For the preservation, protection, and maintenance of Lake St. Catherine
Good morning LSC,
We would like to invite you to our annual Milfoil Cleanup Community Day & Milfoil Control Meeting at the Wells Lakeside Park on Little Lake on Saturday, June 17th at 9 AM.
All are welcome to attend to learn about our milfoil control plans for the season, and then those who would like to participate can head out onto the lake to do some milfoil & detached plant cleanup.
All the details are included below. We hope to see you on the 17th!
Milfoil Control Program Meeting
As we have for the past 2 seasons, we'll be holding a Milfoil Control Meeting and volunteer Milfoil Cleanup Community Day.
On Saturday, June 17th at 9 AM, we'll have a meeting at the Wells Lakeside Park on Little Lake to discuss our Milfoil Control Plans for the season. We recently outlined our plans in a previous email, and on our website here: https://lakestcatherine.org/blog/13207138
We'll discuss our plans for the season, and answer any questions you may have.
Here is a quick summary of our plans for the season:
After reviewing all the data, and discussing the current milfoil conditions, our Milfoil Control Committee and our DASH team have concluded that we will not need to perform a spot treatment this year. All the hard work of our Milfoil Control Committee, our DASH team, and all of you who have been removing milfoil from the lake have helped to get us to this point. Milfoil is an extremely fast growing invasive weed, so a spot treatment may be needed in the future. However, we will be working very hard to keep milfoil at sparse, controllable levels that our DASH team can manage to the extent possible. This season, our DASH team will be expanding by adding a new member to their crew, and this team will be able to handle the milfoil identified in the surveys. Soon, we’ll share a map showing the locations the DASH team will be working in this season. There has been regrowth of milfoil in the northern section of Little Lake. Since DASH is not feasible there because the depth and loose sediments making it difficult to work, we are exploring a hand-pulling pilot program there this year. We’ll provide details on this potential new program soon.
We hope to see you on the 17th at the park!
Milfoil Cleanup Community Day Kick Off
After the Milfoil Control Meeting, we invite volunteers to help us kick off our Milfoil Cleanup Community Day by heading out onto the lake to collect detached and floating milfoil (and other detached and floating plants) to get them out of the lake and on to our drop off point.
Volunteers that would like to participate can head out onto the lake in kayaks, boats, canoes, and SUPs to scoop up floating milfoil and other detached plants and place them on the drop off float that has just been set up in the Channel south of the bridge.
Milfoil spreads easily via fragmentation, so getting milfoil out of the lake helps to prevent it from infesting new locations.
If you can't participate on the kick off day on June 17th, that's OK - you can still contribute throughout the season. This initiative will continue throughout the summer, and the LSCA will collect the deposited detached plants as the float fills up. So, cleanup can continue until the drop off float is removed in the late fall.
Read on about how you can help to stop the spread of milfoil in all areas of the lake.
What Else Can You Do To Help To Stop The Spread Of Milfoil?
The LSCA has always employed evidenced-based decision making when evaluating lake related issues, and we continue to do so with our Milfoil Control Program. Working with the State and lake scientists & experts, following the science and the data, and evaluating the results of our efforts show that we are doing the right things for the long-term health of LSC. To our members, and all who love LSC, if you ever have any questions or concerns, reach out to us, we’d be happy to answer them. You can always reach us at info@lakestcatherine.org.
Read more about Eurasian watermilfoil (milfoil, EWM, Myriophyllum spicatum) - what it is, what it does when introduced into a lake, and why we work to control it in Lake St. Catherine on our Milfoil Control Program here: lakestcatherine.org/milfoil-control-program
Hello LSC - we hope you had a great Memorial Day weekend at the lake!
We'd like to let you know that the 11th Annual LSCA Boat Parade has been scheduled and is open for registration!
The 11th Annual LSCA Boat Parade will be on Saturday, July 1st at 1 PM.
We all know how fun it is to watch the boat parade, but it's even more fun to be part of it!
As we did last year, we'll take photos of all participants, and we'll have a lake-wide online vote to decide the winner.
