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The
Snow Pond/Messalonskee Lake Association is a nonprofit, volunteer
Organization founded in 1990 to promote the preservation of the
lake.
The Association
works to educate the public and promote the responsible use of
the lake. Activities include wildlife preservation, testing &
promoting water quality, promoting the practices which protect
the lake ecosystem and encouraging safe recreational use of the
lake.
The last lake
in the Belgrade Chain of Lakes in Kennebec County, Maine. Messalonskee
Lake contains approximately 39 billion gallons of water, . The
lake’s water flows into the Messalonskee Stream at the town
of Oakland, which in turn flows to the Kennebec River, then to
the Atlantic Ocean 45 miles South near Bath, Maine.
The lake
is a 9 mile long, narrow, natural creation, resulting from continental
collision and glacial scouring. A dam originally built in the
town of Oakland in 1905 increased the lakes size.
The lake is
officially named Messalonskee Lake but also commonly known as
Snow Pond (named after Philip Snow who hunted the area around
the lake in the mid 1700’s) and less commonly as Nine Mile
Pond. More history of the lake can be found on the Lake
Information page.
This historically
recreational lake has substantially developed shoreline and is
located in a watershed that is experiencing rapid residential
growth. This puts tremendous pressure on the ecosystems of the
lake.
Maine Milfoil Initiative Comes to Messalonskee Lake
You may have seen the article in the Morning Sentinel about the planned increase in activity in controlling the spread of Variable Leaf Milfoil on Messalonskee Lake. This program will potentially bring more funding to our efforts BUT we need help. In order to meet the requirements for the federal grant we need additional IN-KIND donations. We are looking for the following.
Donations of time for volunteers to work on these activities:
- Mapping and Documenting the current infestations
- Benthic Barrier Construction and Installation
- Promotion and Recruiting of Volunteers
- Project Management resources for the summer activities
- Also, we are looking for additional IN-KIND donations that can be used to help get our matching federal funds. In particular we would like to find a 24 to 26 ft Pontoon Boat that we can use as a platform for our milfoil mitigation work.
All Dontations are Tax Deductible as the Messalonskee Lake Association is a Non Profit 501c3 organization.
If you can help in any way contact:
Messalonskee Lake Association
P.O. Box 532
Oakland, Maine 04963
Lorne McMillan – Treasurer – 207-649-2556
Mike Willey - President – 207 314 1489
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| NEWS
– Updated August 20, 2010
Annual Meeting - Sunday August 29th 4pm
New England Music Camp
Trustees Hall (Same as Last Year)
All members and interested parties invited
An update of the summer milfoil activities will be included in the agenda |
Milfoil Activities
We now have Four 10X30 ft barriers installed in the cove by Juniper Lane in Sidney. This area is a shallow area with boat and swimming access being blocked by heavy milfoil infestations. We chose this as our primary project this summer for barriers and we have now installed four of them in a channel between the boat dock at the camp of Marilyn Eccles and the open water.
Since it was pretty windy today, we need to go back and get in the water and make sure they are in position properly and that they lay on the bottom but so far so good.
Thanks to Ned Hammond, Steve Swartz, Shirley Brook, Dave Corwin and the rest of the Hammond family for helping on this project today.
We expect to lay a few more in this area before the summer is over and have the DASH boat available after labor day.
(Click on an image below for a larger view.)
Milfoil Activities in FULL SWING.
After our successful Milfoil Mania educational event at the Oakland boat launch in June, our planned milfoil mitigation and control activities are actively in progress now.
This includes the construction of eight benthic barriers that will be placed in our targeted control areas. The first will be in a shallow cove that is near Juniper Lane in Sidney. This area of milfoil is blocking the access to docks on the shore and requires the boats to move through the heavy growth to get to open water. Our objective here is to create a milfoil free channel for access to the lake...
We also have confirmed that we will be able to lease a Diver Assisted Suction Harvester in August to use near the Oakland Boat launch to remove patches of milfoil in that area.
We encourage you to continue to support these efforts through your volunteer work and financial assistance to the extent that you can. It is only through your support that we can make this a sustainable program.
Mike Willey
President
Our Benthic Barrier Builders hard at work.
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