an armful of plants he had removed from Pleasant Pond.
Rosenbluth said the pond was overgrown with the plants and he was worried that loons and their chicks might become entangled in them.
Norton sent samples of the plants to the Maine Center for Invasive Aquatic Plants so the center could determine whether they were milfoil.
She received a reply from Program Director Roberta Hill later in the week.
The letter, dated Aug. 19, states, “The sample was pretty badly decomposed by the time it arrived, but what remained allowed us to positively rule out any of the 11 invasive plants on Maine’s watch list including the three invasive milfoils.”
Hill wrote that the sample appeared to contain three different species of plants. One was identified as common waterweed.
The other two were varieties of bladderwort, although the condition of the plants made it difficult to identify the exact species. Hill noted that nine species of bladderwort are native to Maine.
“The plants (Rosenbluth) brought you are all native to Maine,” Hill wrote, “and as such are strictly protected by Maine’s natural resource protection laws.”
She explained that owners of shorefront property are allowed by law to clear a swath through native water plants in order to provide access to access boats, docks or other fixtures.
Property owners must first obtain a permit from the state before doing so.
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