Our categories are:
If you'd like to register your boat, please email us at info@lakestcatherine.org with your name, phone number, and boat name or theme. We'll get you signed up and will reply back with your boat number, and give you all the details on how to participate.
Our 10th Annual Boat Parade winners, and current reigning champions are:
Most Patriotic:
1st Place: Boat #6 - God Bless America - Adam Wunderlich
Funniest:
1st Place: Boat #7 - Monster Mash - The Ramirez Family
Most Original:
1st Place: Boat #12 - RMS Titanic - Goldman Family
Best Overall:
1st Place: Boat #3 - Moana - Megan Frueh
[ All photos by Karen Velsor - thanks Karen! ]
So, start thinking about your theme, and mark your calendars for July 1st! Then, email us at info@lakestcatherine.org to register your boat.
Also, lake resident Rick Roberts has announced that his annual fireworks display will take place that evening, Saturday, July 1st at dusk.
It's going to be a fun day!
Hello LSC - we have some very exciting loon news to share, and we also need your help!
Over the past few weeks, lake resident Dawn Smith has been observing a pair of loons that were frequently active in the same area near her camp. On Thursday, Dawn was able to record activity by one of the loons that looked like nest building.
We sent this video to loon biologist Eric Hanson from the Vermont Center for Ecostudies, and he confirmed that the loons are performing nesting activity. Eric was here at Lake St. Catherine twice this past July, once at our Libraries Love Lakes event, and then again at our Annual Meeting & Dinner. At the Annual Meeting, Eric gave a fantastic presentation about loons, which was recorded - and you can view that here: LSCA's 2022 Annual Meeting & Dinner. In 2021, Eric also rescued a sub-adult loon on Lake St. Catherine that had been caught up with a lure and fishing line. You can read about that here: https://lakestcatherine.org/blog/12107471
This morning, Eric loaded up loon nesting buoys and headed down from Crafstbury Vermont to the lake. We put 5 signs together and headed out to the site:
Although the loons have been performing nesting activity on the site over the past few days, there was no evidence of a nest yet. Eric explained that a nest would look bowl shaped, and that they may be attempting to build a nest in multiple locations. So, now that our territorial pair have decided to nest, we'll need to keep an eye out to see if they attempt to nest at the initial site that they were observed at, or somewhere nearby.
After observing the site, he decided that it was too early to place the loon nesting signs around this area. Dawn has volunteered to store the 5 markers at her place, and if we do see that they are moving ahead with the nest there or at another location, we can quickly deploy them.
Eric explained that they may not be successful this year, but we could try to help them next year by installing a floating nest platform now that they have selected an area to attempt to nest on Lake St. Catherine. Loons typically nest between May 15th and June 10th, so they still have plenty of time to make their nest.
We need your help to give this loon pair the best chance for success:
It is very exciting that a pair of loons has decided to nest here at Lake St. Catherine! Let's all do what we can to give them the best chance possible.
Thank you to Eric for rushing down here help! Also, thank you to Dawn for reporting her observations, helping out with the markers, and for taking us to the location with her boat. She was a great captain for this mission today!
We'll keep you up to date on their progress.
The Vermont Center for Ecostudies, and Eric's work rely on donations and contributions. If you'd like to support their loon conservation efforts, you can learn how to make a donation to them here: https://vtecostudies.org/give/
Hello LSC, we'd like to let you know about the LSCA's 2023 plans for our Milfoil Control Program.
On May 8th, LSCA Trustees, a member of our Diver Assisted Suction Harvesting (DASH) team, and our contractor performed a spring survey of the lake for milfoil growth. We were happy to see that the majority of the milfoil observed was sparse in density, and was comparable to what was detected during the late fall survey.
After reviewing all the data, and discussing the current milfoil conditions, our Milfoil Control Committee and our DASH team have concluded that we will not need to perform a spot treatment this year. All the hard work of our Milfoil Control Committee, our DASH team, and all of you who have been removing milfoil from the lake have helped to get us to this point. Milfoil is an extremely fast growing invasive weed, so a spot treatment may be needed in the future. However, we will be working very hard to keep milfoil at sparse, controllable levels that our DASH team can manage to the extent possible. This season, our DASH team will be expanding by adding a new member to their crew, and this team will be able to handle the milfoil identified in the surveys. Soon, we’ll share a map showing the locations the DASH team will be working in this season.
