Those Devilish Interloper Aquatic Plants

Your Humble Editor, along with about 20 residents from sundry lakes in the area, attended the information session held by the Conseil regionale de l'environnement (CRE) on the subject of aquatic exotic invasive plants (AEIP) last Friday, July 7. And jolly interesting it was.

The session was given by Melissa Laniel, the Bleu Laurentides project manager, offering basic information on aquatic plants generally, how they live, what they do. She also briefed us on how to differentiate between algae and aquatic plants. She outline the process for surveying a lake's aquatic plants and for determining whether there are any AEIPs. Vanessa Nadeau, the project's liaison officer, gave us a short course on our native species.

Currently Quebec has detected six AEIP species in its waters, with a further seven species "at our doors" (which seems to be principally, Maine, where they are causing big problems).

Much attention is being paid to one AEIP in particular: the Eurasian water-milfoil. And I can tell you why.

Eurasian water-milfoil lives submersed in a lake's littoral zone (between shore and deep water). The distance it can grow from shore is determined by the amount of light penetration, so by the lake water's clarity and colour. Eurasion water-milfoil has no natural predators, so it will grow from the shore outwards in an uninterrupted blanket. One lake near Ste-Agathe has the plant on its entire periphery to a distance of seven metres (about 15 feet) from the shore, effectively precluding (or rendering very icky) swimming, boating and other water pleasures. Oh, and just hauling them out is a really bad idea as they are capable of spreading by "fragmentation", i.e., if a little broken bit floats free, it will settle on the bottom and start a whole new plant.

The best defense is a good...defense. Which is to say, prevention. This includes carefully cleaning and drying any equipment used in another lake that is brought to Lake Anne: canoes, boats and their trailers, scuba gear, fishing kit...and praying no float planes come in for a landing.

Quebec has a  number of indigenous milfoils which can be fairly easily distinguished from the bad guy. All milfoils have leaves made up of numerous paired leaflets arranged in a whorl of four around the central stem. In the Eurasian water-milfoil, each leaf has between 12 and 24 pairs of these fronds, while our native species have three to 14 pairs. Yes, even we learners noticed the overlap and were advised to take another sample if we met a plant with 13 pairs.

The other distinction is that the Eurasian water-milfoil's leaf whorls are spaced along the stem at distances of greater than one centimetre. Our native species have gaps of less than one centimetre.

To confound and confuse the issue further, there are a number of indigenous aquatic species that look a lot like milfoils, but aren't. Your basic bladderwort, for instance.

All of this and more will be explained by Vanessa Nadeau, who will begin with a training session when she comes to help us survey our plant species on July 24 and 26.

I just wrote "help us" because she can't do it on her own. Here's what she'll need:

Boats: preferably with small fishing motors, not too tippy as the plants are viewed through an "aquascope" held over the side of the vessel.

Skippers: one per boat, their job is to drive the boat, anchor (if necessary) and operate the GPS (to note the location of interesting or suspicious species for later collection).

Crew: two people, one to use the aquascope, one to take notes. (Vanessa will be a crew member on one boat).

With five volunteers (plus Vanessa), we can have two boats working and significantly reduce the time involved.

If you can lend a hand, or a boat, please let me know at lakeannenews@gmail.com

A Beautiful Visitor

Jerome Rousseau wins the early summer lucky lottery with an outstanding visitor today. [I won the lucky neighbour lottery, cashing in on his good luck.]

Look who came by to visit. She was very gentle and not terribly nervous. When we got within about 6 metres of each other, we both decided that was close enough.

Presumably mum had just dumped her to take care of herself and she was looking for a little love.

It was an honour to make her acquaintance.

All photos kindness of Jerome.

URGENT: Aquatic Exotic Invasive Plant Control, Volunteers Needed

[Since I managed to get much of this very confused--which is to say: wrong--here is an edited version. With luck, it will say what it ought. -- KH]


The Lake Anne Club has received an appeal from Vanessa Nadeau, a biologist with the Conseil regionale de l'environnement des Laurentides (CRE Laurentides), to participate in an assessment of the numbers and species of aquatic exotic invasive plants (AEIP) in the region's bodies of water. The liaison officer for this effort is Ms. Nadeau, who holds a masters degree in environmental studies.

