CFL News Volume 19, Issue 2 – Fall 2014 AN OVERVIEW OF THE 2014 NEW ENGLAND LAKES/ NECNALMS CONFERENCES By Sabina Perkins In June of this year CFL was instrumental in hosting the New England Chapter of the North American Lake Management Society (NECNALMS) conference at UCONN. There was a big focus on community involvement and empowering lake stewards. Attendees participated in informational workshops to learn about lake science. One workshop, run by Lori Benoit of the UCONN Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, taught people to identify both native and invasive aquatic plants. The UCONN cooperative extension and Center for Land Use Education and Research (CLEAR) personnel also showed attendees how to use a smartphone GPS to collect data on your lake. Bob Kirchner, of the Chicago Botanical Garden, and Amos Lake (Preston, CT) Deborah Lee, of the Woodland Trails Native Plant Nursery, inspired us to turn those lawns abutting the lake into an ecologically friendly buffer zone, blooming with attractive native plants. At the evening dinner, Robert Thorson discussed his new In this Issue book, Walden’s Shore, and the sounds of ice shifting that Henry David Thoreau himself likened to “flatulence Call for Designs!...p. 2 beneath the blankets” while living on Walden Pond. The various presentations told stories of community successes, Preventing the Panic: being in the know unveiled new tools and technologies for managing lake about blue-green algae…p. 2 shorelines, and discussed the causes of cyanobacteria (HAB) blooms and management strategies. We came away Candlewood Lake Volunteer Secchi Disk motivated to make a difference in our community and Monitoring…p. 5 empowered with a few more skills to use along the way. Protection of State Lakes Gets Little Thank you to all CFL members who were instrumental in Attention…p. 6 helping us make this conference a reality, and special thanks to the CFLers who shared their lake management CFL Annual Appeal…p. 7 experiences as part of the concurrent sessions. For those of you who couldn’t make it this year, hope to see you there CT LakeSmart Pledge…p. 9 next year! East Haddam Funds Part-Time Launch EAST HADDAM UNDERSTANDS THE VALUE OF ITS LAKES Monitoring…p. 10 By Randy Miller East Haddam was well represented at the June 14, 2014 Bantam Lake Day…p. 10 Conference of the New England Chapter of the North American Lake Management Society held at UCONN in A Quick Update on the Volunteer Secchi Disk Storrs, CT, at which First Selectman Mark Walter and East Monitoring Program…p.11 Haddam Lakes Association (EHLA) member Randy Miller made presentations. Mark’s topic was “Successful 1 Collaboration Between a CT Lake Association and a Haddam’s property owners and businesses in Town. Both Municipality” and Randy’s topic was “Keeping Lakes presentations were well received at the conference, (Financially) Afloat.” Both talks brought focus to the generated much discussion by attendees, and put East ongoing partnership between the Town and lake groups to Haddam on the map as a responsible lakes community. maintain and improve the quality of Bashan Lake, Lake Hayward, and Moodus Reservoir by mitigating invasive Randy’s presentation can be viewed at: weeds and ensuring that water quality remains high. The http://www.lakehaywardct.com/ehla.pdf Town recognizes that invasive weeds can quickly overwhelm its lakes and if not checked, limit swimming, CALL FOR DESIGNS! fishing and boating, which will drive down property values and the Town’s Grand list. Both Mark and Randy noted that The CFL is inviting you to design property taxes generated by the lake communities a logo for a Connecticut Lakes compose a significant portion of the Town’s revenue Special Interest License Plate. stream, and that spending by both full-time and part-time The logo can have up to four lake residents are an important economic engine to the colors and should be 2” wide area. Mark also touched on the Town’s collaboration with and 3.5” high. If your design is the Chatham Health District and EHLA to support stronger chosen you will be recognized septic pump-out requirements, which is important to in an upcoming newsletter and maintaining clean lakes. East Haddam’s support of its lake your logo could be seen on lake is a win-win stewardship partnership of the lakes, all of East lovers’ license plates around the state! PREVENTING THE PANIC: BEING IN THE KNOW ABOUT BLUE-GREEN ALGAE By Hillary Kenyon The phrase “Harmful Algae Bloom” (HAB) has recently come to the forefront of lake management. Even before the Toledo water crisis made national news this summer, blue-green algae and cyanotoxins were gracing headlines across the Northeastern United States. In the summer of 2013, the Connecticut Department of Public Health (DPH) and Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) issued new guidelines to address HABs as a human health concern. The development of state recommendations was expedited by widespread media coverage of a particular blue-green algae bloom