Hello good folks of LSC.

As you may recall, back in July 2021, the LSCA and LSCCF organized a Milfoil Cleanup Community Day in the Channel & Little Lake.

Volunteers from all areas of Lake St. Catherine joined in on the kick-off day to collect all the detached and floating milfoil (and other detached and floating plants) to get them out of the lake and on to one of our 2 drop off points. At the end of the day, the LSCA’s Diver Assisted Suction Harvesting (DASH) crew collected it all - 21 buckets (17.5 gallon) worth - and hauled it away. The collection points were left in place for the rest of the season, and Channel & Little Lake residents continued to deposit the milfoil. The LSCCF’s mechanical harvesting crew performed the subsequent pickups for the remainder of the season.

This effort was very successful in both removing detached milfoil and other detached plants from the lake, and in educating boaters and property owners on best practices to limit the spread of milfoil. You can read a summary of last year’s Milfoil Community Day here: https://lakestcatherine.org/blog/10774108, and a summary of the season-long effort here: https://lakestcatherine.org/blog/11122034.

We are now making plans for 2022, and we need your help.

We are looking to the lake community for a donation or loan of 2 floating platforms that can be used as drop off points.

If you can loan or donate a floating platform that you will not be using this season, please reach out to us at info@lakestcatherine.org.

Preliminary plans for this season include a kick-off of Milfoil Cleanup Community Day on Sunday, June 5th at the Wells Lakeside Park (so save the date!). We’ll get together to talk about the program, and then head out on the lake and get to work! We do hope to get the platforms in place before June 5th so full-time LSC residents can get started volunteering as soon as they’d like. We’re sure the Channel Kayak Crew will be out there as soon as we can get the platforms set up.   

So, mark your calendars, and please help us spread the word about our need for floating platforms for this program. If you can help us out, please let us know at info@lakestcatherine.org.

Thank you!

Hello LSC.

We'd like to let you know that the LSCA has written and sent a letter to Secretary Moore at the Agency of Natural Resources, State officials, and our representatives and senators to voice our concern that the position of the Lake Wise Coordinator in the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is being held open to accrue “vacancy savings”.

Back in December, the creator of the Lake Wise Program at Vermont Lakes and Ponds, Amy Picotte, retired after 31 years of service to Vermont and all of its lakes and ponds. You can read more about Amy's work on Lake Wise by clicking here.

We respectfully add our voice to request that the Lake Wise function at the state level be fully funded and receive continued investment.

Over the past three years, the Lake Wise Program on Lake St. Catherine has been extremely successful at both educating property owners about best practices for the lake's shoreline, and implementing stormwater mitigation projects on their properties. We have also seen a dramatic shift in interest in the preservation and protection of our shorelines to increase water quality by shoreline property owners. Property owners are reaching out to us for help at their shoreline, informing us of potential issues after storms, and inquiring about complying with the Shoreland Protection Act.

Photo Credit: PMNRCD

The 2021 Lake Wise Program at Lake St. Catherine resulted in:

• 24 property owners signing up for Lake Wise
• 20 assessments were completed
• 89 written recommendations were made to property owners
• 22 projects were implemented, including: vegetated buffer plantings, infiltration step installation, culvert stabilization efforts, and rain garden construction
• 340 feet of shoreline buffers were installed
• 412 native plants planted
• 40 live stake cuttings planted
• 4 Lake Wise Award winners (bringing our total on LSC to 16)

You can read the full text of our letter below. 

If you'd like to participate in the Lake Wise Program this year, please email us at info@lakestcatherine.org to add your name to the list.

Thank you for reading.

Dear Secretary Moore:

The Lake St. Catherine Association is deeply concerned that the position of the Lake Wise Coordinator in the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is being held open to accrue “vacancy savings”, particularly at a time when federal resources coming into Vermont are providing substantial financial support to be able to efficiently continue funding the Lake Wise Program at DEC.

The Lake St. Catherine Association has assembled a series of important building blocks as a springboard to prepare us to be successful in launching our Watershed Action Plan over the next three years. These include: a state of the art herbicide program with dramatic results towards AIS reduction; a mature and robust Diver Assisted Suction Harvesting Program; a joint planning effort for AIS control and prevention; a Greeter boat inspection program with the highest standards and training, recently expanded for high traffic events; a valued partnership with the Lake St. Catherine State Park and a second site for education and inspections; a wildly successful Lake Wise program for pollution prevention with expansion in 2022; an emerging strategic partnership focused on Little Lake; a collaborative and healthy relationship with the Lakes and Ponds leaders at Vermont DEC.

The Lake Wise program at our Lake had been operated since 2019 in collaboration with the Poultney Mettowee Natural Resources Conservation District and has enjoyed three years of support from the Lake Champlain Basin Program. We have close to 60 properties that have undergone Lake Wise assessments and project implementation. In 2021 we had a targeted effort to help Little Lake and in 2022, we have a bold program to recruit the highest impact properties throughout the basin, as we seek to reduce phosphorus load via runoff across homeowner properties. We are thrilled that a new partner, the Natural Sciences Dept. at Castleton University will provide interns and program oversight and evaluation as we pursue gold level status for Lake Wise.

It is not an overstatement to note that none of this highly valuable work could have been achieved without the leadership of Amy Picotte and the commitment of Lakes and Ponds Division of DEC in encouraging Lakes such as ours to develop best management practices. The Lake Wise office has always been available to us, as we have matured in our understanding of pollution prevention. Amy met with us systematically to review our processes and protocols and we benefitted greatly from her insight as we elevated our performance in recruitment, program implementation and evaluation.

The return on investment of the Lake Wise program is clear to us now and we can ill-afford to have the program less than fully funded at DEC. We are leveraging its success to maximize our chances at developing a Watershed Action Plan over these next three years that we hope to be a template worthy of emulation. Each strategy must pull together whether water quality testing, tributary analyses, storm event evaluation, road protocols, patency of culverts, evaluation of forestry and wetlands. We recognize how much we need a liaison at the state level to teach us the best practices, lessons learned, mistakes and mid-course corrections essential to maximizing the contribution of Lake Wise to our overall watershed.

We respectfully add our voice to sincerely request that the Lake Wise function at the state level be fully funded and receive continued investment to experience growth to keep up with the need to look at the causal effects of both in-lake and watershed interventions. We rely on it and we thank you in advance for advocating for its support, as we work hard at the local level to make the most difference in distinguishing Vermont in addressing nonpoint source pollution.

Hello LSC fans!

With the crazy weather we've been having the last few days, it seems like a good time to ask: When will the ice go out on Lake St. Catherine in 2022?

...and who is ready for Spring, and preparing to have an excellent season at Lake St. Catherine this year?

It's time to start up #IceWatch2022!

Let's have some little fun and make some predictions for when the ice will go out.

Click here to make your guess.

- In 2021, with his guess of April 2nd at 2:30 AM, the 2021 LSC Ice Out Champion was Walter Huss.

- In 2020, with his guess of March 23rd at 3 PM, the 2020 LSC Ice Out Champion was Melvin Ohl.

-  In 2019, with her guess of April 15th at 6 AM, the 2019 LSC Ice Out Champion was Judy Cummings.

