Pictured from left are Jim Wehrfritz, Chautauqua Lake Partnership vice president, and Tom Erlandson, advisor, during a Chautauqua Lake Partnership Rally on Saturday morning. Wehrfritz and others discussed using herbicides in the lake and the impact of harvesting weeds. P-J photo by Katrina Fuller

BEMUS POINT — An end-of-season lake rally took place at the Village Casino in Bemus on Saturday to inform attendees on the outcomes of 2017 and the plans for next year by the Chautauqua Lake Partnership.

A few presentations were given throughout the morning, a question and answer session was held and attendees later broke into groups to further discuss the issues. The Chautauqua Lake Partnership is the entity that headed-up the weed management demonstration project that used herbicides this summer.

Mike Latone, shoreline cleanup demonstration project leader, offered a few words on what transpired during the project located in Bemus Point.

“Originally, our shoreline was going to start in early July, but we had a little bit of a problem with the machine that broke and the truck broke,” Latone said. “Since we had labor lined up, we decided to go manual. I will tell you, by my count, we probably collected about 300,000 pounds of weeds.”

The project was finished on Friday and was “very successful,” he said. The Hydro Rake was a part of the project, which Latone said might not have been the most ideal piece of equipment, but allowed the partnership and laborers to learn a lot.

Latone said Solitude Lake Management is attempting to help the CLP on the project next year.

Solitude Lake Management is the company that applied the herbicides – Aquathol-K, or Endothall, and Navigate, or 2,4-D – to the Bemus Bay portion of the lake this summer. Two control plots were set up to evaluate the effectiveness of alternative aquatic vegetation management strategies within Bemus Bay.

Latone said barges were used to transport the weeds. Next year, the hope is to add a little more finesse to the operation such as more flotation, improved hydraulics. and a pick-up arm.

“It was a bare bones design that worked,” he said. “We have looked at new equipment.”

CLP Vice President Jim Wehrfritz discussed some citations from “A Primer On Aquatic Plant Management In New York State” by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and “Diet for a Small Lake: The Expanded Guide to New York State Lake and Watershed Management” by the New York State Federation of Lake Associations incorporation with the state DEC regarding weed harvesting. Wehrfritz said weed harvesting is important, but there are some risks involved.

Wehrfritz said weed cutting is non-selective cuts most of the plants that come in contact with the cutting bar. Also, fragments of the plants that are not removed can make the issue worse in the long run. When these cut pieces move, it can spread the plants to other parts of the lake.

Also, weed cutting is not regulated by the state.

“It needs a formal environmental review,” Wehrfritz said. “We are not saying that herbicides are the only answer. Both (herbicides and weed cutting) should be used and both should be regulated.”

During the question-and-answer session, it was asked if the herbicide would get rid of the blue green algae. Brad Bowers, representative of Solitude Lake Management, said controlling the weeds is not going to impact the algae.

Wehrfritz said one goal for 2018 is to fight an 1986 Chautauqua Lake-specific decree between the DEC and the Chautauqua Lake Organization that required an EIS, an environmental impact statement, for herbicide application. The DEC and CLA had done herbicide treatments from 1955 up until 1986, Wehrfritz said.

What ended up happening is a 25-year unintentional one-size-fits-all weed harvesting experiment that hasn’t been successful, he said.

Wehrfritz said the CLP is also committed to having a supplemental environmental impact statement made on herbicides ready for next year, he said.

“We don’t want to do anything that isn’t the best thing to do for the lake,” Wehrfritz said.

The impact statement will focus on certain areas of the lake, but other areas will be revisited later on, he said. The CLP would also like to focus on restoring the natural lake bottom by cleaning out the residual weeds and “sludge” from the bottom of the lake and continue the shoreline and near shoreline clean up. Also, the idea is to educate the public on weed cutting.

“We’re not attacking the (Chautauqua Lake Association),” Wehrfritz said. “We just want the negative impacts mitigated.”

Jim Cirbus, partnership president, said the organization needs volunteers and funding to get the work done. A website will be launched next week and there are hopes of creating a Facebook page.

Karen Kline, secretary, said volunteers are necessary to get projects done.

“Nothing will be done unless its on the ground with you guys working with us,” Rine said. “We are a citizen group. We care about the lake.”