Launch Codes
Several representations of launch codes – records of incoming and outgoing boats as checked by watercraft inspection stewards through our Aquatic Invasive Species Spread Prevention Program. The woven version is a record of incoming and outgoing boats on Meacham Lake in the northern Adirondacks in 2020; Meacham is one of many lakes monitored by AWI as part of our Stewardship Program. The data woven in this piece represent the 357 vessels checked by boat launch stewards between 6 June and 30 August, each of which is shown in blue (launching boats) or light green (retrieving boats). Most boats arrive clean, but bright green stripes represent boats that were found to be carrying aquatic organisms of any kind, and orange stripes represent boats found to be carrying aquatic invasive species (in these cases Eurasian water milfoil and/or curly leaf pondweed). This record was woven with lightweight yarn and is 16 inches long. A comparable weaving of all 110,000+ boats inspected by the stewardship program in 2020 would be 411 feet long.
The knitted scarf is a snapshot record of launching (green) and retrieving (blue) watercraft on Lake Flower in Saranac Lake during the month of June 2018, and the native (bumpy green) and invasive (bumpy orange) aquatic plants removed from them by watercraft inspection stewards.
The collection of knitted launch codes is a snapshot record of launching and retrieving boats on an assortment of Adirondacks lakes on July 4th, 2018, with the same styling as the knitted scarf. The length of these pieces reflects the number of boats inspected at each of the launches on this day. Compared to the previous example, which is a temporal record from one lake in the month of June, these are a record from many lakes all on the same day in July, both 2018.
More details available here on Ravelry.