The winner will be crowned "LSC 2022 Ice Out Champion" and will have bragging rights all year!

Make your guess - and good luck!

Note: By ice out, we mean when the Lake will be clear of ice. The ice in the bays can be stubborn! We'll be relying on our Ice Spotters around the lake for up-to-date reports on conditions - and we'll use those to make the call.

On Tuesday, March 1st, 2022, the residents of Wells and Poultney voted to provide $12,000 and $15,000, respectively, in support of the Lake St. Catherine Association's mission of the preservation, protection and maintenance of Lake St. Catherine.

We'd like to thank the good folks of both towns for their continued support.

These funds, along with membership dues and contributions, will help us direct and fund important programs that include (but are not limited to): keeping invasive species out of LSC (boat launch Greeter Program), Water Testing, our Milfoil Control Program, phosphorous, sediment, and pollution mitigation (Lake Wise Program, LSC Stormwater Master Plan), Lake Safety, and most importantly, the creation of the Lake St. Catherine Watershed Action Plan.

You can read more about all that the LSCA does for the benefit of Lake St. Catherine on our website.

Maintaining the lake costs approximately $125,000 annually. Grants, membership dues and contributions make up the majority of our funding. If you'd like to help, please consider becoming a member or making a donation. The LSCA is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization.

It's going to be A Big Year For Lake St. Catherine in 2022, we hope to earn your support.

Thanks again to the residents of Wells and Poultney!

Hello LSC fans. 

We'd like to take a moment to outline the work the Lake St. Catherine Association (LSCA) will be undertaking over the next three years as we continue our efforts to preserve, protect, and maintain our beautiful lake. 

2022 will be a big year for Lake St. Catherine as HUGE water quality investments are made, future funding is planned for, and LSC's watershed is studied as never before.

Lake Watershed Action Plan

This past May, the Lake Champlain Basin Program (LCBP) awarded the LSCA, in partnership with the Poultney Mettowee Natural Resources Conservation District

 (PMNRCD), a 3-year grant to develop a Lake Watershed Action Plan (LWAP) for Lake St. Catherine.

The Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) describes a Lake Watershed Action Plan as:

A Lake and Watershed Action Plan (LWAP) is designed to identify and communicate the problems and fixes within a lake watershed to best protect water quality, wildlife habitat, and the lake’s ecosystem health. These plans answer the questions 'what issues threaten the health of our lake the most?' and 'what can we do about them?'

The $38,224 awarded by the grant will allow the LSCA to hire and partner with lake experts to perform various in-lake and watershed based measurements, testing, and studies to identify current or potential future issues and design a comprehensive, long-term plan to address them. 

Our Project Team will include a panel of water and lake experts, including: Poultney Mettowee Natural Resources Conservation District (PMNRCD), Fitzgerald Environmental Associates, Castleton University, and a limnologist.

This exhaustive study will assess areas around Lake St. Catherine including its: shorelines, roadways, tributaries, forests, wetlands, and in-lake.

The findings from the creation of the Lake Watershed Action Plan will guide our long term efforts to increase water quality in the lake, and will position Lake St. Catherine to secure future grants and Clean Water Funding to implement projects to benefit the lake.

Current & Future Water Quality Testing

Previous to beginning work on the LWAP, the LSCA and our partners have been involved in water testing in LSC for many years.

Lay Monitoring: For almost 40 years, the LSCA has been collecting data on LSC as part of the Vermont DEC's Lay Monitoring Program. Each week, from Memorial Day to Labor Day, the LSCA collects a water sample from the Big Lake and Little Lake to be tested for phosphorus (nutrient) concentration, and chlorophyll-a (algae and cyanobacteria) concentration. A Secchi depth (water clarity) measurement is also taken. 

LaRosa Partnership Program: The LaRosa Partnership Program helps watershed organizations and monitoring groups across Vermont implement new and/or ongoing monitoring projects for surface waters in need of water quality assessment by helping to alleviate the financial burden of laboratory analysis costs. In early December, in support of the upcoming LWAP, seven sites in the LSC watershed were nominated to participate in this program. The PMNRCD will be monitoring these sites which are in tributaries that flow into LSC. They will be working with Castleton University to analyze the data.

Next Generation Lake Assessment: The Next Generation Lake Assessment, a Vermont DEC program, is a comprehensive, quantitative survey of a lake's condition which began in 2010. A suite of physical, chemical and biological parameters are sampled at three areas: the deep open water ‘index site’, ten randomly distributed shoreland and littoral habitat sites, and the inlets and outlet. LSC was added to the 2023 list of lakes to be assessed.

Here are the parameters assessed as part of this program:

But that's not all. The Project Team has also discussed increasing testing by adding areas, increasing the frequency, and adding more parameters like chloride, dissolved oxygen, sediment testing, and exploring phosphorus budgets.

You can read more about the Lake St. Catherine Watershed Action Plan here on our LWAP page.

As a result of all these activities, the lake, and Lake St. Catherine watershed, will be studied at a level it never has before. 

Lake St. Catherine Stormwater Master Plan

In 2018 and 2019, extensive field work by the PMNRCD and Fitzgerald Environmental Associates took place in the LSC watershed. The goal was to identify sources of increased stormwater runoff and associated sediments and nutrients flowing into the lake. Phosphorus reducing projects are of particular importance given the water quality concerns within the watershed. The work involved identifying sources of stormwater, prioritizing sources based on various environmental, economic, and social criteria, and designing projects to mitigate those sources. This resulted in the creation of the Lake St. Catherine Stormwater Master Plan (SWMP).

50 potential sites were identified, and as of today, 4 projects have been implemented, and 2 others have been designed and are awaiting installation. Projects have recently been completed on North Street, Ferncliff Road, the boat launch in Wells, and at the Wells Lakeside Park. That leaves 44 others that need to be evaluated, designed, and implemented.

This winter, in partnership with the Poultney Mettowee Natural Resource Conservation District (PMNRCD), the LSCA applied with the Lake Champlain Basin Program (LCBP) for a "Clean Water and Healthy Ecosystems Projects Planning Grant" to fund the planning, prioritization, outreach, design, and budgeting of projects identified in the Lake St. Catherine Stormwater Master Plan (SWMP).

In early January, we were informed that we had earned part of a $100k grant being administered by the PMNRCD. $50,000 of this grant will be used directly for Lake St. Catherine to design Stormwater Master Plan Projects on LSC.

The goal of our approved grant in 2022 is to develop 10-12 projects identified in the Lake St Catherine Stormwater Master Plan to be ready for implementation during the first round of Clean Water Service Provider formula grant funds in 2023 and thereafter. Our Project Team, consisting of the LSCA, PMNRCD, local partners, and the selected consultant, will identify a list of high and medium priority projects and develop 30% conceptual designs for those that rank within the top 10-12. Included with the conceptual designs will be detailed budget estimates, anticipated permitting needs, and preliminary landowner agreements or letters of interest.

You can read more about the SWMP, and view an interactive map with the identified sites by visiting our Stormwater Master Plan page. 

Lake Wise

In late January, we were informed by the Lake Champlain Basin Program that we had earned a grant in the amount of $24,970 for the 2022 Lake St. Catherine Lake Wise Program.

