Pawtuckaway Lake Association

The following is an interview of Celeste Schmitt, former Lake Host Program Coordinator for the Pawtuckaway Lake Association about a small group's determination to keep exotic weed infestations from killing our lake. Ater many years of service Celeste is retiring from this position.

The PLIA is currently seeking a replacement for Lake Host Program Coordinator. This would be a great position for a retiree, a parent with a teenager looking for a paid summer job on the lake, or anyone who would like to get involved with protecting our lake. For more information, please contact Donna Dannis, co-president of the PLIA at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Celeste Schmitt displays a training manual listing dangerous, exotic weeds

Celeste, what is the Lake Host Program?

The Lake Host Program is a group of people trying to stop the spread of exotic weeds that are invading the lakes in New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts. We take a course about administering the program, learn all about these exotic species and educate the public on how to inspect their boats by offering a courtesy boat inspection.

The New Hampshire Lakes Association developed the program and was able to get State and local grant money to fund it. We apply for a certain number of hours that we can pay staff to watch the boat launches.  We have to match the paid time with volunteer time. So, it’s important that we find volunteers to help.

We have to cover two boat launches so it spreads our time allotment pretty thin. The money that is available to us only allows us to cover the launches on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Also, we allocated time to cover every day of the two busiest weeks of the year, which are Fourth of July week and the first week of August.

Lake Host staff are manning the boat launches from 7:00am – 7:00pm and, on days with fishing tournaments, they are here from 6:00am – 7:00pm. As administrator I have to track the tournament schedules and shuffle the coverage hours to make sure we have people there when the boats arrive. The NH Fish & Game Dept. issue tournament permits and all but one tournament this year are being held on the weekend.

Does the Fish & Game Dept. require the tournaments to be trained in exotic plant detection to get a permit?

Not that I’m aware of. The tournament people care so much for their boats. They come in with the cleanest boats. This program has been around now for so many years that they can’t get onto a lake without somebody educating them about exotic species.

By this point, they have been educated so many times that they are inspecting their own boats when they show up at the launch. And, this was really the whole goal of the program, to have people inspect their own boats. It’s the first-time fisherman/boater that really needs to be educated about the problem, not the experienced folks.

What happens during the week when your staff aren’t here?

There is written material posted on the bulletin board. If they took the time to read this before they launched their boat they would learn a lot. But, realistically, people just pull in and launch their boat. Lake Host staff and volunteers go to Concord to be trained how to do an inspection, you aren’t going to get that kind of training from a poster.

We could really use some more volunteers to cover during the week. That is definitely the time we are most vulnerable. It only takes one little piece of a weed and the whole lake could be infested within a few years. If you have seen the pictures of an infested lake, you would volunteer to keep this from happening to us.

In the case of Pawtuckaway Lake, our boat launches are in shallow, no wake zones. If a weed came on a boat, there is a very high likelihood that it will get chopped up by all the slow moving boat traffic and be distributed around the lake. When these plants get chopped up, each little piece grows into another plant. How many times have you seen lots of pieces of water weeds floating all over the lake? If that were an exotic species it would be devastating.

Luckily, as of now, we don’t have any of these species in our lake. But, there are 64 lakes in New Hampshire that have been infested so it’s a real threat.

How did the PLIA get started with the Lake Host Program?

George Voltz started it 4-5 years ago. He’s the one who has arranged for the grant money to fund our program and he files all the paperwork that is required. It’s a big commitment and he has been doing it since the beginning. I got involved in the second year as a volunteer weed watcher and then for two years now I have been the designated Lake Host Program point person for Pawtuckaway Lake. I hire and organize the staff and volunteers who carry out the inspections.

Do you have a lot of PLIA members volunteering to help out?

Not really, I’m not sure people are really aware of what is going on yet. I have had a few but, nothing steady at this point. Luckily, my family has been very supportive. We all have been trained and take turns covering the boat launches. So, between my husband Bob, my son Tim and I we fill in all of the gaps in coverage. I also established that the paid staff have to volunteer an hour each day, which helps us meet our volunteer match.

This year we received $8,000 in grant money so we have to come up with $4,000 worth of volunteer time, supplies, or donations to meet our match. The more volunteers we have the less time any one person would need to put in.  Right now we have a small group of people doing whatever is necessary to meet our time commitment. It would be really nice to have some relief for them.

