Curly-leaf Pondweed Invasion – We need your help!
We have an AIS (Aquatic Invasive Species) problem! After the DNR originally discovered a small sampling of Curly-leaf Pondweed (CLP) in the northwest part of the lake, we’ve discovered a whole lot more in the North Bay. On June 5th, 2022, Greg Bauer, TLA president and Keith Mason, AIS task force chair, pulled about 3000 plants out of the water, using thatch rakes and how-to information from the DNR. But plants remain.
If we can be aggressive over next two weeks to remove more plants, we can greatly increase our chances in lowering next year’s growth. After two weeks, “turions” begin to form on the plant stems that make eradication more difficult. Can we get an army out to get rid of this nasty plant!!??
Please contact Greg or Keith to join the team! They will assist you in identifying and removing CLP. This will be an ongoing effort until we get rid of this stuff.
Keith – 651-276-4876
Greg – 612-910-5970
Here are tips on how to remove this stuff from Keith:
- Wear a good pair of polarized sunglasses. It really helps with the glare from the water and helps you see the CLP.
- There are three yellow buoys and one white buoy in the north bay indicating where we found the larger patches of CLP.
- Bring a 5-gallon bucket or two to collect the CLP.
- Learn what CLP looks like, see images below. There are native plants that look similar. Once you see and pull a few CLP plants, it become very easy to find them in the water. We found most plants were in 3 -5 feet of water and the plants were 10″ to 36″ tall. We did find a few areas where it was matted on the water surface.
- A thatch rake works the best. A garden rake also works, but not as well.
- CLP does not propagate from broken plant parts that float away during collection (right now), so gathering every piece is not critical. CLP propagates through “turions” that develop in mid to late June. See picture below.
- Twist the rake handle so the end of the rake is spinning in a circle as close to the base of the plant as possible. This helps wrap the CLP around the rake and limits the amount of CLP that falls back into the water.
- Pull the CLP off the rake with your hand. It pulls apart very easily.
- Expect to pull a few other pondweeds that are not CLP, it is just what happens as part of the removal process.
- If it is windy, use two boat anchors to position yourself in the water. Drop one anchor upwind of the CLP patch and let the wind drift you over the patch. Drop the second anchor when you reach the end of the rope of the first anchor. Then pull yourself forward with the first anchor rope a few feet at a time as you rake the CLP. We found going over the area several times allowed for the silt to settle as we made our second and third runs over the area.
- Having a pontoon with a 3-foot space in front of the rail was very beneficial and made the raking and collecting much easier, but it is not necessary.
- Having a tarp on the front of the boat also made for easier clean up, as some of the root bundles were mucky.
- It can be messy, so be prepared to wash down your boat after you gather all the stray CLP from the floor of your boat.
- Dispose of the CLP well away from the lake! I am composting the CLP in my compost pile behind my cabin area.
- Greg and I placed several thatch rakes, buckets and a tarp on my beach area should you need them. Give me a call and I can tell you where the items are located. I am located a couple of hundred feet south of the bay on the east shoreline.

Curly-leaf Pondweed (CLP)

Comparison of invasive CLP vs. native pondweed (which is fine)

CLP “turion”

North side of Tabor Lake, red dots indicate where CLP has been found

Red dots indicate where CLP has been found on the lake

Close-up of “turion” or winter bud of CLP

Rake used to remove curly-leaf pondweed

Keith and Greg pulled buckets of CLP from the Lake on June 5, 2022