MILFOIL FOE ARRIVES FOR GEORGE BATTLE FLORIDA EXPERT IN LAKE GEORGE.(Local)

Byline: Paul Grondahl

He is billed as "the man who has used more Sonar than any man in America." But the king of milfoil is no lounge act.

Mike Mahler, aquatic weed officer for Polk County, Fla., came to Lake George recently at the expense of Wilbur E. Dow Jr., owner of the Lake George Steamboat Co.

Dow said Mahler for the past six years has been treating 20 milfoil-infested Florida lakes with the herbicide Sonar, which was patented by Eli Lilly 10 years ago. Sonar has received approval from the Environmental Protection Agency and is used in many states, but so far New York does not allow its use.

Mahler, along with milfoil consultant Tom West, Dr. Carol Collins and two other snorkelers, surveyed the aquatic weed in beds in the village near the Warren County sheriff's dock at the southern end of the lake. They also looked at beds in Huddle and Dunham bays. They collected data that Mahler will present when he …