Tuesday, July 10, 2007
from the Kennebec Journal
PROPANE NO QUICK FIX
AUGUSTA Penny saved is a stamp forever Cost to mail regular letter rises 1 cent on Monday
CENTRAL MAINE Area residents' scrap metal rising to top of heap
Dunn celebrates 35 years as fire chief
Maranacook set for budget tests
FARMINGDALE NEVER FORGET
HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL ROUNDUP: Rankin sparks Black Bears
Morang stymies Bulldogs in only 2nd varsity start
All of today's:
News | Sports
from the Kennebec Journal
from the Morning Sentinel
Auctioneer sues woman over $300,000 Internet purchase
Prison time awaits
Waterville writer wins this year's Young Lions Fiction Award
Rising prices for scrap metal attract sellers to local facility
Colby seniors celebrate end of classes
JUDGES CHOOSE YOUTH OF YEAR Gary Fearon a 17-year-old member of Penobscot Nation Boys & Girls Club, a satellite unit of Waterville Area Boys & Girls Club
Biathlon might skip out on Fort Kent
HUSKIES COLLECT 1ST WIN
All of today's:
News | Sports
from the Morning Sentinel
Yet because invasive plants are a scourge that will hurt Maine's landscape, our recreational opportunities and even our property values, we have to fight them. Who wants to live, paddle or fish on a lake filled with ropy, green milfoil? Invasive plants have been found in only 29 locations in Maine so far, so there's still a lot to protect.
That's why the new boat launch on Messalonskee Lake in Sidney is a welcome thing. The old launch was on Route 27 in a portion of the lake colonized by milfoil. That was a clear threat to other lakes, because boats leaving Messalonskee could carry a hitchhiking piece of plant away with them and transfer it into the next lake into which they were launched. The logical thing to have done years ago, when the infestation was discovered, was to have closed the launch site. But certain politically powerful sportsmen's interests objected because they said the move would threaten their tradition of free access to the lake.
Much controversy attended the discussion about what to do, and while the launch was kept open longer than was wise, it's now closed. And yesterday, the new site was formally opened, at a cost of $590,000 to the state.
That's a lot of money for a boat launch. But consider it this way: It's an insurance payment for our waterways, an investment in keeping them as healthy and free of alien plants as possible. Looked at from that perspective, it seems like money well spent on the interests of all of us in Maine.





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