At a special meeting of the board at the town office May 25, Nobleboro Selectmen stepped back from a decision to temporarily close the town’s boat ramp on Vannah Road in Nobleboro.
At the request of Paul Gregory from the Maine Dept. of Environmental Protection and Al Railsback, Executive Director of the Damariscotta Lake Watershed Association, the selectmen voted to close the ramp at a selectmen’s meeting May 12. Railsback and Gregory felt temporary closure would aid in efforts to control a hydrilla infestation that was discovered in Damariscotta Lake last fall.
The boat ramp will remain open and the town will instead pursue an educational campaign to encourage boaters to inspect their boats and put any vegetation found on their boats or trailers into a trash bin that will be placed at the ramp.
Hydrilla is an extremely invasive aquatic plant that has the ability to quickly carpet the floor of lakes and crowd out native species, Gregory said. The state of Florida spends $20 million each year mowing the hydrilla in their waterways just to make them navigable, Gregory said.
The idea behind the closure was to force boaters to use the state boat ramp on Rt. 213, where it is easier to inspect boats, and volunteer inspectors are available to check boats.
However, in the weeks following the decision, the selectmen realized that blocking off the boat ramp could cause obstructions during rescue operations, Selectmen Chair Dick Spear said. The town would be liable in issues caused by their closure, Spear said.
“I think we acted a little prematurely the other day,” Spear said.
The selectmen said they were doing what they thought was best for everyone in the region.
“It would be a real tragedy if this spread and became a bigger problem,” Selectman Deb Wilson said.
The town and DEP will place a sign at the boat ramp alerting boaters to the fact that the lake is infested and instructing them to check their boats. They will also hold informational meetings at the town office to educate people about hydrilla and spread awareness about the dangers of the infestations. The first of these meetings will be in mid June, Spear said.
“It’s amazing how hard it is to get people to bend over and look at their propellers and the license plate on the their trailers,” Gregory said. “The only sure-fire answer is for people who use the lake to take care of it.’
Spear agreed and said that a stronger message needs to be sent.
“This is a serious problem. If you guys don’t start doing something about this yourself, we may have to close the boat ramp,” Spear said.
The DEP and DLWA and pursuing an aggressive campaign this summer to control the infestation, prevent spread of the plant and survey the lake for other infestations, Gregory and Railsback said.
“This is a relatively small infestation and we caught it early,” Gregory said. “We have a good chance to get out ahead of this one.”