The following is from the CRE letter:

"Her (Ms. Nadeau's) mandate includes the characterization [identification] of aquatic plants found in Argenteuil’s lakes, and the monitoring and detection of AEIP. To accomplish her mandate, Vanessa will need the help of motivated citizens who care about the protection of Argenteuil’s lakes. Antoine Boucher, the awareness officer, will join the team by mid-June to help in dectecting AEIP and to raise awareness among users of public accesses in different waterbodies.

[...] you are now invited to join Vanessa for the 2017 edition of the formation [training] on the AEIP characterization protocol, which includes an aquatic plants identification workshop. The formation will be held by the liaison officer and Melissa Laniel, project manager of the program Bleu Laurentides. Following the formation, Vanessa will accompany you on the field later in the summer for the characterization of aquatic plants occurring in your lake."

Ms. Nadeau contacted the Lake Anne Club directly with the following timetable:

July 7 (this very Friday): Training on identification of aquatic plants. The course is not mandatory, though it is highly recommended.

Identifying aquatic plants means going out onto the lake for a day or two and trying to identify all the plants found in that lake to ensure no AEIPs are present. For Lake Anne, since it's quite a big lake, it would probably take two days. Ms. Nadeau has all the necessary equipment, but needs a boat (or kayak or canoe) and, of course, volunteers to paddle/row while she works.

Stephanie has arranged for Ms. Nadeau to be on our lake on Monday, July 24, and Wednesday, July 26. Your help is needed for:

• boats with rowers or paddlers (2) to transport Ms. Nadeau as she does her work of plant identification;
• boats and spare rowers or paddlers to carry a Lake Anne resident in surveying other areas of the lake, after they receive some training from Ms. Nadeau (July 7).

If Ms. Nadeau does the inventory alone, it will take two days; with other eyes in other boats, it will take less.

Please contact Stephanie  at stephanie@fosteringsustainability.ca if you are able to help

Bob is for the Birds, 2017, Part I

Actually, not only is Bob for the birds, he’s also a bona fide loony!

[Please be aware that, for our purposes: loonie = Canadian $1 coin; loony = fan of loons.]

In the spring, the Lake Anne Club received an invitation from the Township of Mille-Isles to participate in a project of the Argenteuil Ornithological Society, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to protecting birds (https://www.developpementornithologiqueargenteuil.org/). The project’s goal is to expand on a pilot project carried out on nearby Lake Bixley to provide loons with nesting platforms. Rather than purchase the pre-fabricated model, Stephanie read up on creating loon nesting platforms and passed the information on to Bob Gaudreau, who had offered to construct the platform. The ne(s)t result: our very own Lake Anne “Loon-R I” nesting module, now in place off the northwest side of The Island.

In the photos below (kindness of Bob), you can see that four (cedar) logs form the perimeter.  There are five additional (cedar) logs below the water and, consequently, not visible.  Considering the small amount of weight put into the construction (other than the logs), it floats quite low in the water.

The reason for fencing around three of the sides is to retain the soil.  The fourth side is open as access for the loons.  This fourth side faces away from the island.  The centre of the platform is soil plus coir plus cedar mulch with a top layer of more coir. This is all supported by an underlayer of turkey wire mesh and weed membrane.  The plants are wild irises and sedges which don’t mind having wet feet.

Loon-R I module construction complete

(except for a few more plants to be added).

Loon-R I en route to installation.

Lake residents are asked to paddle, row, motor, sail, or swim about 60 metres (200 feet) from the platform so as not to disturb any loon that falls for the module’s undoubted loonish attractions. This distance is roughly that to the north shore, between the Ronalds’ and Wendy Hugessen’s houses, across from The Island. To take a peek and see if there’s any activity, please use binoculars, rather than cruising up and getting intimate.

For those who would like further information on loon platforms, here is a fairly exhaustive document:

http://www.birdscanada.org/download/CLLSloonplatform.pdf

And this, the original document from the MRC:

Loon project: Fabrication and installation of floating nesting platforms for the Common Loon (Collared Loon).

