Buchanan County moving forward with weed spraying at Lake Contrary

By Chris Fortune

Weed treatment will begin at Lake Contrary this month if the weather allows.

Buchanan County Commissioners met with a contractor for the aerial herbicide over a video call Friday morning to discuss the possibility of spraying this year and other details.

Jason Hammock with Hammock Flying Service will deploy the aerial herbicide called Clearcast, but he plans to survey the area ahead of time.

“He’s going to do an aerial viewing of the lake to determine weed specificity because the type of weed that you’re spraying determines the ratio of product to water,” Presiding Commissioner Scott Nelson said.

Hammock may visit as early as next week for the aerial viewing, which also will help determine how much Clearcast he will need for the job.

Once the scope of the job is clear, spraying the weeds at the 320-acre lake could take as little as a day. But Hammock and the county will monitor for hard frost this month because the herbicide will not work below a certain temperature.

The National Weather Service describes a hard frost as reaching 28 degrees or lower for at least an hour.

The County will work to find another window for weed spraying in case it misses the opportunity this fall.

Nelson said the county is entrusted to maintain the lake, and the commissioners decided that at least they have to remove the weeds.

“The reason for that is fire protection,” he said. “We don’t want to have grass fire going where we’ve got houses around there.”

Removing the weeds is one of the steps the county must take before deciding to dredge Lake Contrary, but officials must acquire a final permit from the Army Corps of Engineers before voting on the project.

“If we were ever to dredge, well, you got to (remove the weeds) before that too, so we might be killing two birds with one stone,” Nelson said.