This year's project is entitled: “Creating a Critical Mass of Lake Stewards on Lake St. Catherine”, and will be implemented in partnership with the LSCA, the Poultney Mettowee Natural Resource Conservation District and new partner Castleton University.

Lake Wise is a program developed by Vermont’s Lakes and Ponds Program to recognize outstanding efforts by homeowners who live along a lakeshore to protect the water quality and habitat along the shoreline and within the near-shore area of the lake. Four categories are assessed: The driveway and parking area, the structure (which includes roof, drainage, and septic), the recreation area (the lawn/footprint of non-natural, high-use yard areas), and the shoreline buffer area.

The goal of the Lake Wise program, from the Lake Wise website:

"The goal of Lake Wise is to establish a new normal, a new culture of lakeshore landscaping that is proven to help protect the lake. A property that earns the Lake Wise Award will represent a 'model' shoreland property. The Lake Wise Award certifies a property is well managed, using shoreland Best Management Practices, and is maintained to care for the lake."

Stormwater has a widespread environmental impact which makes it a growing concern in Vermont. In a statewide effort, towns and local organizations are working to implement large scale projects to help clean stormwater before it enters water bodies. Work is being done from the headwaters all the way down to the stream outlets. Excess nutrients in the water contribute to problems which affect both human and wildlife health including; lower oxygen levels in the water, toxic algae blooms, and excessive plant growth.

Shoreline property owners have the access and the ability to control what is happening directly at the water's edge.

While small-scale improvements on individual properties may not seem like they have much impact, collectively the implementation of many small projects will have a positive benefit on the water quality in the lake and the surrounding watershed.

Actions now will promote a healthy lake environment that will continue to support swimming, fishing, boating, and wildlife viewing in the future.

This is such an important program for long term health of Lake St. Catherine, and we can all pitch in to make a difference.

If you are a LSC property owner who would like to be part of this program, please contact us at info@lakestcatherine.org so we can add you to our 2022 list. We’ll then contact you in the spring to set up an appointment.

Just these projects alone total over $113,000 in water quality investments for Lake St. Catherine for 2022. These investments will lead to water quality improvements for LSC, and future funding for projects identified during the creation of the LWAP.

We'll also administer our recurring yearly projects & initiatives, including: our boat launch monitoring Greeter Program, teaching two free boating license classes, placement and maintenance of the buoys and markers around the lake (Lake Safety), our Milfoil Control Program, organization of volunteer opportunities around the lake like Green Up Vermont Day and Milfoil Cleanup Community Day, the annual LSCA Boat Parade, and Dockside Chats with LSCA Trustees.

Education & Outreach

Finally, we’d like to highlight one additional fun project for 2022, which is a great partnership with our local community. Gina from the Wells Village Library reached out to the LSCA and LSCCF to discuss organizing a 'Libraries Love Lakes' event for Lake St. Catherine. Libraries Love Lakes is an outreach project which pairs public libraries with lake scientists to provide collaborative programming emphasizing the importance of lakes in our everyday lives.

Gina provided a detailed outline of her ideas for the event, and using this outline, we submitted a comprehensive proposal for a grant with the Lake Champlain Basin Program, which we are happy to report, has just been awarded.

Pending planning and approvals, preliminary ideas include the event taking place in July at the Wells Lakeside Park. This family-friendly event will include fun activities, presentations, and boat tours related to all aspects of the lake. The grant also includes additional funding for continuing lake-related learning at the Wells Village Library. Gina has identified a wide variety of books to launch this new section of the library. We’ll announce details of this inaugural Libraries Love Lakes event when they are finalized.

2022 Is Going To Be A Big Year For Lake St. Catherine

We hope you find our efforts for the benefit of Lake St. Catherine worthy, and we hope to earn your support this year! 

Please join us.

Click here to renew or become a member of the LSCA.

Thank you.

More exciting news to share with you LSC!

The LSCA has been notified that we have earned 2 more grants from the Lake Champlain Basin Program (LCBP) which will benefit Lake St. Catherine.

Education and Outreach

Back in June of 2021, Gina Ellis, Librarian at the Wells Village Library reached out to the LSCA and LSCCF to discuss organizing a 'Libraries Love Lakes' event for Lake St. Catherine. 

From their website, Libraries Love Lakes:

"...is an outreach project which pairs school and public libraries with lake scientists to provide collaborative programming emphasizing the importance of lakes in our everyday lives."

After an initial meeting, and numerous email exchanges, it was decided that we'd collectively work to put together a Libraries Love Lakes event at the lake in 2022.

Later in November, the LCBP announced an "Education and Outreach" implementation grant, which we thought would be very helpful to support the fun and educational Libraries Love Lakes event at the lake. 

Gina provided a detailed outline of her ideas for the event, which included books, and numerous activities for the day. Using this outline, we were able to craft our grant application and submit a comprehensive proposal.

We are very excited to announce that we have earned this Education and Outreach grant of $9,191 which will fund this fun-filled, family friendly, Libraries Love Lakes event at the lake!

The LCBP informed us that our proposal "received strong peer reviews" and that the "reviewers were supportive of funding this project which provides some interesting deliverables including the unique Libraries Love Lakes approach."

Pending planning and approvals, preliminary ideas include the event taking place in July at the Wells Lakeside Park. The event would include fun activities, presentations, and boat tours related to all aspects of the lake. Children will receive kits containing books, and science based activities for the day. 

After the event, the educational opportunities will continue at the Wells Village Library. Gina will be dedicating a section of the library for the LSCA with pertinent information and activities to further advance lake-related learning. Gina has identified a wide variety of lake-related books to launch this section of the library which we will be able to purchase via the grant.

This event also coincides with the 50th Anniversary of the the Clean Water Act, and supports the LCBP's Opportunities for Action: An Evolving Plan for the Future of the Lake Champlain Basin.

We'll let you know when we have the full details of the event and when the date is scheduled.

We are very excited to have earned this grant to support Gina's vision for the Libraries Love Lakes event - which we hope will become a yearly event! 

Organizational Support

We were also happy to learn that we have earned an Organizational Support grant to help fund the subscription to cloud-based project management software. 

The LSCA will be managing numerous projects in 2022, most importantly, the creation of the Lake St. Catherine Watershed Action Plan. This software will allow us to manage these important lake projects and collaborate with our parters on tasks, timelines, and documents, keeping us organized and on schedule.

Thank you LCBP!

We are very thankful for our partnership with the Lake Champlain Basin Program. This year, we will be working on projects related to 5 grants earned from LCBP, including: The Education and Outreach and Organizational Support grants mentioned above, the Lake St. Catherine Watershed Action Plan, the Lake St. Catherine Lake Wise Program, and a Clean Water and Healthy Ecosystems Projects Planning grant which will be used to design projects around the lake in support of the Lake St. Catherine Stormwater Master Plan.

We'll keep you up-to-date on all these projects throughout the year.

We are excited to report that the Lake Champlain Basin Program (LCBP) has awarded the Lake St. Catherine Association (LSCA) a grant in the amount of $24,970 for the 2022 Lake St. Catherine Lake Wise Program!

