LAKE PARKER ASSOCIATION, INC.
PO Box 69, West Glover, VT 05875
March 2001 Newsletter
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Listen, buds, it’s
March twenty first; don’t you know enough to burst? Come on, birds,
unlock your throats! Come on, gardeners, shed your coats! Come on zephyrs,
come on flowers, come on grass, and violet showers! And come on lambs,
in frisking flocks! Salute the vernal equinox! Twang the cheerful
lute and zither! Spring is absolutely hither! Yester eve was
dark despair, with winter, winter, everywhere; Today, upon the
other hand, ‘tis spring throughout this happy land!
(from “Spring Song” by Ogden Nash) Well, while
the calendar says it’s spring, as this is written piles of snow still abound
in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. But doesn’t that bit of poetry make you feel
just a little better about it? It’s
time to re-connect with all of you as we lead into spring and summer with
much enthusiasm; time to say hello again to summer friends and make plans to
enjoy every minute of a too-short season at Lake Parker. So please browse through the information
on the following pages and resolve to support the activities that make life
at the lake so pleasant. If everyone does a little, we can accomplish a lot! |
LPA Annual Meeting |
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Saturday,
July 7th 2001 - 5:30PM West Glover Church |
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Summer Activities – Please mark your calendar and plan on attending.
EVENT
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DATE
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TIME
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PLACE
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NEC-NALMS Conference Field Trip To Lake Parker |
Friday, June 1st |
11:00 AM |
Camp 66 |
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NEC-NALMS Conference |
Saturday, June 2nd |
9:00 AM |
State House, Montpelier VT |
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*** Madeleine’s Year 2001 *** Lake Protection Coffee Hour |
Saturday, June 23 |
10:00 AM |
Camp 66 |
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*** LPA Annual Meeting *** and Potluck Supper |
Saturday, July 7th |
5:30 PM |
West Glover Church |
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*** Dixieland Band *** |
Sunday, July 29th |
1:00 PM |
Lake Parker Boat Access |
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LPA Work Day |
TBD |
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NEC-NALMS Comes to Vermont - and to Lake Parker!! Lake Parker
and Glover will play an important role in the 6-state conference of the New
England Chapter of the North American Lake Management Society (NEC-NALMS), to
be hosted by the state of Vermont in Montpelier, June 1st and 2nd
of this year. As a member of the state Lake Protection Advisory Committee,
representatives from Lake Parker and other Vermont lakes have met numerous
times at the Waterbury state water quality offices, planning the details of
the conference. |
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Conference attendees will be invited to make a field trip to Lake Parker on Friday, June 1st, and we are looking for a big response! Starting with a lunchtime meeting hosted by Madeleine Ducham at her camp, we will have the opportunity to showcase to other New Englander’s our watershed survey and lake protection work. Then, on Saturday June 2nd at the State House in Montpelier, Glover Selectman Nick Echer-Racz and Road Forman Rick Welch will participate in one of the conference panel discussions entitled “How Town Officials View Lake Associations.” This will be a great opportunity for “little ole” Lake Parker! We can all be proud of the Lake Parker Association (LPA) and the work being done at both local and state level by many dedicated volunteers - they have put us “on the map”, and have made life at and on the lake better for all of us!! If you would like to help on that day, June 1st, we’d love to hear from you. Call LPA president Bob Johnson at 525-4078 and tell him! It will be an exciting day!
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Year 2001 Lake Protection Coffee Hour |
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Annual Meeting and Potluck Supper
Saturday, July 7, 2001 is the date for our annual business meeting and potluck supper! The potluck supper is from 5:30PM to 7:00PM with business meeting following. This is a great opportunity to see everyone again and discuss common interests in Lake Parker and the Association. So bring a favorite dish to share and come for a neighborly get together. This is an election year so your attendance is especially important because the direction and activities supported by your association will be determined by the new officers and committee chairpersons that you elect. As usual, the Association Board will submit a slate of officers and committee chairpersons for your consideration, but remember that you can nominate any member that you feel would do a good job in a particular position. So please, actively use the election process to make the LPA what you want it to be.
