Aquatic Plant ID

Overview

What problem does this solve for our lake?

• Native and invasive aquatic plants look alike to almost everyone, and the distinction carries real consequences in both directions.
• Treating a native bed is expensive, counterproductive, and increasingly the wrong answer — native plants stabilise sediment, provide fish habitat, and compete against invasives. Removing them clears ground for the thing you were worried about.
• Missing an invasive is worse. Eurasian watermilfoil forms dense mats that crowd out natives and end swimming and boating in a bay. Hydrilla grows from lakebed to surface and outcompetes everything. Curly-leaf pondweed emerges early, displaces native species, and causes an oxygen crash when it dies back mid-summer. Every one of these is dramatically cheaper to manage in the first season than the third.
• The window between arrival and establishment is where the money is saved, and identification is the only thing standing in that window.

What's included?

• Species identification for up to 20 photographs you submit
• A native or invasive determination for each species identified, specific to your region
• Guidance on which findings warrant action and which do not
• Notes on what to do next where an invasive is confirmed, including who to report it to
• Results filed to your lake's account

What's not included

• Field survey or in-person visit. This works from your photographs.
• Mapping or quantification of bed area. That needs the Invasive/Native Weed Drone Survey.
• Guaranteed identification from poor photographs. Some species cannot be separated visually and need a physical specimen.
• Official invasive-species reporting. Your state agency has its own confirmation protocol, and we will tell you what it is.
• Treatment, permits, or applicator services
• Identification of more than 20 photos

Requirements

• Clear photographs — several angles, close up, ideally with the plant partly out of the water so leaf structure and stem arrangement are visible
• A scale reference where you can manage it. A hand or a ruler in frame helps considerably.
• Location on the lake for each plant photographed, and depth if you know it
• Realistic expectations. Some genera cannot be separated from a photograph, and you will be told when that is the case.
• A Plus, Lake Admin, or PRO subscription to have results loaded into your Lake Pulse account
• Contact the Lake Pulse Boathouse if you have questions.