Mark your calendars for the ALIC annual meeting, which will take place at the Yacht Club in Wayne on Saturday, Aug. 4, from 8:30-11 a.m. Come meet your watershed neighbors, renew your lake association membership, and learn more about ALIC’s efforts to increase loon productivity and to strengthen our defense against the threat of invasive aquatic plants. The ALIC Board looks forward to seeing you!
With the threat of invasive aquatic plants increasing in our area, the need to know what belongs and what doesn’t is greater than ever. You’re invited to come get your fingers wet at a “Plant Paddle” to be held at the Androscoggin Yacht Club in Wayne on Thursday, June 28, from 8:30-11a.m. The rain date is Monday, July 9 at the same time. The free program is a collaborative effort of the Androscoggin Lake Improvement Corporation (ALIC), the 30 Mile River Watershed Association (30MRWA), and the Yacht Club (AYC) and is open to +/- 20 participants from the Wayne area. Pre-registration would be appreciated by e-mailing info@androscogginlake.org The workshop will consist of two parts: a land-based introduction to aquatic plants, both native and invasive, and an on-the-water paddle to examine what’s growing in the lake. Please bring your own canoe, kayak, or low-hp boat or team up with a neighbor. Leadership will be provided by VLMP-certified invasive plant patrollers Debbie Hite and Lidie Robbins, who are also the executive directors of ALIC and 30MRWA, respectively. Come get informed and have fun doing it!
Filed under: General Info — Jim Breazeale @ 5:10 pm
All Androscoggin Lake users share a common interest in maintaining lake water quality as pure as we can reasonably achieve. The ALIC board recently adopted a written Water Quality Program to document ALIC’s water quality activities in order to bring continuity to the program and to communicate these activities to our membership. The opening paragraph of the Water Quality Program reads:
“ The first listed purpose of ALIC, according to our bylaws, is to “Maintain and improve the quality of the water.” This written Water Quality Program is intended to document the scope of ALIC’s activities on Androscoggin Lake in order to ensure that we are satisfying this responsibility. It itemizes the criteria to be monitored and how these are to be logged and reported. The program will identify the threshold problematic levels of the most likely anticipated contaminants/invasions and an action plan to deal with such events. Finally, it will address the responsibility to improve water quality over time.”
To read the entire Water Quality Program, please go to:
Everyone who resides or recreates in the Androscoggin watershed has an impact on water quality. We will be able to not only maintain, but improve, water quality if property owners take steps to control erosion and eliminate septic runoff and if boaters are careful to inspect boats and trailers for invasive aquatic plants before launching.
We hope that ALIC members will become familiar with the program and identify areas of the sampling, plant patrolling, boat inspection and summer seminar activities for which you may volunteer whatever time you have available to help.
1/9/12 from Alison: Our rink has been swept and is ready for pond hockey. The relatives and friends have arrived and the games have begun. To the outsider, it looks like crazy adults acting like teenagers. We’ve been trying to keep up with the younger generation and show them a thing or two! Really, though, anyone over 30 is going to crawl off the ice today while the younger “weeble wabbles” get right back up without a single moan or groan. At the end of the day, we’ll call it a draw and look forward to the next weekend rematch. Healing and Advil are on the menu for this afternoon!
Sat., 1/8/12 Report from Alison: The Inner Cove is a flurry of activity as 30 Boy Scouts and their families enjoy a day of fishing. The ice is 4-5 inches thick and there must be 75 people out there enjoying the day. It looks like a village!
The ALIC Board met in October at Wayne Community Church bringing together new and outgoing directors before their winter hiatus. Pictured here front to back, left to right are: Alison Lincoln-Rich, Joan Sandidge, Jean Gardner, Peter Ault, and Jim Breazeale. Alison and Peter are moving to an advisory capacity. New board members beginning the back row are Chris Cushman, George Bardaglio, and Tom Barden; next are Buddy (John) Cummings, Lincoln Hayes, and Martha Hoddinott. Ex-officio member and our liaison with the Yacht Club is Chris McKee was not present. Executive Director Debbie Hite took the photo.
Nov. 20, 2011: Ian Barclay & Cindy MacDonald 3.5 Hours; removed debris, logs, lumber etc. both racks @ 85% flow, lake has been dropping since and will continue returning to maintain outflow throughout Nov/Dec/Jan
PLEASE take in any floats, docks, piers, etc. still in the water to avoid future impediments at the dam and to reduce risk to snowmobilers this winter.
A recent inquiry from the Monmouth end of the lake regarding apparent inactivity of the eagles prompted me to check in with Anne H., our wildlife observer, who offers the following report. Keep your eyes to the skies and share your observations on our website.
“I saw them quite often early March and April before the trees leafed out. The old favorite perch tree blew down and I haven’t been able to find the current favorite perch. They didn’t use Norris Island much at all. They were working on the nest and as far as I could tell from my much abbreviated monitoring (checks every couple of days rather than multiple daily checks), they were incubating. I don’t think it’s the same pair because the perch patterns were so different but of course that is total guesswork on my part. Then the trees leafed out and I couldn’t see them any more. We went out in the boat a couple of days ago and didn’t get real close to the island, I saw nothing. We did see what appeared to be 6 loons all in a group which is pretty weird this time of year I think. “
ALIC is one of the sponsors of two workshops in July for folks who might consider helping with Invasive Plant Patrol. An introductory class will be held on Tuesday, July 12, from 2:30-8 pm at the Mt. Vernon Community Center. A field workshop (on the water) will take place on Saturday, July 16, from 8:30-12:30 at Taylor Pond in Mt. Vernon (next to the Chimney across from Echo Lake). The workshops are free, but pre-registration is required with VLMP (www.mainevlmp.org), who will also provide a list of items to bring. Check our newsletter here on our website for more information.
Our second season of summer seminars will focus on Preserving Shoreline and Reducing Runoff. The next seminar is Saturday morning, July 9, beginning at 9 a.m. at the Ladd Center in Wayne. The Kennebec County Soil and Water Conservation District will give a brief keynote presentation on best management practices, offer insight into the permitting process and be on hand for Q & A. We’ll have an ongoing video showing “before and after” erosion scenarios, samples of plants for buffer zones, and LOTS of information you can put to use on your own property.
ALIC t-shirts, lake maps, and refreshments will also be available, so stop by and say hello.
