LAKE HEADLINES - November 19, 2020

LAA Fall Newsletter is available, view here!

Message from LAA President Lynn Dennison

Dear Members and Friends,

I hope you are all well and managing in these challenging times. We are in Piermont as I write where there have been snow flurries throughout the day. The fall seems to have been brief this year, but very pretty. Now the peaceful winter season begins.

I know we all missed our usual get-togethers and I hope you all enjoyed time at the lake this beautiful summer. It turned that our quite lake was relatively busy! We loved watching our loon family and did you notice how busy the beavers were? With the recent rains, the water levels are returning to normal.

A beaver swims along the shoreline one evening (Lynn Dennison)

The Board communicated by Zoom and emails to conduct our usual business, passing a budget, supporting our programs and electing the new board.

2021 LAA Board of Directors

Lynn Dennison, President

Shirley Nicol, Vice President

Polly Tafrate, Past President

Kate Merritt, Treasurer

Sam Rounds, Recording Secretary

Arline Cochrane, Corresponding Secretary

Lynn DeMerchant

Carolyn Dorfman

James Jensen

Bill Musty

Ken Settel

Alice Wellington

Lake Host Program - Lynn DeMerchant

The Lake Host program had another successful year projecting our beautiful Lake Armington. We conducted a record number of 530 inspections, almost half of which were recorded during the month of July. Gratefully no invasive species were found during inspections. Many boats reported their previous water body was one known for harboring one or more invasive species. Please remember to always, "Clean, Drain and Dry" your boat!"

Weed Watchers Program - Linda Kline

Our terrific group of weed watchers kept their eyes open for invasive aquatic plants, and we are happy to report no positive findings again this year. A few of us had quite an adventure tracking what might have been invasive Chinese Mystery Snails, but that's a story for another day! Fortunately what was spotted were native fresh water snails. Thanks to Linda Kline for her capable leadership!

Water Quality Program - Mike Poole

 As many of us are aware, this was a quite different spring and summer around the lake. Water testing was also different, but we did manage to get it done per DES guidelines. The DES Lab in Concord was closed to the public, but we were able to to meet them twice in Plymouth. The numbers all seemed to be normal. We hired a private lab in West Lebanon for our E-Coli tests, which all came back good.

NHDES released a new report at the end of August, the NH Lake Trend Report, which comes out every 5 years. Read the NH Lake Trend Report at https://www.des.nh.gov/media/pr/2020/20200831-lake-trend.htm (Lake Armington is a mesotrophic lake in the Dartmouth Lake Sunapee region). See Mike's full update in the Fall Newsletter.

Loon and chicks this summer (Lynn Dennison)

Water Quality and the PFAS Study

In late October, Linda Kline and Ken Settel noticed state research boats gathering fish samples from both our lake and Lake Tarleton. After investigating, Linda learned that DES is conducting a study to generate state standards for PFAS surface water quality. Our lakes are being used to establish a reference point because we are considered an exceptionally clean lakes. PFAS are a group of 4 chemicals used since the 1940s, are widespread in the environment and are a potential health concern.  See the Fall Newsletter and https://www.des.nh.gov/organization/divisions/water/wmb/wqs/documents/r-wd-19-30.pdf

US Forest Service Lake Tarleton Project

Bob Dennison tells us the next milestone for this project will be the public notice in May 2021, with a decision in January 2022. See the Fall Newsletter with further info, and follow this project at https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=56394

View from Piermont Mtn of lakes Tarleton and Armington (Lynn Dennison)

New Lake Armington Hats - in time for the Holidays!

These are very nicely made hats, and we have kept the price at $20.00. Make great gifts for lake lovers. Contact Lynn DeMerchant for more info and to place an order.

Contributions

We thank LAA members and friends for keeping our programs going with your dues and donations. 90% of our annual budget supports the Lake Host program. Your participation is key to our continued success. Please send your contributions to Lake Armington Association at PO Box 143 Piermont, NH 03779 or online at our LAA website's Donations page.

Wishing you all a safe holiday season and a happy and healthy 2021.