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Water Quality Matching Fund Up-Date What can we
say! A simple thank-you seems hardly
adequate to those who have contributed a total of $1,897.50 to date! When matched with an equal amount from the
LPA treasury, the Fund has provided
$3,795.00 for water quality improvement projects. And some great
things have already been accomplished! How has it been spent so far? For some
great pictures and details of each of six projects, check the LPA website at
www.tec-i.com/lpa/lpa.htm. |
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Typical project “Before” picture |
Typical project “After” picture |
In a nutshell, for this brief report, to date we have spent $2303.76. This includes the cost for several truck-loads of rip-rap (pieces of rock) placed along the banks of ditches and culvert inlets and outlets to reduce soil erosion, grass seed and hay mulch to prevent erosion in ditches and culverts, and the hiring of equipment and expertise to build concrete block culvert inlet headers at several locations where the job was too big for volunteer handwork. However, LPA volunteers contributed many hours of labor to complete the jobs and you can be assured that the work done will indeed make a difference in the amount of nutrient material that has been flowing into the lake. But work on water quality is an on-going job and there are always more things to do. We hope that your support will also be on-going. The Matching Fund Program will continue since we have not quite reached the authorized $2,500.00 donation level ($602.50 to go!), to be matched with $2,500.00 from the LPA treasury. We hope you’ll take a moment to look at the work on the culverts and ditches near camp #’s 30, 37, 115, 116 & 119, and other road-side drainage ditches on both sides of the lake. A lot of people have worked hard - and it is paying off!! If you haven’t already, won’t you help us reach our goal?
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Lake Parker: What
I Really Think! By Susan Warren |
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Just to brag a little, I have been visiting Lake Parker since 1981. At that time I was working with the Lay Monitoring Program and had the privilege of working with Leo Millette and Rene Monette, your dedicated volunteer lake sampling team at that time. Lake Parker has always been blessed with committed and kind lake residents, resulting in many on-going, productive and effective projects to benefit the lake. Bob Johnson, being no exception to that rule, has asked me for a frank assessment of how I see the lake and what is needed to keep improving the health of the lake environment.
Lake Parker is a bit of an anomaly in the Northeast Kingdom, being a relatively shallow, warm water and productive (having moderate amounts of plant and algae growth), in contrast to the many deep, cold, clear water lakes the region is known for. In smaller lakes, the nutrients and sediments that naturally flow into a lake accumulate and change the lake more quickly. (Please note this is an observation, not a value judgement; lakes of all stripes are important to the natural landscape.) Like the vast majority of lakes in Vermont (and elsewhere), various land uses in the Lake Parker watershed over the past 250 years have resulted in increased flow of nutrients and sediments to the lake. These accumulate in the lake (about 80% of incoming stuff stays in a lake) and cause increased plant and algae growth, reduced water clarity and decreased oxygen in the bottom waters.
When I visit the lake and boat around, I see a productive lake (plenty of plants and algae) which I suspect is mostly a natural condition for the lake, being smallish and not too deep. Plant beds are fascinating to me as a botanist, and most of what I see looks like healthy lake life. Over the years on Vermont lakes, I have developed my own subjective gauge of when a lake is naturally eutrophic (productive) vs. when it is suffering from too much human-caused nutrient enrichment. In my view, lake Parker is slightly more nutrient enriched than it would be under entirely natural conditions (i.e. no development or land uses in the watershed whatsoever). A trend analysis of the Lay Monitoring data on Parker since 1979 does not show that conditions have changed during this time. Therefore we can conclude that Lake Parker is stable relative to nutrient concentration, or at least changing so slowly it’s not visible over 20 years.
Lake Parker does appear to me to be in the beginning stages of seeing problem conditions of nutrient enrichment of the lake. Your lake association’s efforts to survey the lake and watershed observed large sediment delta buildup at stream mouths, heavy plant growth and cloudy attached algae in some areas. The Lakes and Ponds Section has called this “threatened” because the problems have not increased to the point where we can call conditions truly “bad” or “impaired.” Lakes where problems of the impaired magnitude occur in Vermont include Lake Carmi in Franklin and St. Albans Bay in Lake Champlain.
I consider the conditions in Parker an “early warning sign!” And you are lucky to still be in a position to protect your lake before conditions worsen. However, if you do nothing, conditions will worsen, but I can’t really say on what time scale.
Thanks to the efforts of many incredible volunteers around the lake, you have undertaken many worthwhile lake protection projects. Perhaps you could look at it this way: Lake Parker has been nickel-and-dimed for 250 years with eroding sediment and nutrients, and it is going to take many small solutions to correct the situation. To my knowledge there is no silver bullet solution to this problem for Lake Parker. Perhaps something will come to light in the future, but for now the lake needs a watershed-wide pollution prevention effort. The basic goal is to prevent soil erosion and nutrients from entering the lake via streams, overland flow, or groundwater. Lake Parker has diverse land uses along the shore and throughout the watershed, any of these can be part of the problem.
