Vol. 9, No. 1 Provided free of charge to our monitors and affiliates Summer 2004 Inside Lake Sebasticook Story • Page 8 2004 Life Long Volunteers • Page 16 Maine Lakes 2004 IPP Workshops • Page 18 CONFERENCE VLMP& Annual Meeting June 19 • 8am - 3pm University of Southern Maine, Gorham See Pages 2 & 3 For More Information What’s Inside VLMP ANNUAL MEETING Annual Meeting Overview . 2 Registration . 3 Maine Lakes Lakeside Notes . 4 Recertification Schedule . 5 Littorally Speaking . 6 2004 IPP Workshops . 18 Conference 2004 Lake Sebasticook Story* . 8 Lake Lingo . 11 JUNE 19, 8:00 am - 3:15 pm Culvert Thawing* . 12 University of Southern Maine, Gorham Life Long Volunteers . 16 Brackett Center News Tentative Program Overview Be A Part... 14 MORNING PLENARY SESSION * Volunteer Monitor Articles 8:00 Registration Bailey Hall Lobby 8:25 Welcome - Dan Buckley and Scott Williams 8:40 A Place on Water - Wesley McNair 9:50 Plenary Session Helping Hands: Statewide Resources for Lake Protection and Management 10:00 Refreshment Break 10:15 Recognition and Award Ceremony VLMP Staff 10:45 COLA Annual Meeting Scott Williams Executive Director VLMP Annual Meeting Jim Roby-Brantley Program Assistant Readings from A Place on Water Roberta Hill Program Director Maine Center for 11:30 Lunch Invasive and Aquatic Plants Linda Bacon QA/QC Advisor (Maine DEP) 12:30 Kayak Drawing for VLMP Water Quality Monitors Board of Directors Peter Fischer (Bristol) President 12:45 - 3:10 Afternoon Breakout Sessions Dick Thibodeau (Turner) Vice President Jim Burke (Lewiston) Treasurer Mary Jane Dillingham (Auburn) Secretary Legislation and Maine Lakes: Past History and Present Events • History of Legislation Affecting Maine Lakes Poppy Connor-Crouch (Poland) • Regulations that Protect Maine Lakes, Present and Future George Cross (Sangerville) Phoebe Hardesty (Lewiston) • Milfoil Law Amended! Ken Holt (North Turner) Steve Kahl (Orono) Lake Stewardship: Bill Monagle (Winthrop) Gerry Nelson (Lovell) • How to Build an Effective Lake Association Will Reid (Skowhegan) • Invasive Aquatic Plant Prevention Toolkit: Programs, Strategies and Resources To Help Communities Address this Serious Threat to Lakes To Contact Us: 24 Maple Hill Road • The Sebasticook Lake Restoration Story Auburn, Maine 04210 207-783-7733 [email protected] Water Quality: www.MaineVolunteerLakeMonitors.org • Basic Lake Ecology, Pt. 1: An Overview of Lake and Watershed Processes Editorial Staff • Basic Lake Ecology, Pt. 2: An Overview of Lake and Watershed Processes Jim Roby-Brantley, Layout • An Overview of Maine Lake Water Quality in 2003 Scott Williams, Editorial Comm. Roberta Hill, Editorial Comm. Lake Perspectives: Funding for this newsletter is made possible by grants • Restoring Alewives to Inland Waters from the US Environmental Protection Agency and the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, • Alewives and Lakes: the Unity Pond Data through Section 319 of the Clean Water Act. • Under the Ice: What Happens in Lakes in Winter? Printed on Recycled Paper By: Curry Printing & Graphics - Auburn, Maine 2 Register for the VLMP Annual Meeting Meet with Certified Monitors, Plant Patrollers, Lake Associations, and staff 2003 Annual Meeting from VLMP & DEP Table discussion of Maine’s statewide lake organizations Prizes • Food • Workshops • Fun • Technical Talks Plus a Kayak Give Away! Directions from the north Take the Maine Turnpike to Exit 47 (Rand Road/Westbrook). Follow Route 25 west for 6.5 miles to Gorham. At Gorham center, the intersection of Routes 25 and 114, turn right onto Route 114. Take the first left onto Pre-Registration is Requested College Avenue. The entrance to campus will be on your right. so that we can ensure meals and materials for all. Directions from the south Take the Maine Turnpike to Exit 36 Deadline for registration is June 12, 2004. (Scarborough). Turn left after exiting the Turnpike onto Payne Road. At the second There is no charge for certified volunteer lake monitors, regional traffic light turn left onto Route 114 north. and data entry coordinators, VLMP Board Members, and annual Follow route 114 for 6.5 miles to Gorham meeting guest speakers. center, the intersection of Routes 25 and 114. Go straight through the intersection and take The cost for all others is: the first left onto College Avenue. The 00 00 entrance to campus will be on your right. $25 before June 12 • $30 after June 12 CLIP AND MAIL TO VLMP Registration VLMP Annual Meeting Name(s): ___________________________________ Number Attending: ________ ___________________________________ Cost per Attendee: ________ Total Enclosed: ________ ___________________________________ To register, please call or email: ___________________________________ 207-783-7733 ___________________________________ [email protected] ___________________________________ or mail to: VLMP 24 Maple Hill Road Auburn, ME 04210 3 Lakeside Notes