The Mosquito Fern invasion has subsided and almost all of the MF is gone. There is still some still active in Shoreview and a few other places. We have harvester crews operating 5 days a week. During the MF invasion we had as many as 3 crews daily. We pulled over 200 harvester loads out of the canals and have removed almost all of the Primrose.
Now we have another major algae invasion. So far we have not detected any of last years Lyngbya. Sunset Resort in Clearlake is being invaded massively and we are not sure yet if it has any Lyngbya. Last year Sunset Resort got invaded about a month before us. Tests are being conducted as we speak to see if Lyngbya is present. The Keys canal that runs around Blue Heron is being massively invaded with algae. All the canals are showing lots of algae. We can see the algae coming in from the lake at the main entrance and at the small bridge on Island Drive. The preferred treatment of algae is the use of spray boats.
We need many more volunteers to operate the spray boats. We are sending out flyers next week to full time owners in hopes of recruiting more spray boats. Each zone will get a different flyer and will have the phone number of that zone’s spray boat captain. Volunteers are encouraged to contact their zone spray boat captain who will schedule the volunteers and give them the necessary training.
The harvester can be pretty effective to break up the algae and will start being used to aerate the water with its paddle wheels according to our regular schedule. I am not too optimistic about the effectiveness of the sprayboats and harvester. While they can break up the algae today, tomorrow it will reappear. With enough volunteers we might be able to make runs down each canal daily but I am doubtful that enough volunteers can be recruited and that the spray boats and harvester can operate all summer without breaking down. By breaking up the algae each day we can minimize the odor somewhat.
We had hopes that the County would use a $100,000 grant they got approved last year to purchase 400 ft of booms that could be used to block the algae from entering the canals and for removal of large mats of algae. So far nothing has been done by the county. We are hearing that with the Gulf oil spill it is going to be difficult to find any booms. The POA is in hope of renting some booms from the company that helped us out last summer.
I predict this will be another rough summer.