NORWOOD – The Norwood Lake Association says it is ready to move ahead with plans to mitigate the invasion of Eurasian watermilfoil, which has moved into the lake.

After a meeting with Rep. Bill Owens (D-Plattsburgh) and a presentation by Aquatic Invasive Management, LLC of Ausable Forks (AIM), which specializes in milfoil eradication, Association President Jim McFaddin said “we face a real and serious consequence if we simply ignore problem.”

AIM has proposed a one-day survey by a team of three that would cost $1,852.

“While conducting the survey, if the team were to come upon invasive plant growth in low densities, they would hand-harvest it completely,” the AIM proposal said. “However, if invasive plant growth is discovered in densities that would result in a total slowdown of the lake survey, the team would GPS map it and continue the inspection.”

The best case, AIM said, would be not finding any milfoil “and we would recommend annual lake inspections and good diligence on the part of lake users to ensure that any new invaders are discovered quickly.”

Referring to an earlier survey by St. Lawrence University students, the AIM proposal said “The worst case possibility is that there are dense quantities of invasive plants growing in deeper water where the St. Lawrence University survey team would have had a harder time spotting them from kayaks or canoes. In this case, our team would map them all out and we would generate an acreage specific estimate of the cost of hand-harvesting all identified growth.

“It is also possible that the team would complete their survey, finding only a few sporadic invasive plants that they would have harvested as they went. We would then strongly recommend a late season harvest of those plant locations in 2013 to see if eradication was successful and to remove any residual growth.”

In any case, their work “will give a definitive, ‘in the water’ perspective of the current state of invasive plants on the lake,” AIM’s report said.

McFaddin, also Norwood’s mayor, said the association’s aim is to “take care of our back yards,” but suggested “a long range plan encompassing the entire Raquette River may be necessary.”

McFaddin said he believes if the invasive milfoil, which can choke out fish and other plant life where it grows, turns out to be a problem farther along the Raquette River, “The Raquette River Blueway Corridor Committee, with members the length of the Raquette, will I believe address the issue. Other partners will be involved to protect their interests as well.”