Puddle Jumpers #2- Friends of Moody Pond

Puddle Jumpers is a podcast produced by the Paul Smith’s College Adirondack Watershed Institute. Hosted by Stephanie Rock and Tom Collins. Edited by Stephanie Rock with assistance from Tom Collins and Kayla Beck.

Music: In the Forest by Lesfm from https://pixabay.com/

Transcript

STEPHANIE: Welcome to Puddle Jumpers, a podcast where we jump in the big puddles of the Adirondack lakes and ponds to learn more about science, stewardship, and community. My name is Stephanie, and I’m the Watershed Science Communication Fellow for the Paul Smith’s College Adirondack Watershed Institute with funding from the Lake Champlain Sea Grant.

TOM: I’m Tom, the Education and Outreach Manager for the AWI. For the 4th Annual Adirondack Water Week, we are creating a mini-series dedicated to highlighting communities in the Lake Champlain Basin that have done some major work in water conservation and protection.

STEPHANIE: This episode, we’re hopping over to the town of Saranac Lake in the Saranac Watershed, where we met with Jay Federman who is representing The Friends of Moody Pond.

JAY: I've lived in Saranac Lake for 48 years, and we've lived on the pond for 47. So maybe the longest living resident around the pond, my wife and I, not sure about that, but good chance. I generally swim across and back, and a number of years ago I did notice a lot of weeds, but I didn't think much of it. And then in 2019, friends who live across the pond noticed some Milfoil near their dock across the pond late summer/early fall. Then other people noticed some milfoil, so we decided that we should look into it and do something about it. We decided that it would be to everyone's advantage if we formed an organization to deal with the milfoil up until that time there was no organization at all. In thinking about it, we quickly realized that the pond is truly a community asset, and it's not like a lot of lakes that are just a bunch of shore owners and where the public has no access or limited access. So we're fairly unique in that regard, and because of that, we decided it would not be a shore owners association, but a community organization. So we formed Friends of Moody Pond.

STEPHANIE: Following in the footsteps of another local organization, Friends of Moody Pond decided to operate under the Saranac Lake Rotary Club officially being recognized in early 2020.

JAY: We decided that the milfoil was our number one priority. So we started looking into how to deal with it. And realized that we had a number of options in terms of how to deal with it. We decided to go with hand harvesting. We got our permit from the APA in November of 2020. We geared up to have harvesting start in the summer of 2021, and of course that was when COVID hit. So that kind of complicated things. In particular, our fundraising efforts. Because we planned a big ice cream social for that summer and felt that we weren't sure we would be able to do that and even if we could, we would be constrained, but we went ahead anyhow. The first two years we had two weeks of harvesting; 1 early, usually late June, early July and the second was early in September. This year, 2023, we're going to do three weeks of harvesting. The dive crew felt that we had the potential to eliminate the milfoil entirely if we could really be aggressive. Whether that's true or not remains to be seen.

STEPHANIE: Jay shared his doubts on the eradication of the milfoil and recognized that true eradication will require lots of maintenance. Eurasian Watermilfoil is a highly invasive plant that creates thick mats at the surface of the water. It’s native to Europe and was introduced to North America in the 1940s. Since then, it has spread to the lower 48 and a few Canadian provinces. While it can reproduce by seeds, it often spreads through fragmentation. One fragment of a stem or leaves can create a new colony.

JAY: I mean, one plant is enough to totally reseed the entire pond.

STEPHANIE: Could you maybe tell us what that process was like, getting the permitting from the APA?

JAY: Yeah, the the processing was, it was pretty easy in that if you're doing hand harvesting exclusively, you don't have to deal with the DEC. So you know, it's easier to deal with one agency rather than two. You know, intentions were very clear, and it was certainly something in everyone's interest. So there were no issues really. We just had to comply with the APA regulation. I think the only issue the APA brought to our attention was if we were going to access the pond, we would have to do it where we had permission, obviously. There is one public access near the Baker trailhead, so that’s where the public goes in. But there were many shore owners who said the divers could use their waterfront to access the pond if they wanted to. So we got the APA permit, and we’re good to go.

STEPHANIE: You mentioned that there are other community members who were willing to let the divers use their shore front, so everyone was really on board with this. There wasn't much pushback from anybody?

JAY: There was no pushback at all. The only pushback would have been if we wanted to use chemicals. Some people didn’t really want to have anything to do with it. I think basically they didn’t want to feel that they were on the hook to contribute, I mean membership. So, to be a member, the only requirement is that you pay $50 dues. You don’t have to live around the pond. I don’t even think you have to live in Saranac Lake. In fact, I was walking around the pond after the first year (signs around the pond that say Foil the Milfoil) and some guy was also walking around the pond. I came down from Baker and he started asking me about the milfoil. I asked where he was from, and he was from Syracuse. He thought it was a great cause and he contributed $100 just because he thought it was a good cause and he liked being here. But you know, a handful of people who live around the pond didn’t become members. One of the officers had a conversation with somebody who questioned the need to do anything. They said, “Well, you know, the milfoil is an invasive, but so what, now it's established here. Just let it do its thing.” Well, if we let it do its thing, the pond would become unusable within a few years, so we didn’t think that was an option. So, the local support has been tremendous, and the community support has been tremendous, and that's part of the reason why we've been so successful.

TOM: I imagine that there is probably some more individual donations or some additional fundraising that you need to do to make this happen. Can you talk a little bit about what that looked like and how you really got the message out?

