SCHROON LAKE
THE EVOLUTION OF
SUCCESS
ROGER FRIEDMAN
Talk about a horror story, a short time ago
there was an article in the local press about
an Adirondack lake where the milfoil hand
harvesters had been removing about 1 and 2
tons of Eurasian Watermilfoil per week
adding up to about 15 tons over the course of
the dive season that had just ended. The
article also stated that a portion of the lake
still had not been touched.
When milfoil was discovered in Schroon Lake in
1996, I was the young guy on the Schroon Lake
Association Board of Directors and in my first
term as Schroon Town Councilman. The
following 20+ years have been an interesting
and challenging journey that has culminated in
a very successful hands-on Schroon Lake
watershed management plan and an
organized lake-wide coalition to prevent the
spread of invasive species that is truly a model
for success.
When milfoil was discovered in Schroon Lake
the Town of Schroon and SLA partnered to
combat the spread of milfoil and other invasive
species. Both the Towns of Chester and
Horicon agreed to pay their share in this effort.
Steve LaMere, the first certified Lake Manager
in New York State, who had been hired to
perform lake water testing was also our first
line of attack against milfoil. He did a
combination of hand harvesting and where
necessary put down benthic barriers. It was
surmised that milfoil had been in Schroon Lake
for quite a few years before having been
discovered.
For quite a few years the 3 Towns on the lake,
Chester, Horicon and Schroon along with the
SLA partnered to harvest milfoil. Probably
around 14-15 years ago it was decided that the
Towns on Schroon Lake would be responsible
for harvesting milfoil and the SLA would be
responsible for the continuation of water
quality testing.
In 2006 the Schroon Lake Association along
with the support of the 3 Towns on Schroon
Lake decided to go ahead with the creation of
the Schroon Lake Watershed Plan at first called
LaMP – Lake Master Plan. At about this time the
East Shore Schroon Lake Association had
reorganized itself into a strong lake association
and joined the master plan effort.