I'll aim to bring you full, proper notes of all meetings going forward. Here are abridged, unofficial notes:
Mohegan Lake day will be on July 14th, 2013. Save the Date. Details of all activities to follow shortly. Remember what a good time we had last year. This year will be on par.
We love our beavers.
They do pose a problem. Mohegan Ave is constantly flooded and it's too
much maintenance for the town to keep up with. There's a reason people
say "busy as a beaver." These cute little critters are industrious;
they are making an amazing comeback all around the region (we should
welcome it since our fore bearers nearly extincted them).
We
are opening discussions with the town. Aiming for a bridge over
Mohegan Avenue because that's the real (and natural) solution. Wetlands
are supposed to regulate the level of the lake. It's supposed to flow back and
forth. Mohegan Ave never should have been built as it is because it
completely blocks that natural flow of the lake to the wetlands and
vice-versa. The real solution is that the Army Corp of Engineers
redesigns it. In the meantime, we'll do our best with our able bodied
Highway Department.
Lake health is not awesome, but
water quality is still fully swimmable--as of today. Many factors
contribute to water quality, but one problem is invasive plant species. The kind that live under water, like water chestnuts and curly leaf pondweed.
Our weed harvester
was bought new in 1984. I was 6 years old then, now 35 with 4 daughters.
It's a machine and is basically kaput. We have a decent budget, about
$96,000 a year, but a new harvester is about 100K. We'd have to bond
it. Going to be done as it's a necessity, not happening this year.
Wayne--our
lake manager-- and his boys are using the Jon boat and elbow grease to
do everything possible to remove as much plant matter as possible.
Remember, those plants just die and add to the nutrients that fuel the
algae blooms.
Algae is bad and we'll get it again this year. We are exploring several solutions: barley straw, Phoslock (way too expensive), and Alum (expensive, but we could swing it, but there are DEC permitting issues).
If you have an interest in Mohegan Lake, please stay tuned and get involved.
No comments:
Post a Comment