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.