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Volume 17 Summer/Fall 2003 |
Member of North American Lake Management Society NALMS) |
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Urgent |New Aquatic
Legislation Filed | Our New Name
Executive Committee Members |Colap Central Chapter
News |LAPA-West
Scoop the Poop! |Calendar
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MACOLAP will pay for one member to attend the November 7-8 part of the NALMS Symposium at Foxwoods. Please apply ASAP to C. Hildreth 800-845-2769 or hildrethcr@comcast.net
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MACOLAP Scholarship for K-12 Students- Please nominate by December 1: To be awarded at Winter Workshop, January 24, 2004
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NALMS Lake and Watershed Steward Package Deal for Nov 7-8 Symposium- See inside: Creating and Maintaining Vegetative Buffers - A brochure from Lake Wickaboag Preservation Assc, is reproduced inside (slightly modified)
House Bill 3560
AN ACT relative to a milfoil, fanwort, and other exotic plants
prevention and research grant program and fund.
SPONSOR: Representative Mark A. Howland, 12th Bristol District,
Freetown, New Bedford, Lakeville, Middleboro, and East Taunton
Directed to Natural Resources and Agriculture Committee
ANALYSIS
This bill creates a grant program administered by the Department of Environmental
Protection (DEP) for aid to lake associations and towns, which seek to
administer a milfoil, fanwort, and other exotic plants prevention program,
and to institutions of higher learning which seek to conduct research
on milfoil, fanwort, and other exotic plants remediation techniques. Eligible
applicants are required to provide a minimum resource match of 50 percent
of the proposed program budget.
This bill also creates a special milfoil, fanwort, and other exotic plants
prevention and research grant fund to provide moneys for the program.
Funding for the grant program is provided by an increase to the boat registration
fee and collection of fees from out-of state boats utilizing waters and
waterways of the Commonwealth.
Comments
This bill establishes the Milfoil, Fanwort, and Other Exotic Plants Prevention
and Grant Program to be administered by the Department of Environmental
Protection (DEP). The current fee for each private boat registered, is
proposed to increase by $5.00. As well, a $10.00 fee will be collected
from boats using Commonwealth waters and waterways. These fees will be
deposited in the Lake Restoration and Preservation Fund established in
DEP by this Act.
It is believed that the additional funding that will be brought in by
the $5.00 increase to boat registrations, and the $10.00 collection fee
for out-of-state boat usage of our waters and waterways will assist in
preventing the spread of exotic aquatic weeds as well as implementing
a program to fund capable research projects and volunteer initiatives
to the degree that it is necessary. The increase will support the research
programs, specifically for the purposes of this bill.
Funds are for grants that will be requested from non-profit groups, towns
and other government entities, and universities. It is not possible to
determine expenditures, though grants totaling equal to or less than the
annual income will be given. Lake associations and universities may request
variable amounts of funding for specific projects, and the required match
from county or local political subdivisions cannot be determined.
House Bill 3561
AN ACT relative to a milfoil, fanwort, and other exotic plants
prevention enabling regulators with the ability to close off parts of
waterbodies, and to use net systems to capture plants fragments in those
closed areas.
SPONSOR: Rep. Mark A. Howland, 12th Bristol District, Freetown,
New Bedford, Lakeville, Middleboro, and East Taunton
Directed to Natural Resources and Agriculture Committee
ANALYSIS
This bill assists the milfoil, fanwort, and other exotic plants prevention
program, by giving regulators the ability to close off portions of water
bodies impacted by invasive weeds species only, for the purpose of research,
testing, collection of loose plant fragments by net systems in the closed
areas, experimental treatments, and eradication and control measures taken
to address the invasive weed species problem in the Commonwealth's waters
and waterways.
Support for these two bills is recommended.
Call Your legislators now! -- Help our Lakes & Ponds!
Executive Committee Members 2003
President: OPEN
Vice-President: Rick Wilkey, Eagleville Pond, Orange - 978-544-2758
- email
Treasurer: George Fifield, East Lake Waushakum, Sterling - email
Assistant Treasurer: Louise Kalil, Dorothy Pond, Millbury - 508-842-6481
Secretary: Carol Hildreth, Lake Winthrop, Holliston - 508-429-5055
- email
At-Large Members:
Tom Burke, Congamond Lakes, West Suffield, CT - email
Joan Crowell, Leesville Pond, Worcester - 508-754-1074 email
Bill Foster, Otis Reservoir, Enfield, CT - 860-745-6495 - email
Gradon Morse, Lake Singletary, Sutton - 508-366-8113 email
Paul von Loesecke, Bare Hill Pond, Harvard - 976-456-8374 - email
Back to Top
President Dan Dick succeeded in acquiring a grant from the Worcester Community Foundation to create a website for the Central Chapter. It is up and running as: www.colapcentral.org
Please check it out. It has links to many web resources important to lakes and ponds.
