Pawtuckaway Lake Association

I am pleased to report the first meeting of the Lake Pawtuckaway Weed Watchers.  It was held at the home of Peggy Tucker and Steve Soreff, 32 Dolloff Dam Road at 6 PM Friday July 27.  Amy Smagula –Limnologist/Exotic Species Program Coordinator, NH Department Of Environmental Services was the keynote speaker and later led an on lake demonstration.  Amy emphasized the critical role of early detection.  Yes, just like cancer the earlier the notice the better the prognosis.  She gave examples where early detection which resulted in rapid successful intervention.  Then, she cited particular reasons for Lake Pawtuckaway vigilance.  These include the lake’s river fed origins thereby providing many sources of infestation, the shallowness of the waterway, and the numerous launched vessels.

Those in attendance were Gayle Kenney, Meridith and Tricia Caiati, Karen Batchelder, Jeff Gurrier, Gary St. Pierre, Peggy Tucker and Steve Soreff.  It was neat that Gayle  and Karen arrived by kayak.  Others have indicated their participation but conflicts precluded their presence.

After Amy introductory comments, she passed out basic material.  She noted the 10-2 are the best times to look at the 3-8 foot zone because of the height of the sun to illuminate the bottom surface of the lake.  A Power Point Presentation of the common good and exotic weeds will be available on our website. Then, Gary provided his flagship pontoon boat and Amy led us on a tour of lake weeds.  We went as far as the floating islands in the Fundy and make a key finding between the Twin Islands.  See the article on Weed Watcher (W2) Early Success.

We got to see and recognized Bladderwort.  She gave us maps of lake and all the many weeds found along it.

This begins the training and familiarity phase of the Pawtuckaway W2.  The goal for this year  is for us to know the local good guy weeds and become familiar with their areas of the lake. Amy will conduct a more extensive on the lake training next spring.
 
Lake Pawtuckaway is huge and swallow and its shoreline is long.  We are in need of many participants.  Each one will patrol a section of the lake near one’s dwelling.  The more the members the more achievable will be our goal of a month survey of every section of the lake.  Again the purpose remains early detection and intervention.

Please, contact Steve Soreff
32 Dolloff Dam Road
Nottingham, NH 03290
Tel 603 895-6120
Cell 603 568-3202
E-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it