Spring has definitely arrived! The grass is green, trees and shrubs are “leafing out”, songbird trills fill the woods, nocturnal spring peeper choruses are deafening, and by now, the ice should be out of even the northernmost lakes and ponds in Maine. Scott Williams Executive Director arly Spring Secchi disk readings from Steve Kahl, Director of the Mitchell provide important information Center at the University of Maine, and a E about the seasonal conditions in member of the VLMP Board of Directors, “How can we know our lakes and ponds. While water makes the point very clearly. In speaking where we are going if clarity readings for some bodies of water about the value of historical data in may vary only a few tenths of a meter guiding present day and future decisions, we do not know during a typical five-month monitoring Steve said: “How can we know where we where we have cycle, it is not unusual for Secchi disk are going if we do not know where we been?” Indeed, with readings in many lakes to change as much have been?” Indeed, with everything that as one or two, and in some cases, even we have learned about Maine lakes in the everything that we three meters within a single season. Such past few decades, there is much about have learned about variation may be perfectly normal, but it their history that is unknown. Most of the makes a strong case for the importance of data for Maine lakes has been collected Maine lakes in the taking frequent readings throughout the since the early 1970’s, when the VLMP and past few decades, spring, summer and early fall, because the DEP were first formed. Prior to that there is much about when only a few Secchi readings are time, with the exception of limited taken, the end of the year picture may not information collected by the Maine their history that is be representative of conditions in the Department of Inland Fisheries and unknown. lake. Two Secchi readings per month, Wildlife concerning fisheries equally spaced, from May through management, very little water quality data September, will generally provide enough existed for Maine lakes and ponds. information to accurately characterize conditions in the lake during the most Every Secchi disk reading is an important critical period of the year. one. Of course the same is true of phosphorus and dissolved oxygen If you are not able to monitor at this samples. The value of an individual frequency, consider sharing the reading may not be fully appreciated until responsibility with a trained alternate – long after it is taken – perhaps at the end someone who could be available to collect of the season, and possibly not for years. data when it is not convenient for you. Never underestimate the value of your Having another trained volunteer on the efforts as a volunteer lake monitor. Your lake helps to ensure the continuity of data work may be cited in the future for over time. providing a key link to the understanding and protection of our lakes and ponds! Speaking of data continuity, it is important! You probably knew that, but it doesn’t hurt to reemphasize the value of quality historical data. There are a number of ways to make this case. A recent quote 4 Quality Counts! Last year, 2003, marked the beginning of a service for volunteers to collect Total Phosphorus sub-surface grab samples and mail them to a laboratory for analysis. That service is available again this year if you or your association is interested. To obtain a ‘Total P Kit’, contact Tiffany Wilson at the Sawyer Environmental Chemistry Research Lab (207-581-3288). The cost will remain $24 per sample. Approximately 15 folks took advantage of this service last year; with the exception of confusion regarding the units of measure on the result sheets, the process seemed to go smoothly. This year the lab will report in the same units as the state lab so Linda Bacon, Maine DEP QA/QC Advisor that the results will not need to be converted before entering them on the data sheet or into the data entry program. To increase opportunities for volunteers to collect this type of sample, we have added ‘Sub-surface Grab Collection’ training to the recertification workshop agenda. The training takes about 5 minutes and opens up a number of opportunities for the program. One of these opportunities includes an expansion of the mail-in service with selected parameter tests on ‘baseline’ samples. DEP will select approximately 30 lakes that are shallow, have monitors trained to collect sub-surface grabs, and have not been visited by DEP staff recently. We will contact volunteers on these lakes and if they are willing, we will arrange for a kit to be mailed to them. Fred Weston, long time Belgrade Monitor, reminding Craig The kit is likely to contain 2 bottles, a Total P bottle and a 500 ml Killingbeck (Long Pond, Belgrade) to jig the probe. plastic bottle that is filled in the same manner as the Total P bottle.