Pleasant Lake in Casco has now been declared free of variable-leaf milfoil after a multi-year eradication effort, state officials say

The number of Maine lakes invested with invasive plants has now been reduced by one. State Department of Environmental Protection officials say an invasion of variable-leaf milfoil in Pleasant Lake has now been fully eradicated.

Andrew Fisk of the DEP’s Bureau of Land and Water Quality credits
volunteers for playing a key role in getting rid of the persistent,
fast-growing aquatic plant. “The Pleasant Lake/Parker Pond Association undertook a multi-year, methodical program of hand-pulling plants and laying barriers along the pond bottom,” he says.

The milfoil first appeared in Pleasant Lake in 2001. The only other
water body that’s been successfully cleared of milfoil was Great East Lake in Acton in 2006, where volunteers removed some milfoil before it managed to take hold.

Thirty-three Maine lakes remain on the list of water bodies infested
with invasive plants, Fisk says.