This year's project is entitled: “Creating a Critical Mass of Lake Stewards on Lake St. Catherine”, and will be implemented in partnership with the LSCA, the Poultney Mettowee Natural Resource Conservation District (PMNRCD) and new partner Castleton University (CU).

Lake Wise is a program developed by Vermont’s Lakes and Ponds Program to recognize outstanding efforts by homeowners who live along a lakeshore to protect the water quality and habitat along the shoreline and within the near-shore area of the lake. Four categories are assessed: The driveway and parking area, the structure (which includes roof, drainage, and septic), the recreation area (the lawn/footprint of non-natural, high-use yard areas), and the shoreline buffer area.

The goal of the Lake Wise program, from the Lake Wise website:

"The goal of Lake Wise is to establish a new normal, a new culture of lakeshore landscaping that is proven to help protect the lake. A property that earns the Lake Wise Award will represent a 'model' shoreland property. The Lake Wise Award certifies a property is well managed, using shoreland Best Management Practices, and is maintained to care for the lake."

Stormwater has a widespread environmental impact which makes it a growing concern in Vermont. In a statewide effort, towns and local organizations are working to implement large scale projects to help clean stormwater before it enters water bodies. Work is being done from the headwaters all the way down to the stream outlets. Excess nutrients in the water contribute to problems which affect both human and wildlife health including; lower oxygen levels in the water, toxic algae blooms, and excessive plant growth.

As a shoreline property owner, you have the access and the ability to control what is happening directly at the water's edge.

While small-scale improvements on individual properties may not seem like they have much impact, collectively the implementation of many small projects will have a positive benefit on the water quality in the lake and the surrounding watershed.

Actions now will promote a healthy lake environment that will continue to support swimming, fishing, boating, and wildlife viewing in the future.

This is such an important program for long term health of Lake St. Catherine, and we can all pitch in to make a difference.

If you are a LSC property owner who would like to be part of this program, please contact us at info@lakestcatherine.org so we can add you to our 2022 list. We’ll then contact you in the spring to set up an appointment. If you’d like to be part of the Lake Wise program, we want to hear from you.

- You can read more about the Lake Wise Program on Lake St. Catherine by clicking here. This page includes a map of the Lake Wise Award winning properties on Lake St. Catherine.

In 2021, the LSCA earned the same grant from LCBP to perform Lake Wise assessments, and to help property owners with projects on their land to mitigate stormwater runoff into the lake. In 2021, four properties won the Lake Wise Award! You can read about the 4 properties that earned the Lake Wise Award in 2021 by clicking here. This brings the total Lake Wise Award winning properties on LSC up to 16!

Property owners that participated in Lake Wise but did not qualify for the Award can continue to work on their shorelines with the LSCA and PMNRCD to raise their assessment score. Three of the four award winners in 2021 had their initial assessment done in 2020. After some projects were implemented this year, their properties qualified, and they are now award winners. To date, 57 properties have participated in the Lake Wise Program, and have at least received an initial assessment.

Some stats from the 2021 program:

• 24 property owners signed up for Lake Wise
• 20 assessments were completed (some assessments are awaiting property owner input)
• 89 written recommendations were made to property owners by PMNRCD staff
• 22 projects were implemented, including: vegetated buffer plantings, infiltration step installation, culvert stabilization efforts, and rain garden construction
• 340 feet of shoreline buffers were installed
• 412 native plants planted
• 40 live stake cuttings planted
• 4 Lake Wise Award winners!

...and we are ready to do it again this year! 

The LSCA would like to help all Lake St. Catherine property owners implement best practices to mitigate stormwater on their properties, and help them to earn the Lake Wise award. If you would like to have your property assessed, please email us at info@lakestcatherine.org.

Hello good folks of LSC.

Greetings from a frozen Lake St. Catherine & Happy New Year!

It's that time of year again... As the Lake St. Catherine Association heads into its 69th year, we are asking for your support for the 2022 season.

What does the LSCA do? Well, you can start here by checking out our 2021 Year In Review.

Your membership dues and contributions help to fund many of the services provided by the LSCA:

• Maintaining & purchasing navigation and shoreline protection buoys throughout the lake.
• Testing the water for E coli, phosphorus (nutrient) concentration, chlorophyll-a (algae and cyanobacteria) concentration, and Secchi depth (water clarity).
• Conducting 2 free boat-safety courses that are state mandated for all persons born after January 1, 1974 (look for an announcement in the Spring for dates).
• Greeter Program: Inspecting boats wishing to enter the lake for aquatic invasive species (AIS) to keep them out of the lake.
• Controlling milfoil.
• Working with the state to solve the problems of silting and impacts of phosphorus and other sources of pollution. We are now accepting requests from property owners to participate in Lake Wise in 2022 - email us to sign up.
• Long-term planning for the future of the lake by beginning a 3 year process to create a Watershed Action Plan for Lake St. Catherine.
• Maintaining "welcome" signs and gardens.
• Liaising with other lakes in order to exchange information.
• Sponsoring the annual fun-filled July 4th Boat Parade.
• Disseminating information to our membership and the lake community through newsletters, emails, website & social media postings, and other local publications.
• Organizing funding through membership fees, donations and grants from the State of Vermont, Poultney and Wells, and environmental groups.
• Representing you to state and local governments to protect your rights and the lake in general.
• Protecting the value of your property by maintaining the beauty, access, and safety of the lake.

There are two easy ways to renew or become a member of the LSCA.

Soon, you will be receiving a mailing from us that contains the 2022 Membership Form. You can also download a copy by clicking here: 2022 LSCA Membership Form PDF. Just print and fill out the form, then mail it in with your check to:

Lake St. Catherine Association
PO Box 631
Wells, VT 05774

[Please note: our long time treasurer Elaine Bagley retired from the board last year. Please be sure to send all correspondence to our PO Box address. We thank Elaine for her years of service to the LSCA & Lake St. Catherine!]

Or, you can renew or become a member on our website. If you were a member in 2021, click here to renew, or click here to become a new member - and you can pay your dues online with your credit card. If you were a member last year (whether you paid by check or online by credit card), the website has an account ready for you. If you don't remember your password, or have never logged in, please click here to set or reset your password.

We'd also like to encourage you to check with your employer to see if they have an Employer Matching Gift Program for charitable donations. Many generous businesses will match donations made by their employees through these programs. So, take a look - you may be able to double your contribution!

If you are a business in the Lake St. Catherine community, we have a Business Sponsor Membership we'd like to tell you about. The Business Sponsor Membership includes:

1. A listing on our ‘Sponsors’ page on lakestcatherine.org with your logo, a link to your web or Facebook page, including a brief description of your business and services.
2. The posting of your events and special occasions to our Events & LSC Community Website Calendar.
3. A posting on our Blog and Facebook page about your business as a ‘Sponsor Spotlight’ feature.
4. A posting for your business in our Spring and Fall newsletters. Newsletters will be made available to the community in both printed and digital versions.

Thank you to our Business Sponsors! Please click on the Sponsors page of our website to check them out.

Your membership and the dues and contributions we receive allows us to accomplish our work. Maintaining the lake costs approximately $125,000 annually. While we do receive annual grants from Poultney, Wells, and the State, membership dues and contributions make up the majority of our funding.