Target: 10 different installation sites

Following discussions and an onsite visit with the Bixley Lake Resident Association, MRC Argenteuil DOA [https://www.developpementornithologiqueargenteuil.org/] was mandated in 2017 to construct and install a nesting platform for the loon couple that nest late at Lake Bixley. This lake is subject to a very high water regime in the spring which is slowly reabsorbed and variations of its water levels are very frequent throughout the nesting season. These fluctuations, as well as the very high water levels in the spring, makes it that the loon couple nest very late in the summer. Young loons then have difficulty finding enough food to assure optimum growth and finish growing very late in the fall when they need to fly south before freezing. Some years, this loon couple does not even nest at all; other years young loons die before they can fly away. This phenomenon is widely observed, analyzed and described in numerous scientific articles relating to studies mainly in the northeastern United States, especially in the Adirondacks where the problem is widespread.

To help loons have better breeding and thus achieve a stable annual production of ducklings, several lakeshore associations and government agencies have undertaken to install floating nesting platforms for Loon couples. This measure is being used with great success in the United States and Ontario.

With our next experience at Lake Bixley, DOA wants to analyze the possibility of undertaking a project for loon couples present on lakes similar to Lake Bixley having the same problem.

The main problems are:

1- Loons nest too late because nesting islands are only available after the water level drop late in the summer;

2- Loon nests are very close to the water and are often flooded because of regular floods and water levels that fluctuate very often in spring and summer;

3- The type of fish Loons feed on become less available as summer ends and autumn begins.

Nesting platforms are floating structures installed as soon as the ice melts and allows loon couples to nest without experiencing any adverse effects due to excessively high water levels or fluctuations; since they are floating, the platforms follow the fluctuations of the level of the water. This allows for early nesting and young ducklings can grow quickly and fly well before freezing.

DOA wants to approach several associations of lakes, municipalities and MRCs in our territory that would like to participate in this project. Lakes with the regular presence of loon’s presence would be visited and evaluated for the possibility of developing such platforms. The initial installation of the platforms would be done by DOA who would also train people for the installation and maintenance of the platforms for subsequent years. This project should be spread over 6 years because loons can take 3 to 5 years before adopting a nesting platform. The choice of sites and the installation of platforms should be done in 3 years.

Nesting platforms installed for Common Loons will be part of the Argenteuil Nesting Network (NAS) and utilization and monitoring data will be compiled with those of the other nest boxes in the network.

The preferred sites for the installation of nesting platforms for the common Loons are on lakes where the presence of these birds is regular but where their nesting is either nil or with very little success for any reason (Water level variations, disturbances, no nesting islands, etc.). The lakes must have a good supply of food (fish) and offer sheltered bays from the prevailing winds with marshes or scattered emergent vegetation.

The platforms are approximately 4 feet X 4 feet, are made of stable, water-resistant materials and are covered with substrate and vegetation to provide natural support and camouflage to the nest.

The cost of the platforms is $ 450 (long-term lease), including initial installation and installation of the substrate and vegetation, anchors, ropes and a small training given to the client. As nesting platforms for the Common Loon will be part of the Argenteuil Nesting Network (RNA), its regulations apply just like a normal nest box and DOA provides maintenance in case of breakage.

However, in the fall, platforms must be removed from the water before freezing and stored for winter on the lake shore to prevent breakage. In the spring, prior to the arrival of the common Loons, the platforms are reinstalled on the water and new vegetation is relocated. This part of the annual work must be provided by the client. DOA can do this work at an additional cost of $ 300 annually (for both field visits).  

Once the Common Loons leave the nesting platform, they do not return for the rest of the year. The platforms serve as a resting place for a multitude of birds, mammals and reptiles (ducks, herons, geese, turtles, muskrats, mink, etc.) to facilitate their observation.

[Editor’s notes:

The platforms discussed in the above text are made with 8-inch PVC tubes which, unlike Bob’s cedar logs, are subject to ice damage, hence the need to remove the platform for the winter. Not the case for Bob's more robust version.

The text refers to young loons as “ducklings”. This is probably a simple translation error. The correct term is “chicks” or, indeed, “young loons”.

Finally, there's a photo missing that just resisted all my efforts to get it over here. It shows a loon platform, and we all know what that looks like.]