Matting work continues at Lake George Village

 The reinforcements have arrived!

The site delineation and matting work for the spring treatments have been completed at the Boon Bay and Norowal Marina sites.

Divers are finishing up surveying the Lake George Village site, while a second team is following behind them with mats.  We were running out of mats - the Boon Bay area turned out to be larger than we had thought based on survey work conducted last fall - and so it used up a lot more of our existing stock of mats.  But the new mats have arrived - and are being installed in Lake George Village right now! 

survey work continues in Lake George Village

Survey and Matting Work Well Underway

Divers from Lake Champlain Maritime Museum (LCMM) are done with site survey work at Boon Bay, and have moved up to Norowal Marina.  Once they are done there, they will be moving down to Lake George Village to survey the site and determine where mats need to be installed for spring treatment of the clams . 

In the mean time, divers from AIM are installing mats in Boon Bay, and as soon as the LCMM museum divers are done at Norowal, divers from AE will start to install mats there. We are trying to get all the clams covered up this spring as fast as possible! 

Survey Work Has Begun!

Divers began surveying the Asian Clam site located in Boon Bay on Monday.  Survey work will continue for the next few weeks and will be followed by installation of benthic barriers to smother the clams.

In Water Asian Clam Survey Work Begins Next Week!

Divers from the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum will be back in Lake George next week to begin Asian clam work for the 2012 season.  Survey efforts will begin at Boon Bay, the largest site that needs treatment in 2012.  Let's hope that the warm weather comes back!

The plan for Boon Bay:

1.  Divers will survey  the southern and northern ends of the infested area in Boon Bay to ascertain the limits of the infestation.

2. Based on survey results, a dive crew will install benthic barrier mats. Mats will be installed side by side from one end of the infested area to the other, in a piano-key formation. This treatment may be disruptive to boat and resort owners. To minimize the disruptions, mats will be put into the Lake as soon as feasible in April, to begin the 45-day clock as early as possible. Up to 500-600 mats may be needed.

3. Special mats with ports for measuring dissolved oxygen (DO) will be installed at regular intervals. The Darrin Fresh Water Institute will monitor these ports during the treatment. Maintenance of the mats will occur weekly.

4. If feasible, all mats will be removed by late June.

5. In September, Boon Bay will be re-surveyed and all locations with live clams will be marked for treatment. The task force is planning only “spot” treatments in the fall and not another large treatment.

6. Installation of mats will begin in September. Installation of some mats in near-shore areas where they may disrupt tourism facilities could be delayed until after Columbus Day weekend.

7. Mats will be removed in early December.

Task Force releases report for 2011 Asian clam treatments in Lake George and 2012 Plan

Task Force achieved strong results in Lake George Village and Norowal Marina. Spring and fall treatments are planned for all four infested sites covering 15 acres in 2012.


Lake George, NY – The Lake George Asian Clam Rapid Response Task Force (Task Force) released a report on 2011 activities and the 2012 plan. Click here to view the report and plan.  The report provides details and results from treatments of over 12 acres of infested areas, including two treatments in Lake George Village and fall treatments at Norowal Marina and Middleworth Bay North.


The Task Force started 2011 believing the Asian clam (Corbicula fluminea) infestation in Lake George Village was the only one in Lake George. The Village infestation was discovered by staff from the Rensselaer Darrin Fresh Water Institute in 2010. This discovery resulted in the formation of the Task Force and an initial survey of 40 sites along 10 miles of shoreline in the south basin that did not find any other Asian clam infestations in the fall of 2010. After treatment efforts were underway in 2011, three new sites were found in the Town of Bolton in Boon Bay, Norowal Marina and Middleworth Bay North. A formal lakewide survey was organized to inspect another 173 high risk and suitable habitat sites around Lake George, all of which were found to not have Asian clams.


The Task Force implemented a control effort that utilized 50 foot x 7.5 foot PVC benthic barrier mats placed on the lake bottom and weighted down with rebar and sandbags. The mats were left in place for a minimum of 45 days to suffocate the Asian clams. This technique was used in Lake George Village in the spring and the fall and in Norowal Marina in the fall. Over 820 mats were installed in Lake George Village in the spring, 350 in the fall, and over 250 mats were installed at Norowal Marina. More than 7.5 acres were treated in total in Lake George Village and over 2.5 acres at Norowal Marina. The Task Force experimented with a suction harvesting effort over a 1 acre area in Middleworth Bay North, utilizing lands of Beckley’s Marina for dewatering operations. While this operation removed over 52 cubic yards of sediments and a number of Asian clams, it did not meet the Task Force’s expectation for overall control as post treatment surveys found live clams remaining and dispersed throughout the site. 

"We feel very positive about our work in Lake George Village in 2011" said Peter Bauer, Executive Director of the FUND for Lake George. "In areas that we treated twice, once in the spring and again in the fall, we achieved almost 100% kill. There are areas in the Village that last year were loaded with clams that now only have dead clams. We’re planning for ambitious spring and fall treatments where we extensively survey the Village and place benthic barrier mats anywhere we find live clams. Whereas in 2011 we carpeted the lake bottom of the infested area with benthic barrier we anticipate a spot matting operation where mats are installed in small clusters where pockets of live clams persist."

To read the entire press release, click here. 

Press Release: Lake Tahoe experts share research and aquatic invasive species control programs on second visit to Lake George.

Two lead researchers and the Aquatic Invasive Species Program Coordinator for the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency visited Lake George in November to share research on Asian clam management and discussed partnering on other lake projects.

Dr. Sudeep Chandra, Ted Thayer, Meg Modley, and Peter Bauer discuss benthic barrier matting challenges and successes at the Norowal treatment site in Lake George

For the complete press release, click here.

2011 treatments drawing to a close

Divers pulling out the last of the mats.

It may be cold out, and have even snowed last night - but work is still ongoing.   Divers have been very busy the last 2 weeks removing mats from the treatment areas at Norowal Marina in Bolton Landing and at Lake Avenue Beach in Lake George Village. Close to 600 mats have been removed, with around another 50 to go.   

everything must come out - mats and all the rebar!

After all the mats are removed and sediment samples are taken and analyzed, we will be able to determine how successful these fall treatments were and plan for 2012.