Upon receiving your membership contribution, we will mail you your receipt, a '2022 Member' sticker for your LSCA window card (or a card & sticker for new members), and a 4" x 4" LSC sticker for your car. We will also continue Elaine's practice of including handwritten thank you notes in your membership package. 

We are happy to report that in 2021, we had 372 paid members, which includes 10 Business Sponsors. The average contribution of our members was $202 - THANK YOU! Your membership dues and additional contributions over and above our base $100 membership level are crucial to funding our important lake programs. As always, we ask you to help us to spread the word by discussing the LSCA with your neighbors. We are hoping to get our membership to over 400 this year.

We will continue to work hard for Lake St. Catherine to earn your support.

Thank you for your support of the LSCA!

- The Trustees of the Lake St. Catherine Association

If you ever have any questions about your membership or Lake St. Catherine, please email us at info@lakestcatherine.org.

In partnership with the Poultney Mettowee Natural Resource Conservation District (PMNRCD), the LSCA applied with the Lake Champlain Basin Program (LCBP) for a "Clean Water and Healthy Ecosystems Projects Planning Grant" to fund the planning, prioritization, outreach, design, and budgeting of projects identified in the Lake St. Catherine Stormwater Master Plan (SWMP).

We are very happy to report that as part of a $100k grant being administered by the PMNRCD, $50k of this grant will be used directly for Lake St. Catherine to design Stormwater Master Plan Projects on LSC.

In 2018 and 2019, extensive field work by the PMNRCD and Fitzgerald Environmental Associates (FEA) took place in the LSC watershed. The goal was to identify sources of increased stormwater runoff and associated sediments and nutrients flowing into the lake. Phosphorus reducing projects are of particular importance given the water quality concerns within the watershed. The work involved identifying sources of stormwater, prioritizing sources based on various environmental, economic, and social criteria, and designing projects to mitigate those sources.

50 potential sites were identified, and as of today, 4 projects have been implemented, and 2 others have been designed and are awaiting installation. Projects have recently been completed on North Street, Ferncliff Road, the boat launch in Wells, and at the Wells Lakeside Park. That leaves 44 others that need to be evaluated, designed, and implemented.

The goal of our approved grant in 2022 is to develop 10-12 projects identified in the Lake St Catherine Stormwater Master Plan to be ready for implementation during the first round of Clean Water Service Provider formula grant funds in 2023 and thereafter. Our Project Team, consisting of the LSCA, PMNRCD, local partners, and the selected consultant, will identify a list of high and medium priority projects and develop 30% conceptual designs for those that rank within the top 10-12. Included with the conceptual designs will be detailed budget estimates, anticipated permitting needs, and preliminary landowner agreements or letters of interest.

Below is a map of the Stormwater Master Plan locations. Orange check icons indicate a completed project, green construction icons indicate a project that has been designed and implementation is underway or about to begin, and yellow dot icons indicate potential future project locations. Use the + / - on the map to zoom in and out. Click on an icon to see a description of the issue, the proposed intervention, and a photo of the area.

All of the Lake St. Catherine Stormwater Master Plan documents can be viewed by clicking here, and you can read more about the SWMP for Lake St. Catherine by click here to view our Stormwater Master Plan webpage.

While we'll continue to work with lakeshore property owners on Lake Wise projects which are focused on individual properties on the parcel level, SWMP projects can involve larger areas that may include a combination of public and private lands.

The goal of these SWMP projects are to limit stormwater carrying phosphorus, nutrients, sediments, and pollutants into the lake as we work to continue to improve water quality.

In the coming months, we'll get to work setting up public meetings will be set up to discuss what projects should be prioritized and designed, and partnering with an engineering firm to design the projects. We'll keep you up-to-date as meetings are scheduled.

Hello LSC.

At the end of each season, we like to take some time to present a recap of the work performed by the LSCA for Lake St. Catherine on behalf of the lake community and our membership. What you’ll read below are summaries of the projects and activities. We encourage you to read through our website Blog to read the detailed accounts.

It was another busy year! We’ll do our best to recount the year chronologically for you.

Are you sitting comfortably?

Here is our 2021 Year In Review.

Membership

First, a sincere THANK YOU to everyone who was able to contribute to the LSCA and become a member this year. We are all still dealing with the impact of the pandemic in our daily lives, so we truly appreciate your support again this year.

We had a great membership drive this year. As of this writing, we have 372 members who contributed $75,186, giving us an average donation of $202.12. These stats represent the highest number of members and dollars contributed that we’ve received in many years.

Can we reach 400 members next year? This will be our ambitious goal as we continue to reach out to LSC property owners, and hope to expand our reach with membership levels for family members of property owners, renters, and those who use the lake for recreation.

We’d also like to take this opportunity to thank long-time LSCA Treasurer and Membership Committee member Elaine Bagley who retired from the board in August. Our members know Elaine would send you your membership package when you renewed each year, including her very popular hand-written thank you notes. The new Membership Committee members will work to continue this practice. Please note that all correspondence with the LSCA, including contributions and membership dues should be mailed to PO Box 631, Wells, VT 05774.

We hope to earn your support in 2022 as we launch our Membership Drive in early February of 2022.

Little Lake Fundraiser

Throughout 2020, the LSCA and LSCCF had been working together to discuss the best ways to mitigate the persistent and intensifying problem caused by the invasive weed Eurasian Watermilfoil (EWM, milfoil). This resulted in a 3-year plan to get milfoil under control in Little Lake.

In mid March, the LSCA and the LSCCF launched a fundraiser in support of this plan. Year 1 of the plan included a 70 acre milfoil treatment in Little Lake using the herbicide ProcellaCOR which was estimated to cost $36,000. The LSCA and LSCCF each agreed to contribute $12,000 for a total of $24,000. This left $12,000 to cover the full cost of the treatment.

The lake community immediately stepped up to support this plan, and in just over a week, we exceeded the $12,000 goal in donations. In fact, we raised $17,200! At that time, this meant that we had $5,200 already collected to support year 2. However, after the final costs came in, it was determined that the Little Lake treatment cost $31,240. This means that we actually have $6,786.67 in reserve to support year 2. You can view the project page here (it will be updated soon).

The treatment was very successful, and we were so happy to see and hear the comments about how good Little Lake looked this summer. All the details about the Little Lake treatment and our lake-wide milfoil control efforts are included below in the Milfoil Control section.

Thank you for your support of this plan for Little Lake! The LSCA and the LSCCF will begin work on year 2 soon. We’ll keep you up-to-date on the plans as they become available.

Little Lake Webinar

Just over a week after the Little Lake fundraiser launched, the LSCA and LSCCF hosted a webinar for the lake community to discuss the 3-year milfoil control plan for Little Lake, and to introduce the expansion of the Lake Wise Program into Little Lake. Representatives from both groups presented the plans for both projects and fielded questions from the attendees. We were also able to announce the great news that year 1 of the 3-year milfoil control plan had been fully funded. This webinar was recorded and can be viewed on our website Blog.

