Since 2002, RLHT has diligently checked boats over 25 thousand boats for aquatic hitchhikers, like milfoil.  Paid and volunteer inspectors focusing their efforts in high traffic public boat launches.

Over the last 18 summers inspectors have educated over 20,000 boaters and visitors to the Region on the larger bodies of water: Cupsuptic, Mooselookmeguntic, Richardson, and Rangeley Lakes.

As of today, our Courtesy Boat Inspectors have collectively inspected 2,407 boats! That’s last year’s total number of inspections and this season isn’t even over yet! 28 plants have been found entering or leaving the water which have all been identified as non-threatening/invasive.

It only takes one plant fragment on one boat for an infestation to take hold on a lake.  Once established, there is no native predator in to slow its progress and it grows at an expediential rate, rapidly taking over shorelines making the area unsuitable for swimming or fishing.

Just down the road:  In 2010, invasive milfoil was found in a stream leading into Great Pond in Belgrade. To date, $110,294 has been spent on removal just in 2018 and the lake association planned to spend another $20,000 in 2019. Monies for removal have come from DEP grants, municipalities, private donors, and increasingly on lake associations. Managing this ONE infestation will cost an estimated $20-40,000