TURTLE LAKE, Minn. _ Steve Long maneuvered his big pontoon boat closer to a patch of weeds on the north side of the lake and then held the boat steady.
"Try it here, Cec," Long said to his partner, Cecilia Riedman.
Riedman slung a rake-on-a-rope into the lake weeds, let it sink to the bottom, then pulled it back in. It was a good catch. Riedman and friend Yasmin Scrivner pulled apart and inspected the potpourri of greenery.
"This is a good one _ it's coontail ... This is chara, I think. Muskgrass ... This is pondweed ... These are all native. That's good news," Riedman said.
It would have been bad news if Riedman's rake pulled up any Eurasian watermilfoil, an invasive weed that can grow so dense it makes swimming and even boating difficult. Another invasive that worries Riedman and Long is starry stonewort, a newcomer rapidly spreading across Minnesota that also grows fast and dense and chokes-out native vegetation.
"So far, so good," Riedman said as Long piloted the pontoon boat onto the next stop _ the Turtle Lake public boat landing where they checked for zebra mussels, rusty crayfish and other invaders.
