Welcome to The Roberds Lake Club!
We are looking to add photos and continue updating & improving the site — please let us know if there is anything you would like to see on this site. If you have any photos you would like to see featured on the site, please share them with us on Facebook!
Our newsletter is now published online! You can access it via the toolbar menu in the top right, or at the following link: https://www.roberdslakeclub.com/newsletter/
Our Next Event - Annual Meeting
Sunday, April 13, 2025, 1pm – Wells Town Hall
Discussion and voting on agenda items, summary of upcoming events (note the change in month for the annual picnic), and general Q&A.
We are seeking donations for the curly leaf pondweed treatment — our 2025 budget is about half of what it has been in the past. It costs us about $500/acre. If you wish to provide additional donations for the weed treatment, please include them with your membership or bring them to the annual meeting.
Weed Treatment
The Roberds Lake Club treats the invasive Curly-leaf Pondweed in the lake each year. The amount of our lake that we are able to treat is dependent on donations.
What is Curly-leaf Pondweed?
Curly-leaf pondweed generally grows from the shore to water depths of 15 feet and can grow up to 15 feet tall. It tolerates low water clarity and will readily invade disturbed areas. Curly-leaf can be distinguished from native pondweeds by its unique life cycle. Turions sprout in the fall, and it is generally the first pondweed to come up in the spring. It typically flowers, fruits, and produces turions in June before dying back in mid-summer (MNDNR).
In addition to the unique lifecycle, Curly-leaf can be distinguished from native pondweeds by its physical appearance — its wavy lasagna-like leaves frow approximately one-half-inch wide and two to three inches long. The leaves have an obvious mid-vein, “toothed” or serrated edges, and blunt tips. Leaves are arranged alternately, are directly attached to the stem, and become denser toward the end of the stem. The main stem can be various colors including white, green, brown, and red, and tends to branch multiple times near the top of the plant. The plant may mat at the surface but does not have true floating leaves.
Why do we care if it’s in our lake?
Invasive species of all kinds can cause recreational, economic, and ecological damage. Curly-leaf pondweed:
- Forms dense mats at the water’s surface. These mats inhibit us from using the lake and reduce the amount of sunlight going under the water for our native plants to grow.
- Overtakes habitats and outcompetes native aquatic plants, which reduces the variety of plants and animals under the surface.
- Provides unsuitable shelter, food, and nesting habitat for native animals (and creates problems for the rest of the food chain dependent on those animals).
- Midsummer die-offs litter the shoreline with dead plants. When these plants break down, they release nitrogen into the water. Excessive nitrogen is what leads to the algae blooms every year, and can create dead zones in aquatic environments.
What can we do?
Invasive species are expensive to control – the Roberds Lake Club spends $500 per acre, annually, to treat the curly-leaf pondweed. With our usual funding, we are able to treat about 20 acres in a standard year and this year (2025), our funding could cut that area in half.
Roberds Lake is 632.29 acres in area, with 393.4 acres of littoral area (the area where the depth is 15′ or less, aka the habitat of curly-leaf pondweed). We are only able to treat about 5% of the littoral area of the lake. If every property owner on the lake treated their shoreline, we could treat about 30% of the littoral area of the lake annually, which still leaves 271.7 acres to treat. At $500/acre, our cost would be $135,850 to treat the full littoral area of the lake. We do not expect to raise nearly $140,000 to treat the full lake at once, but we do know that if we continue to treat the recreational areas of the lake (public access point, sunken island) and areas where we identify the weeds are getting worse each year, we can prevent the issue from getting worse.
If you would like to help with the weed treatment, please provide a donation with your annual membership and/or bring your donation to the annual meeting.
Curly-leaf Pondweed, with nickel for reference of size. Note the serrated edges of the leaves, the wavy leaf shape (like a lasagna noodle), and the clear mid-vein that distinguish curly-leaf pondweed from native pondweeds.
Curly-leaf Pondweed turion (how it reproduces) attached to the plant on a hand – note the thin brown structure with serrated edges. The turions are about one-half-inch in size and look like sharp pinecones. Curly-leaf pondweed can also reproduce via seed, but seeds play a small role in reproduction.