Watershed Stewardship Program: Summary of Programs and Research, 2009
Adirondack Watershed Institute
Eric Holmlund, Ryan Dockstader, Alexander Smith, Evan Rea, Sarah Ryan, Althea Marks, Jessie Gardner, James Parmeter, & Celia Evans
The Watershed Stewardship Program has served the northern Adirondack area for ten consecutive summers in an effort to raise public awareness about the threat of invasive species with regard to the quality and ecological integrity of Adirondack waterways. The Watershed Stewardship Program (WSP) is administratively and programmatically housed within Paul Smith's College's Adirondack Watershed Institute, which offers a host of research, invasive species mitigation and water quality monitoring services which complement the WSP's aquatic invasive species (AIS) public education and boat inspection program.
The Watershed Stewardship Program is a cooperative, community-based effort to conserve natural resources, including water quality, wildlife and soil, through targeted educational efforts at specific locations near Paul Smith's College in New York State’s Adirondack Park. The program entails collaboration by members of the Paul Smith's College faculty, New York State land management agencies, including the Department of Environmental Conservation and Adirondack Park Agency, non-governmental environmental organizations including the Nature Conservancy, the Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program, the Lake Champlain Basin Program, the Adirondack Cooperative Loon Program, the Great Sacandaga Lake Advisory Council and shore owner organizations from the St. Regis Lakes, Rainbow Lake, Lake Placid, Osgood Pond and Great Sacandaga Lake.
The WSP’s wide ranging programs include point-specific environmental interpretation, watercraft inspection, educational outreach, field-based invasive species monitoring and various data- collecting projects aimed at better understanding human pressures on waterways and the mitigation of associated environmental impacts. The program hires college students with expertise in the natural resources to act as educators, researchers and field technicians. This report is an annual effort to consolidate and report on all aspects of program activities for the summer field season.
Summer 2009 Highlights
In 2009, the WSP offered boat launch steward programs at Blue Mountain Lake, Great Sacandaga Lake, Lake Placid, Osgood Pond, Rainbow Lake, Second Pond, Tupper Lake and Upper St. Regis Lake. Along with returning stewardship at Upper St. Regis Lake, Lake Placid, Osgood Pond, Second Pond and Rainbow Lake boat launches, this year saw expansion of boat launch inspection/education to Blue Mountain Lake and Great Sacandaga Lake. This year featured the continuation of efforts to monitor and control the exotic invasive plant purple loosestrife, monitor nesting loon pairs on the St. Regis Lakes, assess invasive plant presence on Lake Placid, publicize WSP program efforts with two summer newsletters and to provide public outreach programming around the St. Regis Lakes. Stewards also conducted a milfoil desiccation pilot study, a study of snowshoe hare summer ranges and monitored water quality on the St. Regis Lakes. The WSP’s Volunteer Lake Steward Program was at work on Rainbow Lake and Osgood Pond, with volunteers inspecting boats and educating the public.
The primary thrust of this year’s program was once again to educate people launching watercraft about the threat of introduced invasive species, primarily Eurasian watermilfoil (Myriophyllum spicatum), and how to minimize exposure of lakes to the threat of aquatic invasive species of all sorts. Stewards also gathered detailed information about the character of boat launch use, including such information as total boats launched, type of watercraft, and demographic information. Watershed Stewards also asked boaters if they routinely take preventative measures, such as removing vegetation, washing boat and trailer, immediately emptying bilges, etc., to avoid the risk of spreading invasive species. Stewards were ordinarily stationed at the boat launches, but had other duties, such as paddling kayaks to observe loons, monitoring and controlling purple loosestrife on waterways, and conducting public outreach in addition to maintaining databases and meeting weekly to share information.
