Upstate New York - Brant Lake - milfoil control

[Charon]

I've been looking for a way to use diving to provide a comunity service. I recently volunteered to be a diver in the effort to control milfoil in Brant Lake. All air is supplied and activity varies - retrieving mats, placing mats, hand harvesting, and deep harvesting. I will also be doing some independent survey work. I'm hoping I can make a digital photo record of the 39 beds in the lake as a baseline to evaluate results over time. I'll also be able to report any new beds I find.

It seems that the volunteers they need most are divers. That seems strange to me. Anytime I can get in the water, especially if someone is providing free air, I'm in. For any diver in the area (southeastern region of the Adirondack Mountains in New York State) that might be interested here is the link:

Brant Lake Milfoil Control

[TheBlue1]

It's been a while, but this looks kind of neat. I was just over there like three weeks ago and I would have gone to help if I knew they needed divers. I'll take a look next year though; thanks for posting.

[Charon]

Hey Blue,

Yeah it's fun and interesting. Gives you a lot of experience working underwater in zero vis. LOL. By the end of the events we had the entire procedure down pat. Some of the dives we only rolled mats. On others we rolled and picked up. The last dive was the most fun. We had all the bugs worked out of the winches and used lift bags to get the mats near the surface and manouver it to the pontoon boat. Hooked them up to the winches and they cranked them in and took them to shore. One mat at a time of course.

Definitely keep an eye out next year. I thionk they usually start late May or early June.

[TheBlue1]

According to the website they can provide SCUBA gear; does that sound right? I don't have my own gear yet, though I anticipate I will by next year

[Charon]

According to the website they can provide SCUBA gear; does that sound right? I don't have my own gear yet, though I anticipate I will by next year

They do have some extra stuff. I know they have extra weights, weight belts, and BC's. I think fins, masks. and snorkels. I'm not sure about regulators (you could email to find out for sure). They take care of the tanks - 80 CF aluminum. All of the diving is less than 20 feet so a computer isn't really necessary. Neither is a compass, or dive light. I ususlly carry a reel and sausage so I have a marker with me when we are hunting mats but that's just me. They also take care of dive flags, marker buoys, boats, winches, dive bags, and everything else. One thing that comes in handy but isn't necessary is a dive knife. We tie the rolled mats up with a flat cord and sometimes it's easier to take a very long piece in a pocket of the BC and cut it as you need it rather than carrrying a bunch of shorter lengths.

I always prefer my own equipment so I'm completely equipped. I usually even use my own tanks because they are steel and I prefer not carrying any more lead than I absolutely have to. One other thing is that you don't need more than a 3mm or 5mm wetsuit. Some of the guys wear 3mm shorties. The early dives can be a bit chilly but the work is strenuous so you keep pretty warm even then. On the later dives I wore a rash skin and was fine.

[TheBlue1]

Neat! I really wish I knew about this 4 months ago! I live a few hours a day, but would love to come out for a day or two =/. Next year I guess. I've logged fewer than 10 dives so this would be some great practice getting more comfortable underwater. Thanks again for the info

[Charon]

Your welcome. I'll look forward to seeing you there next year. And yes it is a great way to get more comfortable underwater in safe conditions.

[Rich Keller]

What are these matts made of? How large are they? How heavy are they? Would there be any advantage to doing the work surface supplied and walking on the bottom or is this job better done using scuba? You might want to ask someone to move this thread to the Northeast section, you might get more responses there.