What does a volunteer have to do to become part of the program?

They go to a training course in Concord that is put on by the Department of Environmental Services in conjunction with the N.H. Lakes Association. They put the course on 6 times during May and June. You can’t be a volunteer until you have attended that course. But, once you have taken it, the next year you can be re-certified by watching a refresher video they put out.

They teach you what weeds to look for, where to look on boats, trailers, live wells, fishing gear, etc. They also teach you how to distinguish between native “look alike” plants and the dangerous plants. You learn how to package samples of weeds to send to Concord for identification, and how to dispose of weeds properly. It’s very interesting.

How do you perform a boat inspection?

We ask the boater if they are familiar with the efforts of the N.H. Lakes Assoc. to stop the spread of exotic weeds. Depending on their answer, we then go into a speech either about the program or ask if they have inspected their boat today. We ask them if they have been in another body of water this year. We have a list of all of the infected water bodies in New England. If they have been in an infected water body we are even more thorough in our search. We even look for dry plant material. Even a piece of dried weed, once it gets wet again, can begin to grow.

I look at all parts of the trailer hitch, trailer frame, chains, fenders, license plate, and lights for pieces of weeds. We check the boat engine, propeller, live wells, toilet facilities, fishing equipment and any other gear.  Weeds that we are suspicious of, we bag and tag to send to the State. We aren’t scientists, so we don’t take any chances and I send everything I’m not sure of.

Once the boat has been inspected, they are given a special sticker that shows they have been educated about exotic species. All of the Lake Host people on every lake look for these stickers first to determine how much education is needed. We also provide a couple of pamphlets about the exotic species problem and what lakes have been infested.

Do you check every kind of boat that uses the boat launch?

We check every boat going in. For kayaks and canoes, there is definitely less to check. But those folks are very close to the water; they hug the shoreline and move slowly so we ask them to keep an eye out for suspicious looking weeds in the water. They pull the weeds and bring them back to us at the boat launch. A lot of kayakers bring weeds back to us; they tend to be environmentally concerned people. We’ve sent quite a few of those samples up to Concord for identification. Thankfully, everything they have found so far is a native plant. The weeds typically start on the edge of the lake in shallow water and migrate toward the middle.

Is searching for suspicious weeds in the lake part of the Lake Host program?

No, that is a different program called the Weed Watchers. That program is entirely handled by volunteers. It also coordinated by the N.H. Lakes Association. If a volunteer finds a suspicious water plant it is bagged and sent to the N.H. Lakes Association for identification. I’m not sure who is doing this program on our lake but this would be a good area to have volunteers for as well.  People who use their kayaks and canoes are typically the ones who would see the weeds first.  Anyone interested in doing this could contact me for more information. [Ed. Celeste’s contact information is located at the end of the article]

Do you need any volunteer help this year?

Yes, we definitely could use more volunteers. I could use a volunteer on the weekends on the Horse Island boat launch in the morning. We have paid staff there on Thursday and Friday from 3:00pm-7:00pm when most campers are arriving. But we don’t have coverage in the mornings. We could definitely use help anytime on Saturday and Sunday.

During the week we could use volunteers at either boat launch. The busiest hours during the week are between 8:00am – 2:00pm. It would be a matter of how nice the weather was. If the weather were bad, people wouldn’t be putting their boats in. If its nice weather, you can be sure people will be using the ramps.

What are you looking for in a volunteer?

First of, someone that really cares about the lake. Secondly, they need to be able to talk to people. You can’t be shy about greeting people at the ramp. But, that is not too hard. We meet some great people here. People who take the trouble to bring a boat here really like the lake and are glad to see people volunteering to keep it pristine.

Who are the paid Lake Host Staff this year?

My son Tim is doing this for his third year and we have Dan Armento who is a college senior majoring in limnology, which is the study of lakes and inland waters. This is a summer job and an internship for him.

Tim Schmitt checking the trailer of a boat before it is launched

The following is an interview of Tim Schmitt, Lake Host Staff

When did you start working with the Lake Host Program?

I started three years ago. I have gone to Concord for training every year but last year. It’s a three hour class where they teach you about the plants, how to fill out the paperwork and they walk you through a trailer inspection. They spend some time teaching you how to work with the public. They tell us that we are not security guards; we can’t force anyone to have an inspection. It’s a courtesy inspection.

