WSP Report 2012
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Watershed Stewardship Program Summary of Programs and Research 2012 Watershed Stewardship Program Report # AWI 2013-01 Executive Summary and Introduction 2 Table of Contents Executive Summary and Introduction........................................................................................................... 4 West-Central Adirondack Region Summary ............................................................................................... 17 Staff Profiles ................................................................................................................................................ 22 Chateaugay Lake Boat Launch Use Report ................................................................................................. 29 Cranberry Lake Boat Launch Use Study ...................................................................................................... 36 Fourth Lake Boat Launch Use Report ......................................................................................................... 45 Lake Flower and Second Pond Boat Launch Use Study .............................................................................. 58 Lake Placid State and Village Boat Launch Use Study ................................................................................. 72 Long Lake Boat Launch Use Study .............................................................................................................. 84 Meacham Lake Campground Boat Launch Use Study ................................................................................ 95 Osgood Pond Waterway Access Site Use Study ....................................................................................... 100 Rainbow Lake Waterway/ Buck Pond Campground Boat Launch Use Study ........................................... 105 Raquette Lake Boat Launches Use Study .................................................................................................. 113 St. Regis Canoe Area: Hoel and Little Clear Ponds Use Study ................................................................... 123 Saratoga Lake Boat Launch Use Study ...................................................................................................... 129 Seventh Lake Boat Launch Use Study ....................................................................................................... 143 Stillwater Reservoir Boat Launch Use Study ............................................................................................. 153 Tupper Lake Boat Launch Use Study ......................................................................................................... 161 Upper St. Regis Lake Boat Launch Use Study ............................................................................................ 167 West-Central Adirondack Region Boat Launches Use Study .................................................................... 176 Special Projects ......................................................................................................................................... 183 Education and Outreach Programming ................................................................................................ 183 Tri-Lakes Region ................................................................................................................................ 183 West-Central Adirondack Region ...................................................................................................... 190 Loon Monitoring ................................................................................................................................... 198 The effect of temperature and pH on the growth of Variable-leaf Milfoil (Myriophyllum heterophyllum) .................................................................................................................................. 205 Odonate Abundance and Diversity and Relationships among Habitat Characteristics ........................ 215 Summit Steward Report: St. Regis and Bald Mountains ....................................................................... 222 Terrestrial Invasive Plant Monitoring and Control ............................................................................... 228 Garlic Mustard, Pale Swallowwort, and Japanese Knotweed ........................................................... 228 3 Watershed Stewardship Program Summary of Programs and Research 2012 Purple Loosestrife ............................................................................................................................. 232 Appendix: Education and Outreach Programs, Tri-Lakes Region, 2012 ................................................... 240 Contact information: Dr. Eric Holmlund, Director Watershed Stewardship Program Paul Smith’s College, Box 265 Paul Smiths, New York, 12970. Telephone: (518) 327-6341. Email [email protected] Cover: Lake Flower boat launch. This page: Raquette Lake. The 2012 Watershed Stewardship Program is sponsored in part by: Executive Summary and Introduction 4 Executive Summary and Introduction By Eric Holmlund, Director Paul Smith’s College’s Watershed Stewardship Program (WSP) is the public education and aquatic invasive species (AIS) spread prevention element of the College’s Adirondack Watershed Institute (AWI), which works to improve the quality of ecosystems through environmental research and management of AIS infestations across the Adirondack Park. The WSP mission involves providing on-site stewardship of terrestrial and aquatic natural resources, primarily through public education, field monitoring, and service work. The WSP works closely with state environmental agencies and local advocacy groups, such as lake owner associations and regional environmental organizations, to protect the integrity of native ecosystems from the negative effects of invasive species. Since 2000, when the WSP began posting stewards at Upper St. Regis Lake and St. Regis Mountain, the program has gradually expanded through the central Adirondacks, building relationships with lake associations, state foresters, forest rangers, fisheries staff, and conservation police as the challenge of invasive species becomes an ever greater priority among the science, property owner, and tourism communities of the region. After a decade of gradually increasing service made possible by a combination of local lake association sponsorship, grants from private foundations and regional NGO’s, and federal support designated through the New York State Office of Invasive Species Coordination, the WSP tripled in scope in 2011 with a large award for stewards in the Lake Ontario watershed from the United States Fish and Figure 1- Watershed Steward Cody Rickman, Wildlife Service through funding designated by the Saratoga Lake. Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. Under this award, the WSP posted stewards throughout the western Adirondack Park, from Old Forge to Cranberry Lake. In 2011, the Environmental Protection Agency awarded the WSP with funding to continue and expand the program for the 2012 field season. Together with important grant support from the Lake Champlain Basin Program (LCBP), the WSP has been able to post stewards at important waterways throughout the western and central Adirondacks, complementing the boat ramp steward coverage in the eastern Adirondacks by the Lake George Association (LGA), the LCBP, and the Schroon Lake Association. 5 Watershed Stewardship Program Summary of Programs and Research 2012 Figure 2-WSP growth, boat ramps and employees, 2000-2012. For the last decade, the Watershed Stewardship Program has worked closely with the Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program (APIPP) which has served as the regional coordinator of invasive species programming and principal New York State liaison for the Adirondack region. In this capacity, APIPP, the WSP, the LGA, and the LCBP have joined together as the Adirondack Watershed Stewardship Program to coordinate steward messages, procedures, data collection, publications, and staff training. The WSP has served as a resource for developing programs from across the state, which have observed our regional steward training at Paul Smith’s College, and used our staff handbook, procedures and materials to support the development of their own program procedures and materials. In their turn, these organizations have shared their own lessons and best practices with the Adirondack Watershed Stewardship Program partners. For the fifth year, the WSP hosted a regional training for boat ramp stewards from the Lake George Association, our own WSP stewards, and stewards sponsored by individual lake associations across the Adirondack Park. Over 60 stewards from across the state traveled to Paul Smith’s College’s Joan Weill Student Center during the week before Memorial Day to experience a multiple-element staff training. Staffers from APIPP, AWI, LCBP, LGA, and WSP gave hands-on training sessions on AIS identification and ecology, public interaction and education skills, and data collection procedures. In addition, trainees benefited from presentations by the Department of Environmental Conservation, the New York State Office of Historic Preservation, and the Adirondack Park Agency. Figure 3-- New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Region 5 Director, Robert Stegemann, Adirondack regional steward training at Paul Smith’s College, May, 2012. Executive Summary and Introduction 6 Figure 4-Regional steward training, Paul Smith's College 2012.