Category: Uncategorized

Everyone on the Lake Should Become a Weed Watcher

by Steve Soreff
Let me tell you why.
A homeowner and boater on Gove’s Cove called in a suspicious underwater growth there. Within 17 minutes, a member of the Weed Watchers checked it out. Within five hours, Amy Smagula at NH Department of Environmental Services verified the photo as most likely Milfoil.
7:31 pm June 30, 2018, Gove’s Cove: note growth at bottom of photo
Within 24 hours, the Milfoil Management Team snorkeled and confirmed the diagnosis, then placed boat warning signs on the growth. In the following week Amy visited the site, NH DES divers removed significant parts of the growth, and the Milfoil Team surveyed the location.
This is a wake-up call for all of us! Amy indicated that this milfoil infestation had likely been there for two years.
The bottom line: if you swim, boat, kayak, paddle board, fish, canoe, live on the shores of the lake, or garden on the shoreline, your eyes are critical to early detection. As the saying goes, IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING. The homeowner did exactly that. He noticed something new and different in his cove. He called it in!!
I will train anyone and everyone on becoming a Weed Watcher. I can do it in about an hour. You can come to my home or I will go to yours. Steve Soreff, Co-Captain Pawtuckaway Lake Weed Watchers, a program of the PLIA. Email soreffs15@aol.com or call home 603 895-6120 or mobile 603 568-3202. Hope to see you real soon!!!
Let’s all SEE SOMETHING and DO SOMETHING to protect Pawtuckaway Lake.

Annual Boat Parade

Every year, to celebrate our nation’s birthday, the PLIA organizes a boat parade around Pawtuckaway Lake on July 4th.  People decorate all kinds of boats – from pontoons to kayaks to power boats to jet skis – with patriotic or fanciful themes, and congregate at the north end of the lake for our annual parade.

This year is no exception. At 10:00 AM boats gather at the north end near the Twin Islands, proceed southward in a clockwise direction at 10:30 AM, and then cruise slowly in a circle around the lake as boats fall in line behind the leader.

Of course exuberance is always a part of this celebration, and we encourage it! But please, no water balloons!!!  Super soakers are a great way to express your enthusiasm without endangering the health of the lake and our wildlife. And see how much fun? —

So, haul those decorations, flags, and banners out of storage, and make your watercraft colorful and eye-popping this year. And – see you on the lake!

Slide Show About Aquatic Invasive Species

Amy Smagula, Chief Limnologist/Exotic Species Program Coordinator at NH Department of Environmental Services, has been working closely with the PLIA to identify, detect, and control aquatic invasive species in and around Pawtuckaway Lake. The slideshow presentation she has given at trainings is now available for all to view at the following link:  PLIA Smagula Presentation 2018   We strongly recommend that anyone interested in the health of Pawtuckaway take a moment to learn about invasive species, especially milfoil!

PLIA Local Hero Award for 2018

This collage shows a few of Don’s activities on Pawtuckaway

Don Roberge, Pawtuckaway camper, fisherman, and volunteer extraordinaire was chosen to receive the PLIA Local Hero Award at this year’s Annual Meeting of the PLIA. He was celebrated for his extraordinary efforts to conserve, protect, and improve Pawtuckaway Lake, largely from the campgrounds of the State Park where he loves to pitch his tent throughout the season. Although he is a resident of Manchester, Don has long been a fan of the lake and spends countless hours enjoying its beauty from his campsite and on his boat. He has volunteered with the PLIA’s Weed Watchers, has joined the crew on road cleanup days, and has stayed into the fall to help clean up the island trash that gets exposed when the lake level is lowered. He decorates his boat for the PLIA Fourth of July Boat Parade and recently even donated a bench to the State Park near his favorite campsite. It is situated specifically to watch the glorious sunsets from the North Channel, and Don recommends it  for that purpose. But he also invites the public to rest and relax while their senses take in the beauty of the lake and its wildlife. Thank you, Don, for all you do!

