Watershed Stewardship Program Summary of Programs and Research 2011
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Watershed Stewardship Program Summary of Programs and Research 2011 Adirondack Watershed Institute Watershed Stewardship Program Report # AWI 2012-01 2 Watershed Stewardship Program Summary of Programs and Research 2011 Table of Contents Dedication ............................................................................................................................................... 4 Executive Summary and Introduction ...................................................................................................... 5 West Central Adirondack Region Summary ............................................................................................ 17 Watershed Stewardship Program- Staff Profiles .................................................................................... 24 Recreation Use Study: Cranberry Lake State Boat Launch ...................................................................... 30 Recreation Use Study: Fourth Lake State Boat Launch ........................................................................... 38 Recreation Use Study: Lake Flower State Boat Launch ........................................................................... 48 Recreation Use Study: Lake Placid State Boat Launch ............................................................................ 60 Recreation Use Study: Lake Placid Village Launch .................................................................................. 70 Recreation Use Study: Long Lake State Boat Launch .............................................................................. 77 Recreation Use Study: Meacham Lake State Campground Boat Launch ................................................. 87 Recreation Use Study: Osgood Pond Waterway Access Site ................................................................... 94 Recreation Use Study: Rainbow Lake/ Buck Pond Campground Boat Launch ....................................... 101 Recreation Use Study: Raquette Lake Village Boat Launch ................................................................... 110 Recreation Use Study: Saratoga Lake State Boat Launch ...................................................................... 121 Recreation Use Study: Second Pond State Boat Launch ....................................................................... 132 Recreation Use Study: Seventh Lake State Boat Launch ....................................................................... 142 Recreation Use Study: St. Regis Canoe Area ......................................................................................... 152 Recreation Use Study: Upper St. Regis Lake Public Boat Launch ........................................................... 160 Recreation Use Study: St. Regis Mountain ........................................................................................... 170 Recreation Use Study: Tupper Lake State Boat Launch......................................................................... 176 Recreation Use Study: Western Roving Sites ........................................................................................ 185 Effects of desiccation on Eurasian watermilfoil and Northern watermilfoil .......................................... 193 Loon Monitoring Report: St. Regis Lakes and Big Moose Lake .............................................................. 200 Relative abundance and diversity of Odonata in the northeastern Adirondack Park using adult and larval sampling methods ............................................................................................................................... 207 Amphibian Biodiversity Inventory ........................................................................................................ 215 Purple Loosestrife Monitoring and Control .......................................................................................... 223 Education and Outreach Programming, Eastern Stewards ................................................................... 228 Education and Outreach Programming, Western Stewards .................................................................. 233 Appendix: Education and Outreach Programs, Eastern Stewards, 2011 ............................................... 239 3 Watershed Stewardship Program Summary of Programs and Research 2011 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: Big Island, Raquette Lake. This page: Stewards and reporter at Tupper Lake State Boat Launch. 4 Watershed Stewardship Program Summary of Programs and Research 2011 Dedication The Watershed Stewardship Program dedicates this report to the memory of Matthew Potel, who served as a Watershed Steward in the summer of 2011. Matthew was a friend, colleague, employee, and environmentalist who graced us all with his spirit, humor, intelligence, and professionalism this summer. Matt spent the summer educating and welcoming visitors to Adirondack lakes, inspecting boats, wading in the shallows to monitor and control purple loosestrife, avoiding submerged rocks with the college’s motorboat, climbing the high peaks with friends, and never failing to bring all of us joy through laughter and a well-timed humorous remark. We will miss you and remember you, Matt! 5 Watershed Stewardship Program Summary of Programs and Research 2011 Executive Summary and Introduction By Eric Holmlund, Director The Watershed Stewardship Program (WSP) is the education and outreach aspect of Paul Smith’s College’s Adirondack Watershed Institute (AWI), located in the Paolozzi-Spaulding Environmental Sciences and Education Center at Paul Smith’s College. The WSP began in 2000 as a local watershed-focused effort to interpret the environment, perform environmental service work, monitor ecological conditions and prevent the introduction of aquatic invasive species (AIS) into the St. Regis Lake chain, which is adjacent to Paul Smith’s College. That summer, eight stewards performed a variety of functions, from greeting visitors at a boat ramp and performing boat inspections to stewarding the summit of St. Regis Mountain, monitoring banded loons, surveying wetland vegetation, and maintaining public access trails and campsites. As word of the success of the program spread, together with the increasing threat of AIS introduction, other lake associations and regional funding sources became interested in the model. The WSP expanded each year thereafter, gradually serving more and more lakes across the Adirondack Park. The designation of specific lakes as sites for WSP stewards has varied as a function of the availability of local, state and federal funds. Throughout the twelve years of the program’s existence, WSP staff has collaborated closely with The Nature Conservancy, the Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the Lake Champlain Basin Program, the Lake George Association, numerous property owner associations, and scientists at Paul Smith’s College to guide the evolution of a program that serves the needs of local human and biotic communities. As a result, the WSP now serves as a model across the state for AIS spread prevention and outreach. Figure 1- Flooded boat ramp, Lake Flower, May, 2011. The WSP experienced dramatic growth in 2011 due to the implementation of a large grant, awarded to the program by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service using Great Lakes Restoration Initiative funding. The purpose of this award was to initiate a coordinated boat-ramp steward program for watersheds draining into eastern Lake Ontario, which includes roughly the western half of the Adirondack Park. The WSP had initiated 6 Watershed Stewardship Program Summary of Programs and Research 2011 steward programs in the region in 2008, in Raquette Lake and Long Lake, but this grant allowed the program to reprise its role at these two lakes and to expand to other lakes never before served by boat ramp stewards, including Fourth Lake, Seventh Lake, Limekiln Lake, Stillwater Reservoir, Eighth Lake, Cranberry Lake, the St. Regis Canoe Area, and Meacham Lake. When this large grant was augmented by substantial funding awarded to the WSP by the Lake Champlain Basin Program and the Nature Conservancy, the WSP was poised in 2011 for, by far, its largest summer of operations ever, with stewards in place across the entire Park, from Inlet to Lake Placid, and Meacham Lake to Saratoga Lake. For the Figure 2- WSP growth, boat ramps and employees, 2000-2011. fourth 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. In all, approximately 45 stewards from across the Adirondacks came to the Joan Weill Adirondack Library on the Paul Smith’s College campus in May, 2011, for a multi-day training which addressed AIS identification and ecology, public interaction and education skills, and data collection procedures. The training featured presentations by representatives of the Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program (APIPP), the Department of Environmental Conservation, the Lake George Association, the Adirondack Park Agency, Protect!, Dr. Nina Schoch of the Biodiversity Research Institute, and the WSP. In 2011, stewards were stationed at 22 different boat launches across the Adirondack Park (Table 1). Figure 3- Regional training for