The Lake St. Catherine Association is happy to report that the board has voted to approve the Lily Pond channel restoration project.

In April, the LSCA applied for a permit to “...remove sediment and organic debris from the center of the channel between the Lily Pond and the North Bay of Lake St. Catherine to restore the connectivity, increase water movement, improve water quality, enhance open water habitat and control invasive/nuisance vegetation.”

From the permit, the LSCA requested: “approval for the use of a hydro-rake (paddle-wheel driven floating backhoe). Sediment and organic debris will be placed on a floating barge that will be pushed to the designated shoreline off-loading location on the northwest shoreline of Lily Pond. Collected material will be removed from the barge with an excavator and will be placed on shore temporarily to dewater. Once it is dewatered, the material will be loaded and trucked to a nearby composting operation, located within the public waters of Lake St. Catherine in Poultney, VT.”

This project will cost $35,000. The LSCA is hoping to raise half this amount ($17,500) from the lake community to help defray the costs for this expensive undertaking.

If you would like to help by contributing to this project, please consider sending in a donation to the Association. You can visit our donation page by clicking here (click the Add To Cart button to enter your donation amount), or by sending in a check to:

Lake St. Catherine Association
P.O. Box 631
Wells, VT 05774

Please add a note that your donation is for the Lily Pond Project.

We’ll be sure to keep you up to date on our fundraising progress - and on the progress of this project which will begin on September 18th, 2017.

Our LSCA Vice President Mary Jo Teetor coordinated this project, and she provided these additional comments:

“The Lake St. Catherine Association has agreed to move forward with the channel project this fall as proposed.

We will be working to encourage all members and non members that will benefit from this work to help us recover the costs of performing this project.

We are hopeful that our efforts will enhance understanding of what it is we have worked hard for in maintaining all parts of the lake for respectful use of residents and visitors alike since the early '70s.

The focus on the Lily Pond over time has been to keep the navigation open as best as possible with harvesting (deemed counterproductive over the long term), herbicide for milfoil only (some success although needed every couple of years), hydro-raking (for individual homeowners around dock areas) as well as hand pulling and diligent efforts to successfully eradicate water chestnut.

It was recognized after a major storm several years ago that when a stand of large mature red pines shading the channel were lost, that the growth would intensify with the sunlight. This has been a priority topic with The State of Vermont’s Agency Of Natural Resources since that time - anticipating the problem we have today.

Understanding that the Lily Pond is true to its name, the expectation that it will be restored to anything but the incubator system that it has been since the turn of the previous century is not realistic. However we do believe that maintaining access and the natural flow will not only help the health of the pond but also the nature of the lake as a whole.

Thank you in advance for any support you can contribute.”

We hope that you will consider donating to help fund this important Lake project. If you have any questions, please contact the LSCA for more information: info@lakestcatherine.org.

Thank you for your support!

Proposed hydro-rake area.