JAY: Yeah, initially it was more the local community, both shore owners, people who live near the pond, and a lot of people who walk around the pond, which is many from Saranac Lake. I mean, there are people that come from all over town because it's so pleasant and it's flat. So, it really is a community asset. So when we, you know, got the signs and started letting people know that we were doing this, we got a lot of support right away. So the big event the first year was we had a Moody Pond challenge through a app called give butter- I don’t know where that name comes from-but particularly because COVID hit, we didn’t want to have people feel anxious about doing something that might expose them to COVID. So, we said come up with your own challenge. Get your own supporters. You know, if it’s walking around the pond by yourself, biking, whatever. I mean it was just whatever you could concoct and get friends or anybody who may have an interest in the pond to try to commit to doing something for a contribution. So, we raised quite a bit of money through the Moody Pond challenge and the ice cream social the first year, where we got generous donations from Donnelly’s, from Stewarts, and from Mountain Mist for ice cream. The folks from the Friends of Moody Pond served ice cream. We had a number of local bands play and a local magician who lives around the pond who’s a great magician, so that was entertainment for the kids. It's not cheap to have a dive team for a week. It's about $7000 a week. So, you know, two weeks it's $14,000, but I think we raised about $25,000 the first year. Also, we sent out an appeal, and we hit up a number of businesses, and you know, I don't think anybody turned us down really so it was tremendous support. Then once word got out, it was, in a sense, easier the second year.

TOM: So, is it a combination of everybody involved with friends of Moody Pond or who's monitoring the pond regularly or is it really just getting those reports from the divers and knowing kind of what's happening out there or is a little bit of folks who are swimming and paddling as well as the diving team?

JAY: Well, the dive team gives us a detailed written report at the end of the season with how much they’ve collected, the bag count, the number of plants, and also a map. They have a map that shows all the points where milfoil was collected. We were able early to get in with Brian Greene and APIPP through The Nature Conservancy.

STEPHANIE: APIPP stands for the Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program, and it is one of eight Partnerships for Regional Invasive Species Management across New York State.

JAY: They have a very extensive program for invasive species. And through APIPP and Brian, we do sampling of the pond with direct visualization and rake tosses, plus any milfoil that someone would notice if they’re fishing or swimming, paddling, whatever. They compare what we get with the observation and the rake toss with what the divers come up with and mark the spots. Through his program, there are I think, 42 coordinates throughout the pond and then about five groups of people have gone out and you, with your, you know, phone or GPS device, go to the coordinates hopefully drop an anchor or if there's no wind, you just don't need it and you do your sampling. So that is mapped and compared to what the divers get. So we’re doing that. That’s probably the most objective means of seeing how the milfoil’s doing. But we’re also concerned about the health of the pond long term. So we have started a water sampling endeavor as well.

STEPHANIE: So, it sounds like you're doing a lot of work on the pond, not just for invasive species removal. It kind of goes into one of our other questions. What sustainability goals do you and Friends of Moody Pond have for the future of Moody Pond and for Saranac Lake?

JAY: Well, we want to see Moody Pond remain healthy and in fact get healthier in terms of the water quality, so it can be a pleasure for recreation in terms of swimming, fishing, boating. We don't get too many people coming just to swim in the pond because there's so many other options in the area, so it's people who swim in the pond are mostly those that live around here but we certainly we want to maintain it so that those activities are enjoyable and safe. And also so that the wildlife can be healthy. There are lots of turtles and you know we have loons. We don’t have resident loons. We tried to get them to nest here but it’s probably not big enough. But they fly in and fly out. You know, great blue herons, lots of ducks, occasional geese. So we want it to be healthy and healthier going forward.

STEPHANIE: That’s wonderful to hear. Kind of going back and looking at the process of really everything that happened, from starting friends of Moody Pond to where you are now, what can other communities take away from this and maybe start their own community organization?

JAY: Ideally, they should get on it as early as they can and not ignore the issue if they have invasives. Get the word out, organize, and try to raise the money that is necessary. We're lucky in that there's a lot of community support. But you know the key is to get on it early, get organized and start raising money. Make a decision and hit it.

TOM: So Jay, we're asking everybody that we interview, what does clean water mean to you, personally?

JAY: Well, ideally it would mean water that I could drink. You know water that's healthy to recreate in, to swim, to boat, to fish, that has a robust population of plants and animals that interact with that body of water in a way that is consistent with their needs and health.

TOM: If you would like to support Friends of Moody Pond in their efforts to foil the milfoil, consider joining in on this year's Ice cream Social fundraiser held on Saturday August 12th from 4:00 pm - 7:00 pm. Join in for music, activities, meet the divers, and learn more about how you can protect the pond.

STEPHANIE:Thank you again Jay so much for taking the time to sit with us and answer our questions and being part of the Puddle Jumpers podcast.

JAY: Thank you very much, I appreciate the opportunity.

STEPHANIE: It’s amazing how much impact a small community can have when they work together. And that’s why we wanted to highlight the friends of Moody Pond and their work for the Puddle Jumpers podcast. They set a great example for other small communities that may be in a similar situation and wondering what next steps they should take.

We hope you’ll join us next week when we jump over to another puddle over in the Bouquet Watershed. We’ll be talking with Shaun Gilliland, Town Supervisor for Willsboro, NY.

Thank you for listening, and the next time you find yourself jumping from one of these big puddles in the Adirondacks to another, remember to do your part to protect our water by making sure your watercraft is clean, drained, and dry!  

Puddle Jumpers is a podcast produced by the Paul Smith’s College Adirondack Watershed Institute. Hosted by Stephanie Rock and Tom Collins. Edited by Stephanie Rock with assistance from Tom Collins and Kayla Beck.