What you can do… 1. Always check your boat, trailer, and equipment for plant material. 2. Respect shoreland zone restricons. AWWA YCC project on Province Lake ‐ Water bars and 3. Control polluted run‐off from roads, Erosion Control Mulch (ECM) paths, driveways, and roof. This brochure was produced by the 4. Culvate flowers, shrubs, or trees as a Acton Wakefield Watersheds shoreline buffer. Alliance 5. Limit lawn size AND: with funds provided in part by a grant from the NH A. Don’t use ferlizers. Department of Environmental Services with funding B. Use phosphorus‐free or low‐ from the US Environmental Protecon Agency under phosphorus ferlizers. Secon 319 of the Clean Water Act. C. Use low, slow release nitrogen www.AWwatersheds.org ferlizers. 6. Don’t stress the sepc system. PO Box 235 7. Dogs, humans, and boats should 254 Main Street never be washed in the lake. Union NH 03887 8. Observe headway speeds within 200 603‐473‐2500 feet of Maine shores and 150 feet of [email protected] Get to Know Your Lake, NH shores. Your Lake’s Watershed, 9. When replacing a boat motor, choose References: and the People Who Support It a clean 4‐stroke engine. NH Granit Database www.provincelake.org 10. Pick up pet wastes. Province Lake Associaon www.lakesofmaine.org PO Box 24 11. Volunteer as a lake host. NH Fish and Game Effingham, NH 03882 12. Get a free AWWA site assessment. Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and 13. Support your local and regional lake Wildlife Telephone: (207) 200‐3234 associaons. [email protected] Province Lake Association: The PLA is a group of people interested in maintaining the Watershed Characteristics: Lake Characteristics: quality of Province Lake. It is a non‐profit organizaon of approximately 100 members paying dues Locaon: Parsonsfield, York County, ME and Mean Depth: 9 feet of $25 annually. There are many volunteers who provide water tesng, weed watching, loon Wakefield and Effingham, Carroll Max Depth: 17 feet observaon and other valuable services to the associaon. County, NH Max Length: 1.7 miles Coordinates: 43o41’24”N 70o59’32”W Max Width: 1.4 miles Major Drainage Basin: Saco River, Saco Bay, ME Surface Elevaon: 480 feet Subdrainage Basin: South River to the Ossipee Surface Area: 968 acres River ‐Parsonsfield, ME: 58 acres (6%) Drains to: South River ‐Wakefield and Effingham, NH: 910 Inlets: Hobbs Brook acres (94%) Oulows: South River Volume: 11.3 million m3 (~2.9 Billion gallons) Watershed Area: 3,903 acres Perimeter (Shoreline): 5.3 miles Flushing Rate: 1 yr View of Province Lake during the fall. Photo courtesy of the Province Lake Associaon (www.provincelake.org) ‐It takes 1 year for water that enters the lake to leave the lake. Programs: Average Transparency: 7.2 feet Province Lake started a Lake Host Program in 2012 with funding from the Town of Wakefield, Lake Classificaon: The lake is classified as NH Lakes, and membership dues. The PLA is seeking funding and volunteers for their Weed mesotrophic or parally not supporng Watchers Program. by NH water quality standards. Acton Wakefield Watersheds Alliance: Since 2005, AWWA has been protecng and restoring Water Quality Monitoring Began: 1991 water quality in the Wakefield, NH and Acton, ME lakes region by affecng land use policies and Phosphorus Concentraon: 15 parts per billion pracces through educaon and remediaon of polluted runoff. *Phosphorus Concentraon needs to be lowered Youth Conservaon Corp: The AWWA employs local high school students for summer work in Dissolved Oxygen: Higher than adequate due their YCC program. The YCC installs erosion control measures to prevent polluted runoff from to lack of lake straficaon. degrading the health of the lakes. The program also offers technical assistance for homeowners AWWA YCC project on Province Lake ‐ Rubber razors. wishing to help protect the lake on their own. Physical Synopsis: Wildlife: Province Lake is home to several fish species including; large and smallmouth bass, Province Lake does not strafy (in other words, chain pickerel, yellow perch, sunfish and horned pout. The lake also has a populaons of Common the lake is so shallow that in winter and summer, Loon, eagles, great blue herons, the occasional merganser and also has oers and snapping turtles! the lake remains at a relavely constant Fishing Rules and Regulaons: temperature throughout). Straficaon refers For informaon regarding daily bag, possession limits, minimum legal lengths, and seasonality to disnct layers of water in a lake differing in please visit www.wildlife.state.nh.us/Fishing/fishing.htm for the New Hampshire Fish and Game temperature and density. Deep lakes commonly Department. strafy into three disnct layers: the epilimnion Cyanobacteria: Province Lake has had major issues cyanobacteria blooms in the past decade. (upper), the metalimnion (middle), and the Cyanobacteria blooms occur when nutrients such as phosphorus are present in high enough hypolimnion (boom). concentraons to lead to an explosive growth of the photosynthec bacteria in short amounts of me. These cyanobacteria can potenally produce toxins which are harmful to children, pets and wildlife. The PLA is working with AWWA and the NH DES to reduce the nutrient loading in Province Lake and prevent or reduce the number of cyanobacteria blooms through implementaon of a AWWA YCC Project on Province Lake ‐ Infiltraon Steps watershed management plan. and Rip Rap.