“Weed Watchers,” a volunteer program dedicated to monitoring the lakes and ponds for the presence of aquatic invasive plants, was formed by the NHDES in 1988.

All that weed watching involves is a small amount of time during the summer months. Volunteers survey their waterbody once a month from May through September. To survey, volunteers slowly boat around the perimeter of that waterbody and any islands it may contain. NHDES encourages larger waterbodies to have a team of volunteers, who can divvy up the shoreline into segments that volunteers commit to surveying, so one individual is not responsible for an entire waterbody. Using the materials provides in the Weed Watchers Kit, volunteers will then look for any species of concern, and have voucher specimens of those species verified by state biologists. After a trip or two around the waterbody, volunteers will have a good knowledge of its plant community and will immediately notice even the subtlest changes.