What’s most important to work on? It may come as a surprise that I believe the most important task is to build community! We have been talking a lot in the Lake Protection Advisory Committee about how to motivate people (lakeshore and watershed residents alike) to protect water. I believe communication among people is critical to build trust in each other, to understand each others point of view, and to be able to influence changes in how we all manage the land. Your lake association has made great strides in this area, but everyone must work on it. Be open to what you might learn from others!
But now getting down the basics of land uses, what should you tackle? I think in the Lake Parker watershed the following practices are most important:
1.
Revegetate
the water’s edge with woody and mixed plants as much as possible. This includes
streamsides and the lakeshore. Look into means to conserve buffers where they
currently exist.
2.
Practice
good road and driveway maintenance throughout the watershed. Fix areas with
chronic erosion problems or that are susceptible to flash flood damage.
3.
Keep
the dialogue up with farmers in the watershed. Many of these farms are making
use of recommended “best management practices” to control runoff, but I think
there may be more techniques as yet not maximized in the watershed.
4.
Maintain,
retrofit, replace or relocate septic systems as needed near the waters edge. Many
older systems, and maybe even some new ones, are probably not adequately
treating wastewater.
5.
Can
anyone tell me what’s similar between #3 and #4?
6.
While
not related to nutrients and sediments, protecting Parker against the
introduction of exotic species such as Eurasian watermilfoil is extremely
important. If nothing else, dealing with an infestation will steal your time
from watershed work!
I like to promote the view that on most lakes we must not worry about which pollution source is greatest, but that all sources need to be fixed. I definitely think this is true at Lake Parker. We can use are computer models to estimate the relative importance of various sources and these are useful tools. Indeed there are numerous technical tools that can answer specific questions and guide our efforts. However, to achieve a community-wide and lasting commitment to lake health, we must look beyond that approach to every watershed community member taking responsibility for their individual affect on water. I think your creative and hardworking association is well on its way toward this goal, so I say with great sincerity KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK! Thank you for the privilege of working with you, I assure you I have learned more from all of you, than you from me!
Your faithful Biologist, Susan
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Grant Update We
have a new grant to complete this summer. It’s a watershed grant made
possible by the Vermont Conservation Plate program. The purpose of this
project is to protect Lake Parker against infestations of Eurasian
watermilfoil and zebra mussels by stationing people at the boat access to
inspect boats and trailers for these invasive non-native species. Grant funds
would be used to: |
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1)
Pay the salaries of people, probably high school students, who would be hired
to monitor the boat access during times of high use.
2) Pay the cost and installation of a large sign, to be placed at the boat
access, that welcomes boaters to Lake Parker but respectfully asks them to be
conscientious about not contributing to the spread of non-native species by
properly inspecting their boats and trailers.
3) Pay for the printing costs of educational flyers that would be passed out to
boaters by the monitors. These flyers would have specific information about the
treat to Lake Parker.
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We completed our second
Betterback Roads grant in January. The purpose of which was to inventory the
roads in the Lake Parker watershed, identify those areas most in need of
repair, and to make a plan and budget for doing the repairs. Most of this
work was done by Selectman Nick Ecker-Racz and Road Foreman Rick Welch with
LPA volunteers doing the grant and report writing and some of the survey
work. If the Betterback Roads program is funded again this year we will
submit a grant application asking for help with the costs of doing the first
project identified in the plan. For more information refer to the LPA web
site at www.lakeparker.org.
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We will be asking for volunteers to help with this year’s grant projects at Madeleine’s Coffee Hour meeting on Saturday, June 23rd.
Ice Out Contest
The Ice Out Contest will not be held this year due to lack of participation in prior years.
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Vermont's Nongame and Natural Heritage Program Vermont is home to over 247 species of birds, 57 mammal species, 92 different fish species, over 1,450 native flowering plant species, and 80 natural communities. This wide variety of animals and plants, along, with the mountains, forests, bogs, rivers, and lakes that support them make up Vermont's unique natural heritage. |
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The Nongame and Natural Heritage
Program's goal is to ensure this heritage is passed on to our children. One of
the Program's top priorities is protecting and conserving the 42 animal species
and 153 plant species recognized as threatened or endangered in Vermont.