Volunteering Around LSC: Green Up Vermont Day, Lake’s End Dam Cleanup, Milfoil Cleanup Community Day

We’d like to thank all of the volunteers that participated in the various lake related activities this season! Here is a quick summary of the volunteer opportunities around Lake St. Catherine this year.

Green Up Vermont Day: Green Up Vermont Day is a state-wide volunteer cleanup day of Vermont's roads and waterways which takes place on May 1st. As Green Up Vermont's website says: "We know it isn’t your litter but Vermont needs our help to be beautiful!". We reached out to the lake community asking for volunteers to help clean up around LSC - and you stepped up! Teams and individuals volunteered to clean up sections around the lake, and with the exception of a stretch of Rt 30, the whole lake was covered! There were numerous filled green bags all around the lake when the day was done. Thank you to the town crews from Wells and Poultney for picking up the bags. We’ll do it again in May! Read the recap here.

Lake’s End Dam Cleanup: In early June, a resident from Wells sent in an email to the LSCA commenting on a large amount of debris being caught on the top of the dam. We sent out a note to the lake community asking for volunteers to meet at the dam on Saturday, June 13th to help get it cleaned up. It was so great to see folks from all around the lake come together to pitch in. We made quick work of the cleanup - with a truck loaded up to take to the transfer station, and all the lake neighbors got to meet and exchange stories about how much we love LSC. What a fun morning! We were also happy to see that volunteers continued to keep the dam clear of debris for the rest of the year! Read the recap here.

Milfoil Cleanup Community Day: In early July, as part of our milfoil control efforts, the LSCA and LSCCF announced that they had been planning for a 'Community Day' in the Channel and Little Lake areas to organize volunteers to collect all the floating milfoil they can find as an educational and hands-on 'Stop The Spread' event. On Sunday, July 25th, 2 drop-off points were set up so volunteers could collect milfoil by boat, kayak, or canoe and deposit the collected weeds at convenient locations. We then arranged for our diver assisted suction harvesting (DASH) crew to collect the weeds from the drop-off points for disposal. It was quite a haul - they filled (21) 17.5 gallon buckets! The drop-off points remained in place for the rest of the season, and volunteers continued to collect the floating weeds - and the LSCCF harvesting crew handled the pickups. Thank you to all the volunteers involved in this project! We hope to do it again in 2022 and start it much earlier in the season. Read the recap here.

The Lake Wise Program

It was another great season for Lake Wise on Lake St. Catherine!

Lake Wise is a program developed by Vermont’s Lakes and Ponds Program to recognize outstanding efforts by homeowners who live along a lakeshore to protect the water quality and habitat along the shoreline and within the near-shore area of the lake.

Stormwater has a widespread environmental impact which makes it a growing concern in Vermont. In a statewide effort, towns and local organizations are working to implement large scale projects to help clean stormwater before it enters water bodies. Work is being done from the headwaters all the way down to the stream outlets. Excess nutrients in the water contribute to problems which affect both human and wildlife health including; lower oxygen levels in the water, toxic algae blooms, and excessive plant growth.

This season, the LSCA earned a grant from the Lake Champlain Basin Program (LCBP) to perform Lake Wise assessments, and to help property owners with projects on their land to mitigate stormwater runoff into the lake. The LSCA was happy to again partner with the Poultney Mettowee Natural Resources Conservation District (PMNRCD) on this project.

Although the Lake Wise Program is open to all LSC property owners, we decided that the 2021 program would focus on properties on Little Lake. In cooperation with the LSCCF, we began the outreach to the lake community to get folks excited and signed up for Lake Wise. On May 20th, the LSCA, the LSCCF and the PMNRCD held an informational Zoom meeting to discuss the Lake Wise Program on Lake St. Catherine. This webinar was recorded and can be viewed on our website Blog.

The PMNRCD crew completed a tremendous amount of work in support of the Lake Wise Program this season. They were also able to leverage their Lake Education Action Program (LEAP) program, which pairs student and community lake education with the implementation of small planting projects for shoreline owners to increase the amount of projects completed.

Some statistics for 2021:

• 24 property owners signed up for Lake Wise
• 20 assessments were completed (some assessments are awaiting property owner input)
• 89 written recommendations were made to property owners by PMNRCD staff
• 22 projects were implemented, including: vegetated buffer plantings, infiltration step installation, culvert stabilization efforts, and rain garden construction
• 340 feet of shoreline buffers were installed
• 412 native plants planted
• 40 live stake cuttings planted
• 4 Lake Wise Award winners!

Our 2021 Lake Wise Award winners are:

• Andrew Gioulis - West Lake Road, Poultney
• Barbara Gutheil - Ferncliff Road
• Michael Marine - Channel Drive
• Sue Williams - West Lake Road, Wells

Congratulations to this year’s Lake Wise Award winners! This brings the total Lake Wise Award winning properties on LSC up to 16.

Thank you to all the winners and Lake Wise participants for the work they have put into their property in an effort to become Lake Wise. This work represents a model of what all LSC lakeshore owners should strive for, as these projects are both beautiful and lake friendly.

All winners will be receiving the Lake Wise Award plaque that they can proudly display on their shoreline. Keep an eye out for them as you cruise around the lake next season.

The LSCA would like to help other Lake St. Catherine property owners implement best practices to mitigate stormwater on their properties, and help them to earn the Lake Wise award. To date, 57 properties have participated in the Lake Wise Program, and have at least received an initial assessment. If you would like to have your property assessed, please email us at info@lakestcatherine.org.

Watershed Action Plan

In our 2020 Year In Review, we told you about a grant that we applied for with the LCBP to help fund the creation of a Watershed Action Plan for Lake St. Catherine. In late May, we were thrilled to announce that our grant application had been accepted, and we began the process of creating a work plan.

From the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a Watershed Action Plan is described as:

“Watershed planning helps address water quality problems in a holistic manner by fully assessing the potential contributing causes and sources of pollution, then prioritizing restoration and protection strategies to address these problems.”

In partnership with the PMNRCD, the LSCA will use this 3-year grant to create a Watershed Action Plan for Lake St. Catherine. The $38,224 awarded by the grant will allow the LSCA to hire and partner with lake experts to perform various in-lake and watershed based measurements, testing, and studies to identify current or potential future issues and design a comprehensive, long-term plan to address them. The resulting plan will leverage current LSCA investments in water quality and pollution prevention, be driven by accepted best management practices, elevate under-assessed areas and gaps, and will identify issues, opportunities, and projects to guide locally-led water quality implementation work in the Lake St. Catherine watershed.

After many years of successfully managing individual lake programs which include: in-lake invasive species control (Milfoil Control Program), invasive species prevention (Greeter Program), and stormwater management (Lake Wise Program), the LSCA is now poised to integrate these programs into a broader watershed plan with a focus on the prevention of pollutant loads (phosphorus, nitrogen, sediments) that enter into the Lake from sources outside the waterbody. The LSCA plans to use the success of these building blocks to expand its work in the watershed and focus on prevention for the future.

