Divers get up close, personal with milfoil

Decked out in diver’s gear, Glenn Edwards submerged for a search-and-destroy mission Friday. His target: Eurasian milfoil.

The invasive aquatic weed has gained a toehold in the St. Joe River, a tributary of Lake Coeur d’Alene. To keep the milfoil from invading new territory downstream, the Coeur d’Alene Tribe hired divers to suction it off the river bottom.

“We don’t want it spreading northward into the lake,” said Dave Lamb, the tribe’s lake ecologist.

Earlier this month, the tribe sprayed 100 acres of southern Lake Coeur d’Alene with an aquatic herbicide, 2, 4-D. The herbicide effectively combats milfoil where it forms thick mats of floating vegetation. But it’s less practical for fighting smaller pockets of the weed in flowing waters.

That’s where the divers come in. They’ll scout the river bottom, and part of the St. Maries River, canvassing the area twice over a 40-day period...[Link]