VLM Harvest Updates and Protecting our Lakes During the 90-Miler

As we head toward the end of summer, we want to share some genuinely encouraging news about our work in Utowana Lake to control Variable Leaf Milfoil (VLM) and explain the additional precautions being taken as the annual 90-Miler canoe race passes through next week.

VLM Harvest News

Most importantly, this has been one of our most successful summers managing variable-leaf milfoil since our work began six years ago. So far, only 40 gallons of VLM have been removed from Utowana, down dramatically from last year. Just as importantly, for the past two years we have found no VLM near the Utowana dam or docks near the Marion River Carry.

That progress did not happen by accident. It reflects intensive surveying and hand-harvesting, years of investment, and tremendous cooperation from residents who have helped reduce boat traffic through western Utowana where milfoil remains concentrated. 

Last fall reminded us how quickly progress can be threatened. Previously undetected beds in western Utowana fragmented, and new plants were subsequently found farther east, including in the Eagle-Utowana channel. We responded aggressively; only two plants were found and removed in the channel this year, and we will continue intensive monitoring there. Even after visible plants are removed, VLM can remain a threat: seeds may lie dormant for several years, deep-rooted plants can spread through rhizomes, and fragments can establish entirely new plants. It’s a sobering reality that makes intensive monitoring and removal essential for years after an infestation appears to be under control. 

Our success this summer shows exactly why prevention—and vigilance from every lake user—matters so much. It is also why the work underway in Utowana has the potential to become one of the Adirondacks’ rare success stories: stopping variable-leaf milfoil before it becomes established throughout an entire lake system.

Utowana - An ecosystem worth protecting

This summer we also undertook the most comprehensive study of aquatic plants in Utowana and the Eagle-Utowana channel ever. We worked with an ecological institute called Hudsonia, based at Bard College, that trained three interns from the area. The early findings show that Utowana supports an unusually rich and important native aquatic plant community. That gives us even more reason to protect it—not simply from VLM, but as an ecosystem worth preserving in its own right.

Protecting Our Waters During the 90-Miler

We have listened carefully to concerns raised about the 90-Miler and worked with the organizations involved to address reasonable risks as the race passes through our waters.

The 90-Miler is a DEC-permitted event that BMLA neither organizes nor controls. It is also a long-running Adirondack paddling tradition that brings hundreds of paddlers and visitors through our region and supports the broader paddling community. The race receives a permit from DEC to use public Forest Preserve lands and public waterways, including the Eckford Chain. Our role is not to decide the future of the race. None of us individually own the waters of the Eckford Chain. They are public waters that belong to all New Yorkers. Our responsibility is to protect the Eckford Chain as effectively as we can while it passes through—and that is exactly what we are doing.

Race organizer, the Northern Forest Canoe Trail has listened to community concerns, spent two hours meeting with residents several weeks ago, and worked with BMLA and the Adirondack Watershed Institute (AWI) to strengthen prevention measures.

For this year's race:

• AWI's trained stewards will inspect every boat and its equipment at the Marion River Carry before racers launch in Utowana Lake. Boats that fail to stop for inspection are disqualified for the day.

• Boats will also be inspected before the race begins in Old Forge and before entering Eighth Lake—three inspections before they reach Utowana waters. Boaters will be informed at the beginning of the race about the strict new protocols for inspections.

• Our divers from Aqualogic have worked throughout the summer to find and remove VLM from the areas where racers travel through Utowana, virtually eliminating the risk of fragments being carried toward Eagle and Blue Mountain Lakes.

• Additional buoys in Utowana will direct paddlers away from shoreline areas where VLM was found and removed earlier this season. The racers will follow a course designed for the least impact. Volunteers on the water will direct racers who may go off course, but racers typically paddle straight down the middle of the lake.

  
  

Approximately 250 race boats will cross the Carry. We can’t stress enough that race day of the 90 miler is the only time all year that boats using this route are systematically inspected for aquatic invasive species that, if found, are then removed.

AWI has been inspecting boats across the Adirondacks for the last 20 years. They have tons of data about risks of spreading aquatic invasive species (AIS) from a variety of watercraft. The good news is that in the last five years they’ve found far fewer boats with AIS. They now find AIS on about 2.5% of all motorboats they inspect, which is down from much higher rates before New York passed transport/clean-drain-dry laws. Over the past seven years, AWI has inspected over 30,000 canoes and kayaks for AIS and found that just 50, some .002% had AIS. According to AWI, the risk from motorboats is 12x that of canoes and kayaks.

Important Facts About VLM in Utowana

1. Conditions in Utowana are very different from the Marion River. A photograph circulated this summer showing dense VLM beds was actually taken in the Marion River and not in Utowana. While VLM remains a serious threat in Utowana, intensive harvesting undertaken over the past 6 years has prevented comparable dense beds from becoming established.

2. Our five-year VLM map is a historical record—not a map of the current infestation. A map circulating around town shows where plants have been detected since our work began in 2000 so those areas can be continually monitored. The plants shown were removed and are no longer present but represent areas we must still monitor.

3. Eurasian watermilfoil is NOT in Utowana or in the Marion River. The invasive plant we are managing is variable leaf milfoil (VLM), and accurate identification matters when assessing both the extent of the infestation and how best to manage it.

4. Motorboats pose a particular threat where VLM is already established.Propellers can cut unseen, submerged plants into viable fragments and disperse them throughout a waterbody. Motorboats remain a key pathway for AIS spread across New York, making their avoidance of known VLM areas critical to protecting the Eckford Chain.

   
   

None of these facts minimizes the threat we face. They help us understand it accurately and focus our efforts where they can do the most good. Our management decisions should continue to be guided by what our divers, surveys and monitoring are actually finding in Utowana.

A Year-Round Responsibility

The 90-Miler passes through our lakes once a year. Protecting the Eckford Chain is a year-round responsibility.

Roughly another 250 paddlers enter Utowana from the Marion River during the rest of the season without systematic inspections. Motorboats, paddlers and other lake users can all move aquatic plants. Focusing on one event does not change that larger challenge—or the work required to protect these lakes.

Our job remains clear: 

1. Find and remove every VLM plant we can. 

2. Prevent the spread of VLM into Eagle and Blue Mountain Lakes, 

3. Educate everyone using these waters to prevent the introduction of AIS at our boat launches, and 

4. Build strong partnerships with those willing to help.

   
   

Our Approach is Working

This summer has shown what our community can accomplish together. So many of you changed where you boated, slowed down, turned around before the primary infestation, supported our divers and contributed financially. Every one of those choices mattered.

Six years into this effort, we still have work ahead of us. But with the same determination, cooperation and vigilance, we have a real opportunity to keep VLM out of Eagle and Blue Mountain Lakes—and perhaps ultimately achieve functional eradication in Utowana.

Our next challenge must be to strengthen prevention at our boat launches. Invasive species already present in nearby Adirondack waters—including Asian clams, Chinese mystery snails and spiny waterflea—could be far more difficult, if not impossible, to remove once established in the Eckford Chain. At the same time, increasingly prevalent harmful algal blooms remind us that protecting water quality requires us to look beyond any single invasive species or pathway.

Taken together, these threats underscore the importance of a broader, long-term approach to protecting the Eckford Chain. This is what sustained stewardship looks like: a community working together, year after year, to anticipate the next threat while continuing to address the one already here.

This summer's progress belongs to everyone who has been part of that effort. 

Thank you for helping prove just how much we can accomplish together.