A Project Team led by Trustees of the Association will engage the following partners:

• Poultney Mettowee Natural Resources Conservation District to do field work on the areas adjacent to the Lake to identify sources of pollutants and recommend 20 projects to address them.
• The Natural Sciences Department at Castleton University to use its environmental chemistry lab with access to water sampling supplies and instrumentation; Castleton undergraduate students to conduct broader in-lake and in-flow tributary water sampling and analyze the impact of major storm events. Students will help literature review of best management practices for water quality to sample collection, to water analysis, to data analysis, to GIS modeling.
• A Limnologist consultant and/or chemist will advise on lake nutrient cycling, lake functions, and assist with any in-lake studies, such as water chemistry, sediment testing, and measuring phosphorus concentrations.
• A series of community Stakeholders will be actively engaged to evaluate their part in understanding and mitigating excessive phosphorus and erosion around the Lake. These include: The Lake St. Catherine Conservation Fund; the Towns of Wells and Poultney, especially the road crews as well as zoning provisions; members of the Association and homeowners to enact prevention on their properties; the Vermont DEC who has agreed to co-sponsor an annual symposium on best practices; businesses and the lake community who use the Lake and surrounding area for recreation.

Using the data and information collected about the Lake St. Catherine Watershed, the Project Team will create the Lake St. Catherine Watershed Action Plan by the end of the grant period in 2024. This plan will identify “Opportunities For Action” and the strategies, interventions, and projects to best address them.

Subsequent grants will be requested to implement as many projects as possible and create a culture worthy of emulation that positions Lake St. Catherine for future funding that rewards water quality improvements including phosphorus load reduction. These efforts will continue for the balance of the decade and be the most important contribution all those who love being at Lake St. Catherine can do to distinguish its future beauty and health.

Read more about the LSC Watershed Action Plan here on our website.

Work will begin in January!

Greeter Program - Boat Launch Monitoring

Our Greeter Program is very important to the health of Lake St. Catherine. Our Greeters have been trained to identify aquatic invasive species (AIS) - like spiny waterflea, asian clams, water chestnut, starry stonewort and zebra mussels - to stop them from entering LSC at the boat launch in Wells and the State Park in Poultney.

They also educate boaters about the importance of looking for these invasives on their boat or trailer so they are not spread to LSC or another lake. Each year, they do a fantastic job checking vessels and educating the lake community on the dangers of invasive species for Lake St. Catherine. They are on duty from Memorial Day through Labor Day - working on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. They also cover holidays and fishing tournaments.

Although we expanded monitoring hours at both the Fish & Wildlife boat launch in Wells, and at the State Park in Poultney, our Greeters inspected far fewer boats in 2021 as compared to 2020. We believe a number of factors led to the decrease. 2020 represented an all-time high in boat inspections, most likely due to the huge increase in folks looking to outdoor activities for fun. Also, as you may recall, many weekends experienced rainy weather, which limited the amount of boats being launched.

An interesting stat in the Greeter data this season was that the percentage of boats retrieved from the lake that had milfoil present dropped from 13% to 6% of boats. This was most likely due to the milfoil treatment in Little Lake and the work of the cleanup volunteers throughout the summer.

Our Greeter Program is partially funded by a grant from the Vermont DEC and contributions from our membership.

Thank you to our Greeter team! They work hard each season to keep AIS out of Lake St. Catherine.

Milfoil Control Program

Each season, the LSCA implements a Milfoil Control Program to keep milfoil in check in Lake St. Catherine using a combination of spot herbicide treatments and DASH (Diver Assisted Suction Harvesting).

This year, we expanded our program to include:

• An educational campaign called, "Stop The Spread", and a community meeting at the Wells Lakeside Park to inform lake residents and boaters of best practices to limit the spread of milfoil.
• Partnering with the LSCCF and arranging a 3-year plan to address the milfoil in Little Lake. Equal contributions consisting of donations from the lake community and funding from the LSCA and LSCCF paid for the ProcellaCOR treatment as part of the year 1 plan.
• A Milfoil Cleanup Community Day in which volunteers collected floating milfoil and other weeds to deposit at drop-off points in the Channel and on Little Lake. This planned one day event in July extended throughout the rest of the season as boaters & kayakers continued to collect and deposit the weeds. The LSCA DASH team handled the Community Day pickup, and the LSCCF harvesting crew made the pickups for the rest of the season.

These efforts led to another successful year of milfoil control on Lake St. Catherine.

In late September, our contractor SOLitude Lake Management performed a comprehensive, 2 day lake-wide aquatic vegetation survey to both evaluate the performance of our milfoil control efforts, and to assess the overall state of aquatic plants in Lake St. Catherine.

Back in 2001, 199 GPS points were plotted throughout Lake St. Catherine, and these points are evaluated for aquatic plants during each report. This is the 18th consecutive year a plant survey has been performed on Lake St. Catherine. You can see all the previous reports, dating back to 2004 in our Links & Downloads section.

The full report can be read here: 2021 - Aquatic Vegetation Management Report. We encourage you to take a few moments to read through the whole report.

Some information from the report:

• Milfoil cover percent, which represents the abundance of milfoil in the lake, is at its lowest point for the entire lake since 2010 at 3%. For reference, before the whole lake treatment in 2004, the milfoil cover percent for the entirety of Lake St. Catherine was 49%.
• Specifically in Little Lake in 2021, milfoil cover percent was at 5%, down from 36% in 2020.
• Of the 199 GPS data points in Lake St. Catherine, 43 are in Little Lake. Milfoil frequency of occurrence (FOC) refers to the percentage of GPS points at which milfoil was found. In 2021 in Little Lake, milfoil frequency of occurrence was at 28%, down from 98% in 2020.
• A potential treatment in Little Lake in 2022 is estimated at approximately 25 to 30 acres. For reference, the 2020 treatment area was 70.2 acres.
• With the exception of a few GPS points in the Big Lake at which milfoil was found, only trace levels were seen (single stems).

Based on the data, and the results we've all seen throughout the whole of Lake St. Catherine, our Milfoil Control Program had a very successful year. The ProcellaCOR treatments were highly effective, our DASH team did another great job this year (read about the 2021 DASH efforts here), and you got involved as well by participating and volunteering to collect floating milfoil from July to September as part of our Milfoil Cleanup Community Day. We also heard numerous reports throughout the season of folks removing milfoil from their props, their shorelines, and if it happened to float by their dock.

For 2022, we hope to expand the volunteer milfoil cleanup program by beginning much earlier in the season. We have also applied for a grant which could fund the purchase of floating drop-off platforms and other equipment that would assist our volunteers. We should hear about this grant soon!

In early May, the lake will again be surveyed for milfoil growth. At that point, a final treatment map will be created which will show proposed spot treatment and DASH locations.

Drone Photos

On June 23rd and September 1st, a member of the LSCA took drone photos and video of Little Lake. The June photos were taken the morning after the treatment, and they showed us both the beauty of Little Lake and the dense milfoil cover under the surface. The September photos, taken 10 weeks after the June photos, showed us a dramatic difference in milfoil cover in Little Lake. You can view the photos and video on our website Blog here: June | September. Thank you to Andrew for your efforts to provide these photos for the lake community!

Sponsor Spotlight

We’d like to thank the 10 local businesses who were LSCA Business Sponsors in 2021!

Our $200 Business Sponsor membership includes a listing on the Sponsors page of our website, a listing in our spring and fall newsletters, and a Sponsor Spotlight in June on our website and Facebook pages.

