Skaneateles Lake is one of the few lakes where milfoil has been successfully controlled.

The SLA has removed over 50 acres of milfoil as of 2014. New patches will emerge each year that we will have to deal with, but it is now manageable. The chart below summarizes our work. The straight line is a projection of the number of significant milfoil stands that we could have now if we had failed to do anything, assuming a constant growth rate from 2001 to 2011. The curved line is the actual count of the milfoil stands remaining. Had we done nothing we would have had to deal with approximately 180 patches in the lake; instead we have only 18. Very few lakes in this country with milfoil problems have had this kind of success.

In addition, to getting milfoil under control we were able to employ anywhere from 4-30 divers throughout the summer, purchase gas and other supplies from local marinas and merchants and maintain the property values of lakeside homes.

We were able to accomplish this task for several reasons:

1. Skaneateles Lake is naturally nutrient poor due to the small watershed and the large volume of water in the lake.
2. We got an early start before the milfoil got out of hand.
3. But most importantly, this would not have been possible without the very generous support of the community. Over 90% of the funding has come from donations from private individuals. The remaining 9.4% came from state, county and town support.

See our 2023 Milfoil Report for recent data and results.