A crew of divers (pictured) from Waterfront Restoration were busy last week hand pulling the invasive plant, starry stonewort, from the Starbuck Marina on the west edge of Lake Minnewaska.  A trailer filled with the invasive plant showed their work was productive.  The divers also pulled eurasian milfoil from the marina. The crew worked for three days last week and was hired by the City of Starbuck, who received grant money to pay for the work.  

Starry stonewort is native to Eurasia, from the west coast of Europe to Japan. The species was unintentionally introduced into the United States’ Great Lakes through the discharge of contaminated cargo ship ballast water. The first occurrence in the United States was in 1978 along the St. Lawrence River. It was first confirmed in Minnesota in August 2015, in Lake Koronis and connected Mud Lake (Stearns County). It was found in the marina area just off of Starbuck side of Lake Minnewaska in 2017.