Lake Pend Oreille, Sandpoint, Idaho

The Problem
Eurasian Milfoil is an extremely invasive aquatic weed that is rapidly expanding in the pristine lake and river systems in Northern Idaho. These lakes are extremely large. Lake Pend Oreille for example has over 100 miles of shoreline. The local units of government understood the problem was expanding and retained our firm to provide control at high use site. They needed a much better understanding of the scope and location of the infestatitons in the lake and river however to develop an effective managemnt program.

The Solution
Aerial Shoreline Analysis™. Aquatechnex has been a recognized leader in the development of remote sensing/GPS/GIS mapping technologies. The firm recognized in the 1980’s the key role of understanding the geography of infestations played in developing effective management programs. ASA is a rapid and effective reconnaissance technology that is useful in the detection of non-sources of pollution, violations of shoreline ordiances designed to protect the aquatic environment and the identification of aquatic plant infestations. Our biologists utilized an airborne Nikon D70s Differential Global Positioning Camera and software to collect high resolution image data along approxmatly 100 miles of shoreline on Lake Pend Oreille and the Pend Oreille River in the summer of 2005. The imaging software linked the aerial images to the exact locatin where they were collected in ArcView GIS software. Aquatic plant communities where then mapped and the field team ‘ground truthed” the maps to fine tune the locatiaon and extend of Eurasian Milfoil infestations. The resuling report provides an excellent view of the current conditions and will allow managers to better understand the scope of the problem and effectively target responses.

Presentations on this technology will be made in 2006 at the Idaho Weed Conference in Nampa, Idaho (www.weedconference.org), the Western Aquatic Plant Management Society Meeting in San Diego, California (www.wapms.org) and the national Aquatic Plant Management Society Meeting in Portland, Oregon (www.apms.org)