KELOWNA – It looks like a good summer for milfoil which is bad news for people using the Okanagan valley bottom lakes.
So says James Littley of the Okanagan Basin Water Board.
“This year, the combination of the early snow melt and the record warm temperatures seem to have created perfect conditions for the milfoil to grow early,” says Littley in a news release. “We spent extra time on the water over the winter trying to get ahead of the summer growing season but we just can’t compete with the changing climate.”
Littley has already received reports of the invasive weed forming mats on lake surfaces.
The water board reports milfoil can negatively affect tourism and lakefront property values.
It can also deplete oxygen from water while raising its temperature and adding polluting nutrients.
Milfoil has also been linked to fish kills and loss of bio-diversity.
The board says a provincial study last year found the main factor reducing water flows from the Okanagan River into Vaseaux Lake is milfoil growth.
“Just think about that,” says Littley. “The Okanagan River there runs at about 10,000 litres per second in the summer, enough to fill an Olympic swimming pool in around four minutes, and milfoil is slowing it down.”
The four decade effort to reduce milfoil in valley lakes has cost more than $18 million.
In the winter, mechanical harvesters uproot the plants with the roots being collected and left to freeze.
In the summer, the weeds are mowed two metres below the water surface.
The material is then used as a land-based fertilizer.
“We’ve come a long way from pitch forks and scythes,” says Littley. “Still, the program faces challenges, and in some ways, we’re victims of our own success. If we do a good job, no one thinks milfoil is a problem.”
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