With their strong Warren County affiliation,
Warren County Soil & Water became a partner
in the master plan initiative. As momentum
was created it was decided that Steve LaMere
would be responsible for the aquatic portion of
the plan and Dave Wick (then of Warren
County Soil & Water) would be responsible for
the terrestrial portion.
During the past 10 years we have passed
through periods of friction, introspection,
challenges and accomplishments. The
Schroon Lake Watershed Plan was completed
and many of the objectives have been
implemented. The SLA and ESSLA have
partnered to keep the fight against invasives as
a top priority. The Schroon Lake Steering
Committee has become a unifying force with
local governments, the lake associations as well
as with our partners from the Soil & Water
Departments from Essex and Warren Counties.
The Schroon Lake Scout program has divided
Schroon Lake into sections where individuals
have responsibility for searching for invasives in
their respective areas. The Schroon Lake
Association has continued its water quality
studies with Lake Manager Steve LaMere as
well as with CSLAP (the Department of
Environmental Conservation’s Citizens
Statewide Lake Assessment Program) in the
northern and southern basins, while ESSLA is
now reporting its results to ALAP (Paul Smith’s
Adirondack Lake Assessment Program). In
order to be proactive The Schroon Lake
Association has privately contracted with Bob
Bombard and Nick Rowell from Warren
County Soil & Water, (during their off duty
personal time) to perform recon on Schroon
Lake for invasives in areas that may be suspect
or troublesome. In order to understand the fish
population in Schroon Lake, Lake Manager
LaMere will also be reporting on both
phytoplankton and zooplankton in 2016. In
addition, the 2 primary boat launches on
Schroon Lake have lake steward coverage 7
days a week during the summer and the boat
decontamination station at the Horicon boat
launch which was purchased with grant
money and the funding for its operation comes
from the Towns of Chester, Horicon and
Schroon also operates 7 days a week during the
summer.
Schroon Lake is a gem and we are fortunate to
have a mobilized base of local residents
resolved to protect the Schroon Lake
Watershed. While the milfoil situation appears
to be in a maintenance mode, we must be all
that more diligent to keep out those invasives
that are far more dangerous to our Lake. We
look to you, those who read this article, to join
us in our mission.