It’s got the latest on the IPA’s continuing Hydrilla eradication efforts, a call for herring counters and scholarship applicants, and, in the Science section, an excellent explanation of bird coloration.  You can read it right here, and it will be in the archive for future reference.

Winter is also time to renew memberships, and board president Alex Frazee included a letter (which you can also read here) in the newsletter to explain why all of our continuing memberships and donations are so important.  Take a moment to renew, and keep your support coming.

There’s an update on the hydrilla situation in Mystic Lake, an overview of the Cape Cod Pond and Lake Stewards (PALS) program, and information about the herring run, water clarity, and yet another invasive species making a play for our ponds.

2012 Fall Newsletter

The summer newsletter went out a couple weeks ago, with stories on the hydrilla problem in Mystic, a recap of this year’s annual meeting, and a profile of our new board President, Alex Frazee.

The summer issue, and all its predecessors, are available on the “Newsletter Archive” page.

2012 Summer Newsletter

IPA Vice President Bob Nichols, who spends more time in our ponds than any creature without gills, made a presentation on the discovery of Hydrilla in Mystic Lake and the remediation efforts of the IPA at the annual meeting of the New England Chapter of the North American Lake Management Society, held at UNH on June 8-9.

Although it’s very unfortunate that hydrilla, an aggressive invasive species, ended up in Mystic Lake, we hope that the IPA’s strategies for fighting it, which Bob was integral in developing, prove useful to other people and organizations.

Bob’s presentation is posted here.

For those of you following last fall’s Mystic Lake alum treatment, spearheaded by the IPA, Ken Wagner’s final report is out and available:

Final Report of the Mystic alum treatment

(You can also find a link to it in the “More IPA Information” sidebar, and that link will remain long after this post has outlived its usefulness and disappeared.)

Three Bays Preservation would like to get the word out that they are in need of volunteers to help with the 2012 Herring Run Count at the Mill Pond and Middle Pond in Marstons Mills.

Volunteers would need to commit to counting for a 10 minute period as many times a day as they can. The count runs from 7:00am to 7:00pm,10 minutes each hour. You can do it once a day, once a week or as many times as you would like. The more counters they can round up, the less everyone else has to count. The warm winter weather seems to forecast that the herring will be arriving earlier than usual so that means soon! The run usually ends around the middle of May. Don’t worry if you’ve never done it before, they will train you and it’s really easy!

If you are currently a herring counter at either of these locations, or would like to be a new counter, please contact them at:

508-420-0780

or send them an email at:

info@3bays.org

If you are currently a counter, please contact them as they are trying to rebuild their volunteer list.

The IPA is pleased to announce that it will offer two $1000 scholarships this Spring to graduating seniors from Marstons Mills. The Schwarm Memorial Scholarship was established in 2005 in memory of Edward Schwarm, a former I.P.A. director and officer. It is in his memory and the goals of the IPA to select students who will balance their professional careers with a continuing effort to preserve our environment.

The scholarships are available to any graduating senior residing in Marstons Mills and attending public or private high school. You can download the application here (IPA Scholarship application ), or pick one up at the Barnstable High School Guidance Office. Deadline for submission is April 1st. We encourage our seniors to apply early.

Read the latest on the battle against hydrilla in Mystic Lake and the recent mussel die-off in Middle Pond.  The news isn’t all bad, though, and you can see the latest water clarity data from Mystic, which shows some improvement.  There’s also a recap of July’s annual meeting, and a welcome to the IPA board’s newest member, Alex Frazee.  All the pond news that’s fit to print, in the 2011 Summer Newsletter, which is brought to you, as always, from the indefatigable Geri Anderson.

Aquatic Control Technologies, the company that performed the alum treatment of Mystic Lake in September, 2010, is currently engaged in hand-pulling a newly-discovered patch of Hydrilla on the eastern shore of Mystic. They have written the articles about both of these projects, and you can read them in their newsletter, The Watermark.

Below is a brief update from Dr. Ken Wagner, the consultant for the Mystic Lake Alum Treatment. Ken will be the invited speaker at the IPA annual meeting on July 17.

Bob Nichols and I took a few samples Monday (5/23) afternoon at Mystic Lake and performed some assessment tasks. The next full sampling is scheduled for late June, but the opportunity for an intermediate assessment presented itself. Water clarity averaged 6 meters. Bob has gotten even higher readings lately, which is encouraging. Oxygen was depleted at the deepest area (ML-3) at 14 m depth, but was still high at 10 m there and in other areas of the lake. The alkalinity in deep water was much lower (15 mg/L) than last year (40-70 mg/L), but was similar to past measurements at the surface (12 mg/L). The lake is not really stratified yet, but the oxygen demand in that one deep hole remains substantial, and water from the bottom in that area turned orange 30 minutes after sampling, indicating high dissolved iron. It is expected that the phosphorus will not be high, as it should now be bound on aluminum, not iron, but we have to wait for the lab results to be sure. Samples from the top at ML-1 (north end, relatively shallow) and top and bottom of ML-2 and ML-3 were collected and delivered to the lab for testing of phosphorus and nitrogen. The pH is near neutral, conductivity is around 80-90 uS/cm, and turbidity is <2 NTU. There is no apparent sign of the alum treatment when viewing the sediment in treatment areas.

Zooplankton were abundant, including large bodied Daphnia, as was the case this winter. This population is usually decimated by early summer with the hatch of the annual alewife young. However, Annette Nichols has participated in the annual assessment of herring running in local streams, and reports the lowest count yet for the stream leading to Middle Pond and Mystic Lake; so we will see just how many alewife young there are this year, as reflected in the zooplankton. Planktonic algae appeared to be mainly diatoms, and I took samples, but have not yet looked at them. Filamentous green algae, most likely Spirogyra, was observed growing profusely on shallow sand and gravel, mainly along the west shore. This may be an indication of wastewater influence, but is not uncommon in Cape lakes at this time of year.

Benthic mats for hydrilla control remain in place. No hydrilla was observed, but it is still early in the growing season and we did not hunt specifically for plants. The mats will be removed in June and any germination of hydrilla from tubers will be monitored, with replacement of barriers as warranted.

Ken Wagner
Water Resource Services