The Vermont Rare and Uncommon
Plants list is a product of the Vermont Nongame and
Natural Heritage Program (NNHP). The NNHP is in the Vermont Department of Fish
and Wildlife of the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources. NNHP is the state’s
official repository for records of rare, threatened, and endangered species.
In Vermont, rare and uncommon plants are rated as follows:
E:
Endangered - in immediate danger of becoming extinct in the state
T:
Threatened - with high possibility of becoming endangered in the near future
S1:
Very rare
S2:
Rare
S3:
Uncommon
S4:
Apparently secure in state
S5:
Demonstrably secure in state
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Potamogeton Strictifolius
is a rare plant in Vermont and
many other states and one that is presumed to be extinct in some states.
Common names for this plant are straight-leaved pondweed, narrow-leaved
pondweed, and stiff pondweed. On the above rating system this plant is
classified as S2 however it seems to thrive
in Lake Parker. In an effort to protect this plant there are two
new areas of the lake where weed cutting is prohibited. See map. |
Potamogeton
Strictifolius |
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Eurasian Watermilfoil Invades Four More Vermont Lakes in 2000
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The statewide total of Eurasian watermilfoil
lakes has risen to 53. New infestations discovered in 2000 were in Beaver
Pond in Proctor, Lake Derby in Derby, Clyde Pond in Derby, and Lake Ninevah
in Mount Holly. Two of these lakes are in close proximity to Lake Parker,
increasing our risk of infestation. Eurasian watermilfoil is a non-native
aquatic plant that was introduced to North America from Europe by accident. In
nutrient-rich lakes, such as Lake Parker, it can form thick underwater stands
of tangled stems and vast mats of vegetation on the water’s surface that
interfere with boating, swimming, fishing and other water recreation. It also
crowds out important native water plants. One of the most insidious things
about Eurasian watermilfoil is that it propagates by stem fragmentation.
Imagine a motorboat passing through a patch of watermilfoil with the
propeller cutting away at the plants. Each of the separate pieces can take
root to form new plants. In fact, the plant is spread primarily when pieces
of milfoil become entangled on boats and trailers that are transported from
infested lakes to un-infested lakes. This is why we ask people to thoroughly
clean their boats and props when leaving a lake. So far, Lake Parker has been spared the
problems that a Eurasian watermilfoil |
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infestation
creates. However, we should be vigilant and redouble our efforts in watching
for the plant in our lake because an infestation that is discovered early is
much easier and cheaper to control than one that gets a good head start before
being discovered. An identifying characteristic of Eurasian watermilfoil is
that each leaf has from 12 to 21 pairs of leaflets, whereas the native northern
watermilfoil has from 5 to 9 pairs of leaflets. If each of us learned to
identify Eurasian watermilfoil and acquired the habit of regularly checking the
lake in front of our camps, we would have a much better chance of detecting an
infestation early enough for effective control measures to be taken. We’ll be
talking more about this in the summer.
Notes on LPA Membership – By Glenn Barber
2001 will be my
70th summer at Lake Parker and I hope to enjoy 70 more. One of my
tasks as LPA Vice President is to keep track of membership and I’ve noticed
that the number of people who pay their LPA dues has decreased in the past
couple of years. Here’s a breakdown from last year.
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Mailing List |
Paid Members |
% Participation |
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Shore Line
Seasonal |
72 |
51 |
70% |
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Off Shore Seasonal |
7 |
6 |
85% |
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Shoreline
Year Round |
8 |
5 |
62% |
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Off Shore
Year Round |
6 |
2 |
33% |
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Village |
13 |
1 |
.07% |
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Family and
Friends |
6 |
3 |
50% |
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Total |
112 |
68 |
61% |
The LPA has been doing some great work to preserve the lake for the past several years and because I feel so strongly about keeping Lake Parker beautiful I resolve to re-double my efforts to improve these numbers this year. The LPA fiscal year starts on July 1, so you have until then to pay your year 2001 dues. If you’re worried about forgetting, it’s perfectly ok to use the attached form and send them in now, while it’s fresh in your mind. You can also pay at the Annual Meeting and Potluck Supper on July 7th. When you mail in your dues, please take the time to fill out both mailing addresses and phone numbers. This helps to keep our records up to date and assures that mailings are sent to the correct address. There is also space on the form to share your ideas on Association matters. We are counting on your continued generous support.
