BDTPA IS REACHING OUT TO YOU!
See updated information on Plant ID workshops this summer.
Planning for 2024 Invasive Plant Surveys has begun. Please read an important message from Bob Capers, who is a local resident and a retired botanist with extensive knowledge of invasive plants. We need volunteers for the upcoming season.
Contact Bob at rscapers@mindspring.com
Contact BDTPA Water Quality Officer Deb Cayer at debbiecayer@gmail.com 207-320-0379
See information on Invasive Plant Patrol (IPP) and training from Lake Stewards of Maine (VLMP).
LAKESMART
LakeSmart is an education and outreach program that rewards lakefront homeowners who manage their land to protect water quality. The program is free, non-regulatory, and voluntary. Participating homeowners receive individualized suggestions for keeping pollutants from stormwater out of lake waters.
BDTPA has a trained LakeSmart team for David and Parker Ponds. BDTPA Water Quality Officer Deb Cayer is the coordinator of the team.
Learn more about LakeSmart.
Sign up for a Lake Smart evaluation.
30 MILE RIVER WATERSHED ASSOCIATION HAS COLLECTED DATA FOR BASIN, DAVID, AND TILTON PONDS
The 30 Mile River Watershed Association has water quality webpages for all three of the association ponds on the 30 Mile website. On each "lake page" you can find links to the most recent annual water quality reports (also attached), historical data, depth maps, and more.
Most importantly, these webpages are updated after every monitoring trip so that lake residents can view near-live data as it is collected throughout the current monitoring season.
Basin and David Ponds have been monitored annually since 2016 by 30 Mile staff (bi-weekly, May through October). Tilton Pond is typically monitored annually as well (1x per season), but 30 Mile did not monitor in 2020 or 2021 due to staffing issues during/after covid. However, this year 30MRWA was successful in securing new funding to support more monitoring on Tilton Pond (monthly, July through Sept) and we hope to continue next season if funding allows. Thank you to Whitney Baker, 30MRWA Program Director. If you have questions, contact Whitney at whitney@30mileriver.org
Here are the links to 30 MRWA data:
TILTON POND BLADDERWORT UPDATE
Invasive plant found on Tilton Pond - See News Page
NEW LEGISLATION
New Law in 2023: An Act to Minimize the Propagation of Invasive Aquatic Plants
BDTPA WATER QUALITY REPORTS
UPDATE ON PAST RESEARCH ON BASIN POND
This is an update from research done over the past decade, unrelated to the latest concerns over water clarity at Basin Pond (see newsletter).
As early as 2005, Daniel Frost (Geology), then a senior at Bates College, studied Paleoclimate Reconstruction Using Physical Sedimentology and Organic Matter Biogeochemistry of Varved Sediments, Basin Pond, Fayette, ME. Frosts’s co-advisor was Mike Retelle. In 2013, Professor Retelle and a team of researchers studied the sediments in Basin Pond and other similar ponds in the area. Bates is located just south of “the lakes region” in south-central Maine. Researchers have undertaken numerous projects in courses and in thesis research on many lakes ranging from coastal “isolation basin” lakes that were formerly depressed below sea level to density stratified lakes that contain laminated sediments that archive high resolution sediment records. One of the study sites in central Maine is Basin Pond, a 30 meter deep “meromictic” lake*. The water column in this lake is permanently stratified and has a detailed sediment record of environmental change with annual resolution preserved in the finely layered deposits, similar to tree rings.
* A meromictic lake has layers of water that do not intermix. In ordinary, "holomictic" lakes, at least once each year, there is a physical mixing of the surface and the deep waters. The term "meromictic" was coined by the Austrian Ingo Findenegg in 1935, apparently based on the older word "holomictic".
NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS
Learn more about the Annual Loon Count
Workshops available for invasive plant patrol and can be found on the website. Maine Lakes now administers the LakeSmart program.
From the mission statement:
The Kennebec Land Trust (KLT) works cooperatively with landowners and communities to conserve the forests, shorelands, fields, and wildlife that define central Maine. KLT protects land permanently, offers opportunities for people to learn about and enjoy the natural world, and works with partners to support sustainable forestry and farming.
30 Mile River Watershed Association
Mission: “To preserve, improve, and protect the land and water quality in the 30 Mile River watershed.”
“Headway speed” means the minimum speed necessary to maintain steerage and control of the watercraft while the watercraft is moving. It is unlawful to exceed headway speed within 200 feet of shore, or beyond the buoys marked “headway speed”. The operator must consider the effect of the wash or wave created by their watercraft to waterfront piers, floats or other property or shorelines. The map on the right was drawn by the Maine Game Warden.
FIREWORKS ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
There are growing concerns about the use of fireworks around lakes. As fun and enjoyable as fireworks can be, they may be causing more damage than you know.
NO-WAKE MAP FOR BASIN DAVID & TILTON PONDS