Dramatic Success of Lost Lake Restoration Project

Gazing at vast stretches of weed-covered water in June of 2012, anybody could be forgiven for thinking that saving Lost Lake and Knops Pond from becoming an unnavigable swamp was, truly, a 'lost' cause. When Art Prest moved into his newly purchased and renovated lakeside retirement home on Weymisset Drive, his heart sank when, showing off his new home, someone commented that it looked more 'swamp-side' than 'lake-side'.

But take a tour of Knops Pond and Lost Lake today and you will see a lake area transformed from weed-covered swamp to mostly open water, a perfect environment for boating and recreation, a hazard transformed into a recreational resource for the benefit of lake residents and the whole town.

Many people are aware the town approved funds for application of an environmentally friendly, systemic herbicide called SONAR to kill weeds in the lakes area. Unfortunately, there is a reductionist understanding of the process of renovating the lake that goes like this: 1. Apply herbicide. 2. Weeds die 3. Problem solved [let's all have a beer] .

But, while important, application of herbicide is only one small step in a long and complex journey to bring the lake back, to maintain it as a healthy body of water for recreation and enjoyment for years to come. Just bringing an article before town meeting for herbicide treatment required 10 years of study, planning, and battling state and federal environmental bureaucrats, bureaucrats convinced there was an endangered species of aquatic plant in the lake, despite evidence to the contrary.

Years of battling an intransigent bureaucracy is enough to convince most rational people to shrug their shoulders and give up - unless your goal is something beyond yourself, a goal like preserving and protecting a place you love, a place where you made lifelong friends, a place your family summered, a place you hated to leave after Labor Day.

Alex Woodle and Art Prest, both waterfront residents of the lake, formed their friendship as boys, sharing a love for life on the lake, the lake community and the town. These men, now retired from distinguished careers in engineering and the sciences, decided to combine their talents to 'save' the lake. Both men are modest, not wanting to take much credit for their dogged work, always giving credit to the lake community, Selectmen and town officials who helped the cause. But, talking with them for a few minutes, it becomes clear that they take an almost boyish glee in recounting the tales of their journey, a saga of battles almost lost, yet ultimately prevailing.

And despite feeling satisfaction at the current state of the lake's renovation, they also see its recovery as a fragile thing, something requiring constant vigilance, an effort requiring community cooperation and understanding, requiring constant refinement of plans both to protect the progress made and to enhance the lake systems health.

Here are the most important initiatives for preserving and the Lake's health:

Groton Lakes Association is initiating plans to test the water quality in the lakes and ponds on a regular basis . In addition to those tests Alex Woodle will institute periodic testing for cyano bacteria. Ecoli testing is done on a regular basis at Grotonwood, Baby Beach and Sargisson Beach. Art Prest also purchased a Van Dorn water sampler that allows capturing one liter of water at one-meter increments up to 30 meters deep for analysis. This allows testing the water quality about three feet below the surface to avoid possible surface contaminants or up to 30 feet down in the deep portion of Knops Pond to see if there are differences at different depths.

Groton Lakes Association is initiating plans to tea Weed Watcher Boat and Trailer Monitoring Program at the Lost Lake and Baddacook Pond public boat launches. Handouts explaining the program were designed and printed, and training about what to look for on boats and trailers to prevent reintroduction of invasive weeds back into the lakes. The 'Weed Watcher' volunteers fill out survey forms on a questionnaire that was originally developed by DCR.  

Currently, there are only enough volunteers to cover the weekends unfortunately. Because the killing of the weeds in Lost Lake and Knops Pond has been so successful the boat traffic at the Lost Lake boat launch has increased dramatically - fishermen are catching 3 to 7.5 pound largemouth bass and huge chain pickerel up to 24 inches in length and, as a result, they are coming back more frequently and telling their friends about the great fishing. On a recent Wednesday afternoon the boat launch was fully packed with cars pulling boat trailers.

Last May Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) taught a course to about 20 lakeshore residents from Groton as to how to identify and distinguish between native versus non-native invasive weeds. Starting next spring Groton Lakes Association plans to launch a Weed Watcher Program and Rapid Response Effort in which lake residents will be recruited to be continuously on the lookout for new weed growth in Lost Lake and Knops Pond and report it so that steps can be taken to remove it.

Alex Woodle has been championing a program to identify areas of erosion on Lost Lake and Knops Pond. Groton Lakes Association has recruited Brooke Garger, who received her BS in Environmental Science earlier this year from UNH, to go around the lake and identify the location and take pictures of the eroded areas. Alex has talked with Michelle Collette about making a presentation once they have this completed.