Lakesmart begins third year of pilot program in Bremen.

If you see these signs in Bremen you should know that Lakesmart is hard at work educating Bremen residents about the importance of protecting our lakes and ponds. If you have a property on or near the lake and would like to learn more about Lakesmart contact the Bremen Conservation Commission via email bcc@tidewater.net or visit http://www.maine.gov/dep/blwq/doclake/lakesmart/

Invasive Aquatic Identification Training

Wednesday, July 20 with DLWA: Invasive Aquatic Plant Identification Training at the DLWA office in Jefferson from 2:30-8:30. There will be a ½-hour break. The primary goal of this comprehensive, 5 ½ -hour workshop is to provide those who wish to join Maine's "early detection" effort with information and guidance needed to get started. The training session is open to the public and FREE to anyone interested in learning more about the threat of invasive aquatic plants in Maine. The workshop is presented in four parts:

• Overview of invasive species issues in Maine and beyond
• Plant identification fundamentals
• Plant identification hands-on exercise with live plants
• Conducting a screening survey, tools and techniques

All workshop participants receive an “Invasive Plant Patroller’s Handbook,” and Maine's Field Guide to Invasive Aquatic Plants. Register online at:
http://www.mainevolunteerlakemonitors.org/workshops/#IntroIPP. Sponsored jointly by the Damariscotta Lake Watershed Association and the Pemaquid Watershed Association. FMI: 207.549.3836 or julia@dlwa.org 

DIRECTIONS: To reach DLWA office from the south, follow route 32 to Jefferson from its junction with US 1 in Waldoboro. Go through Jefferson Village on 32, pass Bond Bros. Lumber and Baptist Church. At the next intersection, bear left onto Rte 126, go about 50 yards, then turn left at the DLWA sign. Follow drive to bottom of the hill & park. The DLWA office is to the left.

Public Preserves in the PWA

 

Lake or Pond?

Linda Bacon

Maine DEP
Technical Advisor

One of the most frequently asked questions posed of biologists in the Lake Assessment Section of Maine DEP, is "what is the difference between a lake and a pond?" About half of Maine's 6,000 lakes and ponds that have been assigned a state identification number have been named, many having two or three names. At least thirty have one name with the word lake in it and the other with the word pond. For example, Bryant Pond is also known as Lake Christopher and Dexter Pond sports the name Wassookeag Lake! It is often these dual names that make folks wonder exactly where do we draw the line in Maine?

One classic distinction is that sunlight penetrates to the bottom of all areas of a pond in contrast to lakes, which have deep waters that receive no sunlight at all. Another is that ponds generally have small surface areas and lakes have large surfaces. In Maine the latter distinction totally breaks down when one considers that one of the three Great Ponds is over 8,800 acres and one of the thirty-six Long Ponds is 2,500 acres! So a combination of surface area and depth are considered from a technical perspective. Some of Maine's large and deep bodies of water are indisputably lakes. Others are ponds - small and shallow. But there is a transition between the two where the definition becomes fuzzy. If we held to the depth distinction, some ponds would become lakes mid- summer when algal populations limit light penetration to the bottom. The surface area distinction makes no sense for seven-acre waters that are 50 feet deep (like Maine's kettle ponds), or for 400-acre waters that have emergent vegetation across their entire surface.

So to answer the question above: no definitive line exists between lakes and ponds. The one distinction that has any legal application is the designation of a body of water as a Great Pond. Maine state statues define lakes and ponds greater than ten acres in size as Great Ponds. If an impounded waterbody is greater than thirty acres in size it is also legally considered a Great Pond; impounded waters less than thirty acres that were greater than ten acres before being dammed are also Great Ponds.

Thus there is no exact technical distinction between lakes and ponds. All lakes and ponds provide critical habitat for other living creatures - aquatic macroinvertebrates, plankton, fish, wildlife and vegetation - and all need protection, so that clean fresh water continues to be one of Maine's premier natural resources.

Bremen Alewives Arrive!

It's been a little more than a week since the Muscongus Brook alewife run began. They came into the brook over a few nights when the tides were highest around May 29th.  All said this first phase of the run was only

about 2,000 fish.  100 or so remain below the fish ladder today and a handful below the north culvert.  Yet higher evening tides come around again this weekend with a full moon approaching next week.

I will keep an eagle eye out for more fish. They have run as late as July 1st in previous years here.

Attached find a picture of alewives in the fish ladder last week and a picture trying to show the spiny

scales on the belly of an alewife.

I have heard it said that these spines help hold an alewife from falling back downstream

when in fast flowing places.  Has anyone heard about this?

David Wilkins