With boating season in full swing, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Cornell University, David Lodge, says people need to pay attention to what they’re bringing home.
Fragments of plants and other things can get stuck on boats, motors, and anchors. If there is an invasive species on the boat and it isn’t cleaned properly, it could end up in another lake with the boat and thrive.
The DEC in the Finger Lakes is currently battling species like the Hydrilla plant, easily spread between lakes.
Hydrilla plant can root at the bottom of the lake and grow to the top toward the sunlight, changing the ecosystem and disrupting lake activities, fish, and other plants.
Lodge says cleaning boats after use is easier than using pesticides and causing side effects.
He said it’s difficult to only kill the intended organisms and not others.