Your support is critical to keeping Maine’s lakes healthy

Midday and Sunset from Borestone Trail Lake by Jennifer Miller

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Greetings!

Maine Lakes could not be successful without the incredibly generous donations of both dollars and time from our members and volunteers. You are on the front lines of such important lake conservation work, and you are making a difference. 

Whether you are supporting your lake association, writing a letter to your legislator, visiting neighbors as a LakeSmart evaluator, improving your yard to reduce pollution, selecting native plants, donating to Maine Lakes, or just sharing your love of our precious clean lakes with others, you are helping grow a community of people who care about lakes and who will take action to help keep them clean. 



Maine Lakes is here to support you, your lake association, and your community in whatever it is you do for lakes.

• Maybe you bring your boat to Maine once a year for vacation.
• Maybe you just moved to Maine and are new to your lake community.
• Maybe you are the fifth-generation family enjoying a camp filled with a lifetime of memories.
• Maybe you just love the scenic view of a clean, sparkling lake in the sunshine.



No matter how long you’ve been here, or where you come from, or how you enjoy Maine’s lakes, we are here for you.

And we need your support today.

Read below for an update of our work through Spring of 2023.

As a supporter, not only do you contribute directly to work that keeps our lakes and ponds clean and clear, you will receive timely updates of our progress, lake news and opportunities to take action in our monthly e-news. 



Your support assures us that we can hire staff, raise funds, work with new and exciting collaborators, and plan for emerging issues facing our lakes in the future.  

Thank you, on behalf of our board and staff, for your support and for all you do to help keep Maine’s lakes clean. 

Yours in lake conservation, 

Susan Gallo

Executive Director

SUMMER 2023 Update

Rangeley Lake by K.C. Demody

New Staff

Maine Lakes is thrilled to be growing, with four permanent staff plus three seasonal staff and a contract educator. To read more about our team, visit here.

Announcing the “Healthy Lakes” video series

We are excited to launch the first four videos in our new Healthy Lake video series made of short “how tos” to help homeowners visualize Best Management Practices installation. FMI, visit here.

Building a Freshwater Education Network

This project seeks to build a network of freshwater educators in order to improve and expand freshwater education programming by sharing expertise and resources, reducing barriers to program delivery, and building opportunities for equitable expansion of programming to more Maine communities.



Objectives/Purpose:

To facilitate the building of a freshwater education network for Maine, by bringing those engaged with freshwater education, and those who would like to be engaged with freshwater education, together to share resources and expertise, so that ultimately there will be more opportunities for more K-12 students to experience freshwater education in more places across the state. Email us to learn more.

Margo Kenyon at the 2023 Lake Conference

Healthy Freshwater Beaches

Margo Kenyon, a junior majoring in Environmental Policy at Colby College, is working with Maine Lakes this summer to research the feasibility of creating a bacteria monitoring program for public freshwater swim locations. Her project aims to determine the need for such a program, how it might operate and be funded, and if it could be modeled after and operate like the DEP’s Maine Healthy Beaches program for coastal, saltwater beaches. She is working with staff at Maine Lakes, Lake Stewards of Maine, and the Department of Environmental Protection, and talking to municipalities, agencies, individuals, and lake association leaders to find where our public beaches are and how they are currently managed.

Why are we concerned about bacteria at freshwater swim areas? Over the past 20 years, Maine has experienced summers with more days with above-average temperatures compared to the previous 100 years. Freshwater temperatures track closely with air temperatures, and thus have also warmed considerably. People seek out local freshwater swimming areas to escape the heat, and more people crowding into freshwater swim locations can increase the presence of disease-causing pathogens in the water. 

Warmer water temperatures allow those pathogens to grow and persist in the environment compared to colder water. Sheltered, slow-moving swimming areas may have stagnant water during high-use periods, as water flushing and dilution in lakes and slow-moving rivers is often insufficient at dispersing bacteria during periods of hot, calm weather, which is often when recreation pressure is the greatest. 

Testing for the fecal indicator bacteria E. coli, which is harmful to human health but also an indicator of fecal waste and possible disease-causing pathogens from warm blooded organisms, including humans, is a means of protecting public health and adapting to Maine’s changing climate.

As part of the project’s initial research, an electronic survey has been created to gather information about public freshwater swimming locations, current monitoring activities, and local contacts. Participation in the survey is greatly encouraged and very much appreciated. Any additional questions/comments/suggestions may be left at the end of the survey or sent to Margo.

After a four-year hiatus, the Maine Lakes Conference returned on June 17th to the China Lake Conference Center in China, Maine. The conference was co-hosted with Lake Stewards of Maine and brought together more than 200 enthusiastic lake advocates who came together to share, learn, and network with each other. Recordings will be posted later this summer at on our conference web page. Thanks to our speakers, sponsors, and attendees for making this conference a huge success!

LakeSmart Staff (left to right), Carolyn Murray, Andea Stevens and Sarah Fagg

LakeSmart is booming!

LakeSmart is having one of its busiest seasons every, with three staff working in the field to train new evaluators all over the state and work with our fantastic team of established volunteers. If your association or community group is interested in starting a new LakeSmart team, or would like to learn more, please email us.

Legislative Wins

Grassroots support from Maine Lakes members and friends has been essential in generating support for lake-friendly legislation. Success in 2023 includes a new Clean, Drain, Dry law, a tighter restriction on lead-headed jibs, and a task force to study the impacts of wake boats on lake health and safety. FMI, visit the advocacy page on our website.

Sebago Lake by Paul Noble