in 2012. News of ‘toxic lake water’ is never well-received by lake users, particularly when limited information is coming from local media sources, instead of directly from the municipality or health department. Complicated science is easily botched. Then, all of a sudden, a billowing cloud of distorted details transforms into a public panic: the fear of the unknown. By referencing scientific publications and credible web-sources, this article hopes to dissipate any accumulated haze. Confirmed Blue-green Algae Blooms (Photos from CT) Blue-green algae basics… Algae and phytoplankton are terms that describe a large group of microscopic photosynthetic organisms that inhabit both fresh and salt water environments. Blue-green algae, now known as cyanobacteria, make up one group of phytoplankton that typically occur in varying numbers throughout water bodies in Connecticut. Blue-green algae utilize the sun’s energy, carbon dioxide, and water to produce their own food. The end-product of this process is oxygen, the life-sustaining compound that jumpstarted evolution and made way for an explosion of life on Earth. We can thank oceanic cyanobacteria for much of the oxygen we breathe today, and it is common knowledge among the scientific community that the oldest 2 cyanobacteria fossils date back to 3.5 billion years! It’s no wonder that these amazing colonies of cells are equipped with highly evolved adaptations enabling them to survive in almost every environment on the planet [3]. In addition to light, cyanobacteria also require naturally occurring nutrients (i.e. nitrogen and phosphorus) in order to carry out cellular processes required for growth and replication. Humans accelerate algae and cyanobacteria growth in lakes by increasing nutrients, a process called eutrophication [3]. Anthropogenic, or human-related, sources of nutrients to lakes include domestic and agricultural waste, septic leachate, road run-off, and lawn fertilizers. It is because of this heightened availability of nutrients in lakes that blue-green algae are able to reach extremely high cell densities, referred to as a ‘bloom’ [4,6]. Many cyanobacteria species can form gas vesicles within their cells that allow them to regulate their vertical position in the water column. This adaptation may enable cyanobacteria to out-compete other species of algae that do not have this adaptive advantage. When cyanobacteria cells float to the surface, they are subjected to wind movement, which can then concentrate cells into thick scums along the shoreline. Though a scum does not necessarily mean that there are cyanotoxins present, it is usually a good indicator that cell densities are high enough that potential toxins may pose a significant health threat. The World Health Organization (WHO) published a diagram to illustrate the accumulation of cyanobacterial cells [7]. The complicated nature of toxin-producing cyanobacteria and what it means for you! There are over one-hundred species of known toxin producing cyanobacteria. Understanding species dynamics in lakes, along with toxicological effects relevant to humans, is a daunting task that employs life-long researchers around the world. Microcystin should not be a novel word to lake residents, but the associated technical language may be off-putting to those less scientifically inclined. Microcystin is one type of toxin produced by numerous cyanobacterial species at varying levels. To further complicate things, microcystin is not the only type of cyanotoxin that affects human activity in lakes [3]. There are numerous other cyanotoxins. Brace yourself for the slew of consonants that are sure to tie anyone’s tongue: anatoxins, cylindrospermopsins, saxitoxins, nodularins (a select few relevant to Connecticut lakes, courtesy of GreenWater Laboratories, FL). Like microcystin, each type of toxin listed poses a unique health risk to humans and pets, largely through contact and drinking water. Exposure to cyanotoxins may result in skin irritation, vomiting, diarrhea, or in severe instances, damage to the liver and nervous system. There is an extensive amount of research in the area of cyanotoxins, and our knowledge of this field is continually expanding with new scientific discovery. Management based on what we know so far… In a previous issue of the newsletter, CFLer Dr. George Knoecklein, spelled out the HAB guidelines provided by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) based on the WHO’s findings. The following table was taken from the WHO and is displayed on the EPA website: http://www2.epa.gov/nutrient-policy-data/policies-and-guidelines Relative Probability of Acute Health Effects Cyanobacteria (cell/mL) Microcystin-LR (µg/L) Chlorophyll-a (µg/L) Low <20,000 <10 <10 Moderate 20,000-100,000 10-20 10-50 High 100,000-10,000,000 20-2,000 50-5,000 Very High >10,000,000 >2,000 >5,000 Referring to the EPA “Acute Health Effects” table, it seems as though a cyanobacteria count of 20,000-100,000 cells/mL would be consistent with 10-20µg/L of microcystin.