Damn the milfoil, full speed ahead!
Ahead, that is, not just with damning the non-native underwater weed, but with pulling it out, covering it up and scooping it off Lake Sutherland.
Clallam County commissioners on Tuesday established Lake Sutherland Management District No. 2 to attack milfoil in the 350-acre lake.
The district, which still must recruit an advisory board, will assess property owners $50 per parcel per year to finance milfoil control.
For the past four summers, a $50,000 Department of Ecology grant, financed by fees from public boat launches, helped volunteer divers and boaters fight milfoil.
With that money running out, property owners around the lake approved the district in a spirited August special election.
There are two varieties of milfoil.
The native plant stays in balance with other Lake Sutherland vegetation, but the Eurasian variety can ruin a lake’s ecology, the county’s Noxious Weed Control Board says.
Introduced to the United States as a decorative aquarium plant, it often finds its way into the wild when a fish fancier flushes it down the toilet.