NORWAY — Ice is out and Norway’s lakes are slowly getting active. As more boats are launched, the potential threats to our lakes increase. Invasive “aquatic hitchhikers” can multiply rapidly and cause serious harm. Boaters can be “from away,” or more likely, local. Anyone who visits another lake presents a threat.
The Lakes Association of Norway’s primary goal is to preserve the health and beauty of our four lakes. We guard against invasive species through our Courtesy Boat Inspection program at the Lake Pennesseewassee boat launch.
We are hiring part-time inspectors to work from late May until early September. The position pays $12.75 per hour, up to 26 hours per week. LAON We provide all the necessary training and supportive supervision.
If interested, email laon@norwaylakes.org, call Deb Partridge at 207-739-7050, or write to LAON, P.O. Box 505, Norway, Maine 04268.
The purpose of CBI is to prevent “aquatic hitchhikers” from being carried into our lakes. Our inspectors conduct thousands of inspections each year, and have had four “saves,” finding invasives on fishing gear or boats about to launch that included milfoil and a new threat: a zebra mussel (hiding in a plant). Mussels are tiny, spread quickly, and deplete water of life-sustaining nutrients. They attach to boat hulls and are carried in trapped water. Clusters can line lake bottoms, clog water lines in boats, and plug culverts.
They are already in nearby states whose boaters visit us often. Closer to home, a high percentage of Maine’s infested lakes are within an easy 20-mile drive of Norway.
If CBI is our last line of defense, what’s our first? The boater. All boaters can act to prevent serious damage to our lakes whether a CBI is present. Doing an inspection before every launch takes only a few minutes but could save a lake. Please, if you’ve visited another lake before going into Pennesseewassee:
Clean the boat of plants, mud, or other debris. If possible, wash with hot water or 10% chlorine solution, drain all water (not into a lake), and let dry for five days. If that’s not possible, power wash exterior, or use a car wash.
If the hull of a boat feels like sandpaper, it’s probably the mussel. Don’t put your boat into water until all the above are done (be sure to keep hull dry for five days).
For information on all LAON programs and what more you can do to help preserve the quality of our lakes, go to http://norwaylakes.org
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