Lake Management District meeting to be rescheduled

OROVILLE – The Lake Osoyoos Association is still considering starting a Lake Management District to help fund treatment to stem the spread of Eurasian milfoil and other aquatic noxious weeds — but their plans to hold a meeting Thursday, Oct. 8 have been postponed.

The association held its summer membership meeting on Aug. 16 with guest Skip Wells of Deer Lake, Wash., who discussed the benefits of being a Lake Management District. Perry Huston, director of Okanogan County Planning was also there to share information on the process on the process of starting such a district.

In the past group has received grants from the state Department of Ecology for herbicide treatment, but is looking for a more sustainable way to fund treatments and to double the number of treatment areas to 60 a year. Osoyoos Lake is an international body of water and instead of using herbicides to treat the invasive weed on the Canadian side of the border, large harvesters cut the milfoil and are supposed to then collect it so it doesn’t go downstream where every piece of the escaped plant can take root both in the water and on shore.

“The goal would be to set the special assessment at a reasonable rate that would not overburden lake shore owners but would allow the LMD to have a sustainable way to reclaim the lake from the ravages of invasive weeds such as milfoil and curly leaf pondweed,” said Ford Waterstrat, an LOA member. “We’d like to treat the whole lake (on the American side) rather than just pockets. You can expect to hear more about this in the coming months.

The Lake Osoyoos Association would like to hear from the people who would be assessed should an LMD be formed, They had planned to meet Oct. 8, however, according to Waterstrat, plans have had to be postponed until a later date.