The person in charge of the water quality monitoring equipment has had
to resign. Please check with Dan Dick about borrowing the Chapter's equipment.
COLAP is now called MACOLAP.
MACOLAP has hired aprofessional web master to develop a completely new website, which is still in the process of development. Please give us some feedback.
LAPA - West (MACOLAP'S Western Chapter) News
For the past year and a half, LAPA - West has enjoyed the services of Gene Chague, LAPA's Lake Steward who has been traveling to the lakes and ponds of western Massachusetts demonstrating the use of LAPA's water sampling equipment and assisting volunteers with water sampling, funded through a state Department of Environmental Management (DEM) grant.
Gene has thus far logged over 4300 miles visiting Ashmere Lake, Benton Pond, Big Pond, Center Pond, Congamond Lakes, Cranberry Pond, Damon Pond, Hayes Pond, Laurel Lake, Lake Buel, Lake Garfield, Onota Lake, Pontoosuc Lake, Prospect Lake, Richmond Pond, Stockbridge Bowl, Three Mile Pond and Yokum Pond, many of these site visits occurring more than once.
Gene has been an integral part of the Massachusetts Water Watch Partnership's (MWWP) Acid Rain Monitoring (ARM) program for over 20 years. After training on the use and calibration of LAPA's equipment, Gene has proffered his services to train local volunteers to conduct their own water quality sampling programs.
In addition to the equipment LAPA possesses to measure water temperature, dissolved oxygen, conductivity and pH, LAPA has acquired equipment to measure or sample for total suspended solids, turbidity and chlorophyll in addition to a water flow meter, a GPS (global positioning system) unit and a laser rangefinder.
To expand his expertise, Gene has attended Massachusetts Riverways Program, MWWP and LAPA workshops on conducting watershed surveys, preparing Quality Assurance Project Plans (QAPP's), developing lake monitoring program designs and identifying aquatic macrophytes (lake weeds) to further assist various member association projects in addition to participating at LAPA's annual symposium upcoming again this September.
An instant success, our member associations have expressed great appreciation for Gene's assistance which we are now able to continue through a recent grant from the Highlands Community Initiative.
LAPA-West's Annual Meeting
Lee High School
October 18
See www.lapa-west.org for details.
Dog droppings are one of the leading causes of E.Coli pollution; each gram of dog poop has over 20,000,000 E.Coli colonies in it.
You may not think one little pile of poop could be a problem, but multiply that by the several thousand dogs registered in the lake area and think about it washing into a stream or directly into the Lake next time it rains.
The runoff from neglected pet waste contaminates lake and pond water, creating a public health hazard for anyone who uses these water bodies.
It is therefore very important that dogs not be walked on beaches.
September 19-20 - New England Invasive Plant Summit, Framingham,
Mass.,
Contact C. Boetner: 413-863-0209, ext. 6
September 20 - COLAP Central Annual Meeting, Lake Quinsigamond,
Worcester,
see website
October 18 - LAPA-West Annual Meeting, Lee High School, see website
October 17-18 - New England Regional Conference to Protect Drinking Water Sources, Worcester, rsvp Clean Water Fund, 617-338-8131 or mdavis@cleanwater.org
November 3-5 - Stormwater Management in Cold Climates International
Conference, Portland, ME, see website
November 4-8 - NALMS 2003: Protection Our Lakes' Legacy Symposium,
hosted by NEC-NALMS, the New England Chapter, Foxwoods, CT, see website
November 7-8 - NALMS 2003 Symposium Lake and Watershed Steward Package for New England folks, Foxwoods, see website for details
November 12-13 - Assoc. State Dam Safety Officials Regional Technical Seminars, Bedford, NH, see website or call 859-257-5140
Early December - Mass Water Watch Partnership Workshops, Amherst, see website for specifics
January 24 - MA COLAP 17th Annual Lake and Pond Restoration Workshop,
Becker College, Leicester, see website
for details
FIND OUT WHAT'S HAPPENING ON OTHER NEW ENGLAND LAKES & PONDS - JOIN THE NEW ENGLAND CHAPTER OF NALMS (NECNALMS) FOR $10 CHECK OUT THEIR WEBSITE AT FOR OTHER BENEFITS OF MEMBERSHIP