Thank you: Haun Welding Supply, Lake Hill Compost, Lake St. Catherine Cottages, Lake St. Catherine Country Club, Lakes & Homes Real Estate, Merritt Environmental Consulting, New England Lakeside Realty, VT Lakehouse, Williams Hardware, Woodard Marine.

If you’d like to become a Business Sponsor in 2022, please let us know!

Meet & Greet With Our Game Warden Justin Turner

Early in the season, we were receiving reports of unsafe boating around the lake. So, we reached out to our Game Warden, Justin Turner and invited him to a Meet & Greet with lake residents. On Saturday, July 10th, Justin hosted a meeting at the Wells Lakeside Park.

​​Justin listened to everyone's concerns, and answered everyone's questions.

Residents described boaters speeding through the Channel causing potential safety issues with children swimming nearby and shoreline erosion. Also discussed were reports of jet skis being operated at high speeds too close to other boaters, and operating after sundown.

Justin explained that he can't be here as often as he'd like, and that the Wardens are understaffed. He informed the attendees that if they witnessed unsafe boating, and would like to report it, the could call him on his cell: 802-595-8754.

As a followup to this meeting with Justin, we reached out to Sergeant Trevor Carbo of the Vermont State Police who is in Special Operations, Recreation Enforcement with the attendees' concerns. Sergeant Carbo indicated that his department is also experiencing staffing issues. He noted that they are seeing an increase in reports of unsafe boating on all bodies of water in the state, fueled by a combination of increased interest in outdoor activities and inexperienced boaters. Sergeant Carbo stated that he would share our concerns with Fish & Wildlife, and that he'd also share our concerns with his department in the Rutland office so they can focus on these issues when they are here.

You can read more about LSC Lake Safety including Vermont and Lake St. Catherine specific boating rules on our Lake Safety page.

The 9th Annual LSCA Boat Parade

We had another great boat parade this year! It was a rainy day, but we were able to get the parade completed before the storms hit.

23 boats registered, 17 participated, and 185 people voted online for their favorite boats in our 4 categories: most patriotic, funniest, most original, best overall.

Our winners were:

Most Patriotic:

Boat #19 - Laura Frost - Liberty

Funniest:

Boat #12 - Sarah Conine - Horsing Around With The Cows

Most Original:

Boat #2 - The Roth Family - Scooby Doo Mystery Machine

Best Overall:

Boat #10 - Tonia and Paul Ramirez - Sponge Bob

Thank you to all who participated, to those who cheered from their boat and from the shore, and to everyone who voted! We are looking forward to our 10th year in 2022!

Boating Safety Classes

The LSCA was happy to be able to again provide free boating safety classes for those in the lake community who wanted to get their boating license. Anyone born after January 1st, 1974 must successfully complete an approved boating safety education course to legally operate any motorized vessel - including personal watercraft.

Frank Callahan, Trustee in charge of Boating Safety, conducted the 2 free courses - the first in late June in Wells, the second in early July in West Pawlet. 24 lake community members earned their license this year. We hope to be able to offer these classes again in 2022. Keep an eye out for an announcement in the spring.

Annual Meeting

On July 24th, the LSCA was so happy to be able to host an in-person Annual Meeting at the LSC Country Club this year. It was great to see everyone!

The LSCA Trustees gave their committee reports as part of the presentation, and then we had a great dinner with our lake neighbors.

You can see photos from the evening and view the full presentation here on our website Blog.

Dockside Chats

Dockside Chats began last year as a way to have safe, face-to-face interactions with members around the lake. We invited lake residents to schedule a Dockside Chat with a LSCA Trustee who would meet you at your dock to chat about the lake. These were very popular in 2020, so we continued the program this year. 10 Dockside Chats were scheduled this year. Let us know if you’d like to get a chat scheduled for next season by emailing us at info@lakestcatherine.org.

LSCA Newsletters

Our traditional Spring and Fall newsletters were posted digitally on our website, and printed copies were made available at Otto’s and the Wells Country Store. If you missed them when they were released, you can read them here:

Spring Newsletter

Fall Newsletter

Keeping You Up-To-Date Via Our Website & Facebook Pages

As soon as we have Lake St. Catherine news, we like to inform the lake community as soon as possible by posting it on our website Blog, and on our Facebook page. So, keep an eye on these sites for all the latest information on LSC. We also send out news summaries via email updates to our members who have shared their email with us - so please be sure to provide your email address when you become a member!

Grants

In May, when we were notified that we had earned the $38,224 grant to create a Watershed Action Plan for Lake St. Catherine, it was the largest grant the LSCA had ever received.

We are happy to report that we have just been informed that we have been awarded a $49,000 Clean Water and Healthy Ecosystems Projects Planning grant from the LCBP which will be used to fund the planning, prioritization, outreach, design, and budgeting of projects identified in the Lake St. Catherine Stormwater Master Plan (SWMP).

In 2018 and 2019, extensive field work by the PMNRCD and Fitzgerald Environmental Associates (FEA) took place in the LSC watershed. The goal was to identify sources of increased stormwater runoff and associated sediments and nutrients. Phosphorus reducing projects are of particular importance given the water quality concerns within the watershed. The work involved identifying sources of stormwater, prioritizing sources based on various environmental, economic, and social criteria, and designing projects to mitigate those sources.

While the previously mentioned Lake Wise projects are focused on individual properties on the parcel level, SWMP projects can involve larger areas that may include a combination of public and private lands.

50 sites were identified, and as of today, 4 have been implemented, and 2 others have been designed and are awaiting installation. Projects have recently been completed on North Street, Ferncliff, the boat launch in Wells, and at the Wells Lakeside Park. That leaves 44 others that need to be designed. This grant will allow us to hire a consultant to design these projects to prepare them for funding and implementation.

Other 2022 grants we have applied for:

• A $25,000 Clean Water and Healthy Ecosystems Projects Small Implementation grant to fund Lake Wise from the LCBP
• An Small Educational and Outreach grant (amount TBD) from the LCBP to help fund a Libraries Love Lakes event, including ongoing education at the Wells Village Library, in cooperation with the LSCCF and the Wells Village Library
• An Organizational Support grant from the LCBP to help fund project management and organizational support software for the LSCA to be able to efficiently manage upcoming projects like the Watershed Action Plan
• An Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) grant from the Vermont DEC to help fund our Greeter and DASH Programs
• An Outdoor Conservation and Participation grant to help fund an expansion of our Milfoil Cleanup Community Day / Stop The Spread program by purchasing floating platforms and other equipment to be used by volunteers throughout the season to assist their milfoil cleanup efforts

We have been working hard over the fall to bring grant funds to Lake St. Catherine for 2022!

Thank You For Your Support

Thank you to everyone who supported us this year. We hope you have found our efforts in 2021 for Lake St. Catherine to be worthy.

2022 is going to be a busy year, and we cannot wait to get started!

We hope to earn your support again in 2022. Be on the lookout for our Membership Drive which will begin in early February.

Please keep yourself healthy and be well. We’ll see you at the lake soon,

- The Trustees of The Lake St. Catherine Association