Cold weather delays Lake Contrary weed treatment until spring

By Chris Fortune

Weed treatment at Lake Contrary is being put on ice until warmer weather arrives.

A hard frost toward the end of November nixed plans to handle the growing vegetation at the 320-acre lake.

The plan was to deploy the aerial herbicide called Clearcast, but it would not work below certain temperatures or if the weeds went dormant.

As a result, the Buchanan County Commissioners and the contractor, Jason Hammock with Hammock Flying Services, have been monitoring the weather throughout late November to see if the project was still feasible.

“I’ve sent him pictures, and he’s seeing that a lot of it has went dormant faster than he thought it would have,” Western District Commissioner Ron Hook said. “And so that’s why we delayed it.”

Hook anticipates weed treatment will be delayed until spring of 2025, with an end of March or early April target date to launch the project.

The commissioners has not received a final permit from the Army Corps of Engineers to dredge Lake Contrary, so a delay in weed treatment will not affect the dredging project timeline.

“Whether you kill the plants now or kill them six months from now, if we don’t get that permit for dredging that we’re after, we may have to spray again before we do the dredge,” Commissioner Hook said.

In the meantime, Hammock has already purchased the Clearcast.

“He bought it at 2024 prices because he had heard that the price (of Clearcast) was going to go up next year,” Hook said.

As winter arrives, so will the opportunity to take care of one of the items on the Army Corps of Engineers’ checklist before it grants a dredging permit.

The agency has requested additional soil samples from the middle of the lakebed, which can’t be obtained until the lake freezes over.

“The samples are going to be done here in the next few months,” Commissioner Hook said. “Probably late December or early January, and that’s by an independent testing company, so all that will be done.”