 

 

Saturday is Annual Meeting Day

 

May 19, 2018
9:00 AM
Nottingham Community Center Gym
139 Stage Road
Nottingham
 
Come at 8:30 AM so you can check out our raffle prizes and buy tickets–ten different community businesses have made donations.
Enjoy coffee and refreshments while you meet and greet friends and neighbors.
Become a PLIA member, renew your membership, sign up for news updates, and discover our many volunteer opportunities.
Find out who has been chosen as PLIA Local Hero of 2017.
See what your PLIA has been busy doing and what it plans for the future.
Join our discussion breakout groups–choose two!–and learn more about the following topics:
  • Shoreland Protection Act–how does it affect you?
  • Lake Hosting and the Clean, Drain, and Dry Campaign
  • Naming the islands in Pawtuckaway
  • Lakeside gardening–helping the lake stay clean
We hope to see you there!

Are You Ready for Annual Meeting?

If you missed the PLIA table at Nottingham Earth Day on May 12th, don’t worry! We’ll have even more on offer at our Annual Meeting from 9:00 AM to noon on Saturday, May 19, 2018, at the Nottingham Town Offices, Community Gym. You can try your luck at our raffle, with prizes from ten different community businesses. Renew your membership–or join the PLIA–for a tax-exempt donation! There will be a slide presentation highlighting our activities and achievements in 2017. We will be bestowing an award to a Local Hero for  uncommon service to the PLIA and Pawtuckaway Lake. There will be four breakout groups on various topics–in two sessions–so you can participate in two different discussions. Come at 8:30 for refreshments, raffle tickets, and schmoozing with friends and neighbors. There will be something for everyone!  Read all about what’s planned in greater detail, in our Spring PawPrints newsletter.

PLIA Annual Meeting Coming!

ANNUAL MEETING!
Saturday May 19, 2018

Nottingham Community Center Gym
Town Offices, 139 Stage Road 

8:30 – 9:00: Registration, membership, raffle tickets,
refreshments, T-shirt sales
9:00 – 10:00: Business Meeting and Report of the President
10:00 – 10:15: Announcement of Local Hero Award
10:15 – 10:30: Break
10:30 – 10:45: Raffle Drawings
10:45 – 11:15: 1st Session of Breakout Discussion Groups
11:15 – 11:45: 2nd Session of Breakout Discussion Groups
11:45 – 12:00: Wrap Up
For more details about what will be going on at the meeting, take a look at our Spring PawPrints newsletter here...
 

WE HAVE SOME SURPRISES IN STORE  
AND HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE! 

 

 

 

NH Lake Hosts Stop Milfoil from Entering Pawtuckaway Lake

Recently, the New Hampshire Lakes Association recognized our own Pawtuckaway Lake Hosts for their excellent work. In an article of its October newsletter “Shorelines”, the organization described an important discovery of invasive milfoil that was made in the course of boat and trailer inspections at the Fundy boat launch:

“Last week we found a large, mature piece of milfoil on a boat trailer coming from Massachusetts. If we had not been staffing the ramp on weekdays after Labor Day, that milfoil would have been in the lake.”

– Dee-Ann D., Lake Host Point Person for the Pawtuckaway Lake Association (PLIA)


“The PLIA has been working very hard during the past few years to help control the infestation of milfoil in Pawtuckaway Lake—thank goodness a Lake Host was at the NH Fish and Game Fundy Access site on October 1 to prevent this piece of milfoil from hitchhiking into the lake. Had a Lake Host not been at the ramp at the time, it’s possible that all the time and money the PLIA and its partners have spent over the past few years trying to control the milfoil growth in the lake would have been in vain!

Thank you to all the Lake Hosts at Pawtuckaway Lake—and at all our lakes—for being there to protect our lakes from the spread of invasive species, one boat and boater at a time!”

In addition, milfoil was also discovered on its way into the Fundy and removed in late September, so our gratitude goes to these wonderful Lake Hosts – both paid and volunteer – for making this program such a success.

Remember, spread the word, not the milfoil!