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A Note from the Glover Ambulance Squad This
is our traditional time of year to have residents start or continue their
annual subscription to the Glover Ambulance Squad. Subscription
fees are $20/year for full-time residents and $10/year for summer residents
and cover all members of your household. If the Glover Ambulance Squad
provides you with emergency transport and pre-hospital treatment, first we
will bill your insurance company. If you do not have insurance, your |
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subscription
will cover the entire cost of our services.
Any outstanding amount not paid by your insurance, will be forgiven by
your subscription. This applies no
matter how many times during the year that you need to use our services. Depending on the nature of the call and the
services rendered, an average call to North Country Hospital costs
approximately $400, and your insurance will pay only 50 to 80 percent after
your deductible has been met. Without a
subscription, you, the patient, would be responsible for the balance that your
insurance does not pay. An annual
subscription is an inexpensive supplement to your insurance.
The
Glover Ambulance Squad is in critical need of additional personnel, especially
drivers. Several of our drivers have
recently upgraded their certification to First Responders and can now assist
with patient care. If you have a clean
driving record and can commit to at least one 12-hour shift per week, please
volunteer. We are also compiling a
resource list for difficult situations - able bodies to help carry and load
patients, and access to snowmobiles, ATVs and motorboats on local lakes. All squad members and associate members
receive a subscription for their services.
Please indicate on the form below how you can help us. Remember that we are also looking for good
used medical equipment and volunteers to make home visits for our community
health network.
Please
fill out the attached form, and return it with your payment, made payable to
the Glover Ambulance Squad. You can
also subscribe at the town clerk’s office and we will accept subscriptions at
any time during the year. You do not need to present a subscription card, we
maintain a master list of subscribers.
Thanks you for your support. Randy Williams-Captain
A
FLATLANDER'S VIEW
By Beryl Adams
I've checked with several women, and we all
agree. Things can get very complicated
when men have too much time on their hands. This is not meant as a judgmental
comment, just a statement of observed complexity. From what I've seen, the most critical elements of Guy-Events
are:
O
A group, (recognizing, of course, that actual
numbers can vary according to perceptions of personal skill, perceived threat,
and team-response time);
O
A sense of adventure;
O
Tools and/or equipment;
O
Liquid refreshments;
O
Speed and/or loud noise;
O
An audience, (while nice-to-have, does not seem to
be entirely necessary, since self-congratulations, also expressed in ritual
"high-five's" and "towel-snaps" can easily fulfill this
function.)
Consider the following examples from global and local
history:
Columbus, 1492:
"Hey, guys! Whaddya say we grab a couple of barrels of Sangria,
hock the queen's jewelry, and see how long we can sail before we fall off the
edge?"
The Miller, 1810:
"Hey, guys! Whaddya say we
grab a couple of cases of Bud Light, widen Long Pond's outlet stream, and see
how fast that old millwheel can spin?"
Bob, 1999:
"Hey, guys! Whaddya say we
grab a couple of sacks of Idaho russets, rig up some PVC pipe, and see how far
we can shoot potatoes across the lake?"
Many of you might not recall the Spud Shoot of '99,
possibly because you were out-of-town or because you were doing something
simple, but worthwhile, that evening.
For those of you who were home and had nothing better to do, let me
re-cap the highlights. It began innocently enough over dinner, with a scholarly
discussion of the many uses of duct tape and PVC pipe, and then promptly went
downhill from there. The next day, with
'way too much time on their hands, TEAM SPUD went into action for a projected
launch that evening.
Rich (Acquisition Officer) spent most of the
afternoon at Grand Union, tirelessly measuring Yukon Golds for heft and
diameter, (while the produce manager hovered nervously in the background, cell
phone at the ready.)
Bob (Propulsion Specialist) ran systematic
and random fuel tests on Aqua Net, Herbal Essences, and Head-n-Shoulders hair
sprays.
Terry (Technical Director and Costume Consultant)
"ops-checked" the stopwatch, chilled the wine, and brushed off the
raccoon coat.
It was a cool, clear evening in early autumn. Three women sat by the lakeshore, sipping
Chardonnay and quietly discussing how to save the world. Suddenly... loud, military-like shouts
shattered the stillness, interrupting the nearly-completed world hunger solution,
and causing one of the women to spill her wine.
"Launch at 1700 hours!"
"T minus 6 and counting!"
"Woo-hoo!"
With machine-like precision, the Guy-Team leaped to
their interactive tasks. It required the focused dynamics of the Technical
Director and the Propulsion Specialist to charge the PVC
fuel chamber with the exact air-to-hairspray ratio.
Terry: "One, one thousand…Two, one
thousand…"