LSCA's Diver Assisted Suction Harvesting team - Owen & Beck
There has been regrowth of milfoil in the northern section of Little Lake. Since DASH is not feasible there because the depth and loose sediments making it difficult to work, we are exploring a hand-pulling pilot program there this year. We’ll provide details on this potential new program soon.
What does the LSCA do to control milfoil?
Our Milfoil Control Program consists of four components:
1. ‘Stop The Spread’ education and outreach. Our ‘Stop The Spread’ campaign educates boaters and property owners on best practices to limit the spread of milfoil.
2. Volunteer milfoil cleanup. Throughout the season, we organize volunteers to collect floating milfoil from the lake and deposit it at designated drop off points which is then picked up and disposed of. We also encourage boaters and property owners to remove any milfoil they see in the lake.
3. DASH - Diver Assisted Suction Harvesting. Our DASH crew hand-pulls milfoil by the roots from the lakebed which is then suctioned up through a tube to a catch table on a boat. Milfoil is then placed in 17.5 gallon buckets for transport.
4. Herbicide spot treatments with ProcellaCOR EC. In order to maximize our DASH crew’s time, effectiveness, and amount of acres covered, one of our control methods includes spot treatments of the herbicide ProcellaCOR EC. (There will be no treatment in 2023)
Although not directly related to Milfoil Control, our work on Lake Wise, the LSC Stormwater Master Plan, and the LSC Watershed Action Plan all help to limit phosphorus and other nutrients from entering the lake which can contribute to excessive plant growth, while improving overall water quality.
These efforts have resulted in the lowest percent of milfoil cover and frequency of occurrence at our 199 GPS data points in the lake since the mid-2000s. Also, and just as importantly, we have seen that numerous species of our native aquatic plants have increased in frequency of occurrence at the data points. This is exactly what we want to see! LSC has over 30 native aquatic plants which are important and necessary to sustain a healthy lake ecology. Our efforts are focused on reducing the amount of milfoil in the lake so that these native aquatic plants can grow as they normally would. Because of our milfoil control efforts, we again have a complex and diverse native plant community.
What can you do to help?
We will be holding our annual Milfoil Cleanup Community Day & Milfoil Control Meeting at the Wells Lakeside Park on Saturday, June 17th at 9 AM. All are welcome to attend to learn about our milfoil control plans for the season, and then those who would like to participate can head out onto the lake to do some milfoil & detached plant cleanup. We'll be placing the drop-off float soon. If you have a place on the Channel and you'd like to volunteer to to have the drop-off float near your place to keep an eye on it for us, please let us know. More info on this meeting & volunteer day soon.
Good afternoon LSC - we'd like to say a few words about the upcoming Memorial Day weekend, and let you know about our Spring 2023 Newsletter that is now available.
As we near Memorial Day weekend 2023, and the 'unofficial start of summer', we hope that you'll have a fun and safe season at the Lake, and that you'll be kind and respectful of each other and our beautiful lake as you enjoy your time here this season. We also hope that you will take a moment on Monday to remember and honor those who have died while serving our country for Memorial Day.
Also, the LSCA's Spring 2023 newsletter is here with lots of information about our plans for the season, and details on many of the events that will be taking place at or around the lake.
In an effort to save on printing and mailing costs, we've decided to only print a short run of copies and distribute them at Wellsmere Farm. If you'd like a printed copy, please feel free to pick one up when you are out and about (available now!). Thank you to Michelle for having them at the farm! Wellsmere Farm is open 9-6 daily.
Also, your LSCA Trustee neighbors will have printed copies available around the lake over the weekend.