Has anyone ever refused to have a weed inspection?

Yes, in my first year doing this a guy would not let us do the inspection but he turned around and left. Other than that, most of the people we see are really great about everything and are helpful. Once someone has gone through the inspection process they pretty much automatically check out their boats the next time they come back. I don’t know if that is happening because they see us standing here or whether they do it when we aren’t here. It seems to me that our program is really helping people.

Every year more and more people are doing the inspections themselves. I forget what the exact statistics are but it was something like 45% of people are checking their own boats when they pull up without us having to help them. 

Have you found any dangerous weeds on a boat since you started?

Thankfully no, but we have sent quite a few samples to Concord that we didn’t recognize. They all turned out to be native plants. Some of the native plants look very similar to the exotic plants. After a while you begin to recognize the minor differences.

Where are most of the boats coming from that use our boat ramps?

Most of the boats are coming from New Hampshire. Other than that, Massachusetts and Rhode Island are the next largest number of visitors. But Massachusetts and Southern New Hampshire have a very high number of infected lakes. They aren’t safe just because they’re local.

What size boats are using our ramps?

I’d say 50% are bass boats and the rest are 17’ or under. We have a lot of kayaks and canoes.  We do have the occasional pontoon boat. How they manage to get out to the lake is beyond me but they manage to. I haven’t seen the larger boats coming in from the ramps.

I think most residents would have thought there would be more out of state visitors.

There would be but by the time they get here the parking lot is full. We see a lot of cars with out of state plates turning around and leaving because of the parking situation. There are only a limited number of parking spots for trailers and another set designated for cars. They fill up pretty early. If you are traveling any distance to get here on a weekend you aren’t going to find a spot. On a normal weekend day we see 60 + boats use the launch.

The trouble is that the number of kayakers has dramatically increased in the last several years and they only have 9 parking spots. The kayakers get to the launch at 6:00am; the boaters get here starting at 9:00am. So the kayakers end up parking in the trailer spots. The people with trailers come down and can’t find a spot and they are mad that a kayaker has taken a trailer spot and they have to leave. We do have to remind people we are here to check for weeds, not to manage the parking lot.

On Fourth of July weekend we get over 100 boats putting in. Last year over 120 boats used the launch on one day. That caused a huge parking issue.

With all this traffic does it get hectic on the ramp?

Sometimes things get backed up. Remember people are trying to pull out at the same time people are trying to launch. When we see that things are going to get piled up we usually help coordinate things a bit. That can happen when it starts raining, everyone wants out at once. It’s not our job but sometimes people need the help. I hope this doesn’t sound like a big problem, its not. People are generally really good about sorting things out amongst themselves without issues.

Are there times where you really wished you had more help?

The time we could really use volunteers is when tournaments come to the lake. We get really stressed when they show up with 20 boats all at the same time. We are supposed to check all of them. If we had volunteers for even 1 hour when the tournaments are scheduled to get here that would be a huge help. Normally that is 6:00am and they are gone by 7:00am.

It’s hard to do all of the inspections and get the paperwork all filled out while they are anxious to get in the water to start organizing their tournament. If you’ve been to the boat launch I’m sure you’d understand how difficult it is to have 20 trucks and trailers backed up waiting to launch. 

Fourth of July weekend is the other stressful time. We could really use the help then.

Even Canoes and Kayaks are checked and their owners educated

I asked lake visitor Steve Prince of Maine how he felt about having his boat inspected.

“I am very familiar with the Lake Host Program. I have a piece of property near Kezar Lake in Maine. Up in Maine you have to have one of these stickers. In order to put your boat in the water you have to go to the Lake Host people to get a sticker on your boat or they won’t let you use the ramp. They do the same inspection that you people just did.

I think this program is great. It’s a good idea to try to keep the bad plants out of the lakes. Everyone I know with a boat is well aware of the program. As I said, in Maine, you can’t put in without an inspection.

If the weeds get in a lake its terrible. Not so much early in the spring but by summer when it gets warmer the weeds start to grow. You look in the water and say, oh my god they’re everywhere. Its too bad, you can’t do anything about it once it’s happened.”

Celeste, if someone wanted to volunteer how would they go about it?

They should start by contacting Donn Danis, PLIA co-president. Training classes are available on Saturday, Sunday, and Wednesday evenings in Concord. Volunteers can contact Donna at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it