As Eurasian milfoil invades Bear Lake, states and activists fight back
Sep 27, 2024, 6:36 PM | Updated: 6:44 pm
BEAR LAKE — Something is growing under the crystal blue water of Bear Lake.
“It’s an invasive species, it grows rapidly and can do greater and greater damage as it continues to grow in the lake,” said Brady Long, executive director of Bear Lake Watch.
He’s talking about Eurasian water milfoil, and his group advocates for the health and future of Bear Lake.
“(It) grows up to the surface, then it likes to spread out and forms mats,” Long said. “These mats will block out the sunlight for invasive and endemic species that are found in the lake.”
Long is concerned about the plant’s growth in recent years, with hundreds of acres being spotted on both the Idaho and Utah sides of the lake. While Idaho plans to treat dozens of acres this year, he worries that won’t be enough, as Utah is treating it by the hundreds of acres.
Idaho Department of Agriculture said their milfoil treatments begin next week. (KSL TV)
Eurasian milfoil was identified at Bear Lake in 2019, but it was likely here sometime before that. And the State of Idaho Department of Agriculture says they have been pretty assertive in treating it.
“We have had survey and treatment programs since that detection in 2019. And I know Utah has followed suit,” said Chanel Tewalt, Idaho’s director of the Department of Agriculture.
“Just remember that these are multi-year programs. They don’t happen overnight,” Tewalt said. Idaho’s treatments of the invasive plant are set to start next week.
To complicate things, there is a native milfoil that Idaho doesn’t treat.
Long said he believes Idaho is doing what they can. But with the help of an online petition started by Bear Lake Watch, he hopes to grab the attention of Idaho lawmakers to get more funding for their program.
Idaho Department of Agriculture monitors Bear Lake. (Idaho Department of Agriculture)
“I think they want to do more. They just have a budget constraint,” Long said. “And when they don’t have enough funds at their disposal, they simply can’t do the work they want to do.”
Long said fixing the milfoil problem is a lot bigger than cleaning up and unsightly plant.
“It affects ranchers and farmers, business owners, large corporations like Pacific Corp and the people that live around the lake and the people that come and play in the lake.”