The digital version is now available online via our website by clicking on the cover image below, or via this link:
LSCA's 2023 Spring Newsletter
When you click on the link for the newsletter, you will be able to view it on screen - and be able to zoom in or out using the controls in your browser window. Or, you can click the download button to save a copy to your computer to view with a PDF reader, and/or print a copy.
Here's to having a great season at the lake!
Good Sunday afternoon LSC. We are pleased to announce our 2 FREE boating license classes for the 2023 season. Each year, the LSCA offers FREE safe boating courses to help boaters satisfy the requirements by the state of Vermont and get their boating license. All boaters born after January 1st, 1974, must be certified to operate a power boat in Vermont waters. The certificate received by passing this class is good in all 50 states. 2 classes are available: • June 21 & 22, Poultney Fire Department • June 26 & 27, Wells Village School Classes take place over 2 evenings from 4:30 - 8:30. To register, please call LSC Boating Safety Chair Frank Callahan at 802-645-9136 or email him at frank.callahan@lakestcatherine.org. Classes are limited to 25 participants per class, and lesson materials are for 6th grade and above reading levels.
Good evening LSC. We are excited to report that field work has begun on the Lake St. Catherine Watershed Action Plan!
Hilary Solomon & Sadie Brown from the Poultney Mettowee Natural Resources Conservation District (PMNRCD), Evan Fitzgerald from Fitzgerald Environmental Associates, limnologist Emily Porter-Goff from the Lamoille County Conservation District (LCCC), and Trustees from the Lake St. Catherine Association headed out on the water to begin the assessment of current shoreline and in-lake conditions.
From the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a Lake Watershed Action Plan is described as: “Watershed planning helps address water quality problems in a holistic manner by fully assessing the potential contributing causes and sources of pollution, then prioritizing restoration and protection strategies to address these problems.”
After many years of successfully managing individual lake programs which include: invasive species control & prevention, and stormwater management, the LSCA is now poised to integrate these programs into a broader watershed plan with a focus on the prevention of pollutant loads (phosphorus, nitrogen, sediments) that enter into the Lake from sources outside the waterbody. The LSCA plans to use the success of these building blocks to expand its work in the watershed and focus on prevention for the future.
The LSCA has hired and will partner with lake experts to perform various in-lake and watershed based measurements, testing, and studies to identify current or potential future issues and design a comprehensive, long-term plan to address them. The resulting plan will leverage current investments in water quality and pollution prevention, be driven by accepted best management practices, elevate under-assessed areas and gaps, and will identify issues, opportunities, and projects to guide locally-led water quality implementation work in the LSC watershed.
You can read more about the Lake St. Catherine Watershed Action Plan on our website: https://lakestcatherine.org/lsc-watershed-action-plan
This project has been funded wholly or in part by the United States Environmental Protection Agency under assistance agreement (LC 00A00707-0) to NEIWPCC in partnership with the Lake Champlain Basin Program (LCBP).
We'd like to thank everyone for their Green Up Vermont Day efforts around the lake, and elsewhere in Wells & Poultney today!
A round of applause for: Pat and Sue Caizza, Dave and Jill Hassebroek, Peter O’Brien, Jill O’Brien, Bill Tatko, Melissa Liebig, Becky Raub! Marcia & Steve Turcina, Sherry Smith, Carrie Armenio, Jerremy Jones, Dennis Stark, Lisa Dreher, David Mook, Autumn Webb, Ginger & TJ, Sue Ritchie, Peg Young, Linda Cardona, Dorey Eliza & her sons, and all the volunteers that were out doing cleanup today!
Also, thank you to the The Wells Country Store, the Town of Wells, and the town crews in Wells & Poultney who will pick up all the Green Up Day bags for us this week!
Well done all!
Attached are some photos taken throughout the day by volunteers.
Aerus Water and Air Purification has been a Business Sponsor of the LSCA for the past few years. We thank them (and all of our Business Sponsors which you can see here) for their continued support!
Aerus recently reached out to us to let us know about an offer to current members of the LSCA this season.
LSCA members who present their LSCA Membership Card will be eligible for:
• A FREE Arsenic and Bacteria test of your water
Thank you to Aerus for this offer to LSCA members!
