How Healthy is Your Lake?

Lakes and rivers across New Hampshire face similar challenges to water quality: the threat of cyanobacteria, or algae blooms; e.coli; increasing salinity, particularly in proximity to roads and bridges; and the diverse effects of climate change.

On Saturday, June 18, from 9-10:30AM at the Cook Memorial Library in Tamworth, join the Chocorua Lake Conservancy (CLC) and Green Mountain Conservation Group (GMCG) for “How Healthy is Your Lake? The Importance of Annual Water Quality Monitoring” to learn about the importance of community science and long-term monitoring of our lakes and rivers, and how you can get involved, whatever body of water you live on or near.

GMCG Executive Director Matt Howe will discuss GMCG’s ongoing, long-term monitoring efforts to understand and mitigate threats to the quality of the surface and groundwater in our region of the Saco River watershed, and what trends they are witnessing. He will also share about new technologies that facilitate e.coli testing and mitigation, and discuss the importance of being part of statewide monitoring programs such as New Hampshire Lakes Lay Monitoring Program (LLMP) and the Volunteer Lake Assessment Program (VLAP), and of abiding by specific protocols so that individual research and data is useful to collective water quality efforts.

Longtime CLC water monitor Dwight Baldwin will discuss the history of water-quality sampling on Chocorua Lake through LLMP. Chocorua Lake has one of the longest continuous water-quality records of any lake in New Hampshire extending back to 1982, which allowed stewards to understand when water quality was threatened and take corrective action.

The workshop will also include a show-and-tell of what water quality monitoring entails, what parameters are measured and how, how to understand water quality data, and how you can participate in helping to maintain the pristine water resources in this region. Later in the summer there will be opportunities to get out on Chocorua Lake in a canoe on a beautiful day for hands-on water quality monitoring experience. Please register in advance below. Come at 8:45AM for coffee and donuts!

Dwight Baldwin is a retired geology professor who specialized in hydrogeology at Miami University.

Matt Howe joined GMCG as Executive Director in 2019. Since 1984 he has held several leadership positions in the nonprofit sector in Maine and NH as both a staff and board member.

About the Chocorua Lake Conservancy:

The CLC is a volunteer-led, nonprofit land trust founded in 1968 to protect the scenic and natural resources of the Chocorua Lake Basin and surrounding area. The CLC is committed to providing convenient and attractive public access to Chocorua Lake and trails on nearby conservation lands for visitors and local residents. For more information including ways you can get involved, please visit www.chocorualake.org.

About Green Mountain Conservation Group:

Founded in 1997, Green Mountain Conservation Group promotes an awareness of and appreciation for clean water and the wise use of shared natural resources across the Ossipee Watershed and advocates strategies to protect them. GMCG’s water quality monitoring program collects and analyzes samples at dozens of sites each year on the Ossipee Lake System and its tributaries and the Ossipee River.