There are 2 ways you can show your current LSCA membership to Aerus. You can either show them your digital membership card on your phone, or print out your membership card from our website, here's how:
Digital Membership Card On Your Phone
The LSCA website has a companion app that you can download for your iOS or Android based phone or tablet. The app is named for the company that hosts our website, Wild Apricot. The app is called 'Wild Apricot For Members' and you can find it in the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store.
After installing it on your device, you can log in with the username and password you use for the LSCA website. In the app, you'll be able to view and search the Membership Directory, make edits to your member profile, view upcoming events, renew your membership, and view your digital membership card.
Right on the main screen of the app is a blue button labeled "MY CARD". Clicking on this button will show your digital membership card, and it will list your renewal date. Current members will show that the renewal date is "1 Jan 2024".
Printing Your Membership Card
To print a copy of your membership card, log into your account on the LSCA website, and you will be taken to your membership profile page. Here you will see a copy of your membership card and a link to download a PDF copy that you can print. If you are already logged into your account, just click on the "MEMBERSHIP PROFILE" page listed under the "MEMBERSHIP" heading at the top of the screen.
If you have issues with either method, please let us know so we can help you out.
Thank you to all our members, and to Aerus for this offer.
Thank you for your support of the LSCA!
If you'd like to become a member of the LSCA, visit our Membership page here: https://lakestcatherine.org/become-a-member, if you are a renewing member, you can renew here: https://lakestcatherine.org/membership-renewal.
Hello LSC. We are excited to let you know that field work on the Lake St. Catherine Watershed Action Plan will begin in mid May.
From the Vermont DEC and EPA: A Lake and Watershed Action Plan (LWAP) is designed to identify and communicate the problems and fixes within a lake watershed to best protect water quality, wildlife habitat, and the lake’s ecosystem health. These plans answer the questions 'what issues threaten the health of our lake the most?' and 'what can we do about them?' Watershed planning helps address water quality problems in a holistic manner by fully assessing the potential contributing causes and sources of pollution, then prioritizing restoration and protection strategies to address these problems.
This exhaustive study will assess the Lake St. Catherine watershed, including its: shorelines, roadways, tributaries, forests, wetlands, and in-lake conditions. The findings from the creation of the Lake Watershed Action Plan will guide our long term efforts to increase water quality, and will position Lake St. Catherine to secure future grants and Clean Water Funding to implement projects to benefit the lake.
This 3 year project will begin on May 16th, as representatives from the Lake St. Catherine Association (LSCA), the Poultney Mettowee Natural Resources Conservation District (PMNRCD), and our hired environmental consultant and limnologist take a tour of the lake to assess current shoreline conditions, and to take water and sediment samples. A follow-up paddle will then be scheduled to take a closer look at areas of concern identified during the initial tour.
Before we head out, we'd like to hear from you!
Some background: In 2018 and 2019, extensive field work by the PMNRCD and Fitzgerald Environmental Associates took place in the LSC watershed. The goal was to identify sources of increased stormwater runoff and associated sediments and nutrients flowing into the lake - and this resulted in the creation of the Lake St. Catherine Stormwater Master Plan (SWMP). Six initial projects were designed from the SWMP, and currently four have been implemented. Ten to twelve more projects will be designed this year.
Since the SWMP was created, we have learned of additional areas of concern around the lake from observations collected after storms, and from input from property owners. These areas have been initially investigated and photographed.
As we plan to tour the lake on May 16th, we'll be using previously collected information to take a good look at some areas, but we'd also like to hear from you. Where are your areas of concern for stormwater runoff around the lake? Let us know! Send us an email at info@lakestcatherine.org with the location, any information you can provide, and photographs if possible.
The Lake St. Catherine Watershed Action Plan is being made possible through a grant earned from the Lake Champlain Basin Program (LCBP), and the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission (NEIWPCC).
You can read more about the Lake St. Catherine Watershed Action Plan on our website here: https://lakestcatherine.org/lsc-watershed-action-plan
Give us a wave if you see us out on the lake on May 16th. Thanks!
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