***ATTENTION***
End of Summer - Lake Clear Community Clean-up Day!
When: Saturday, September 11th @ 9:30 am
Where: Lake Clear State Beach (route 30)
Join your fellow community members to help keep our lake clean and beautiful for humans and wildlife!
Bring your own gloves – trash bags will be provided.
If you cannot join us at the beach, please take a look around your own area of the lake and clean up as needed!
STATE OF THE LAKE REPORT : 2021 Annual Meeting report
Here's just a small sampling of the natural treasure we're helping to preserve for our lake’s future
PREVENTION of INvasive species
Tim Ladue, volunteer for the Lake Clear Association, collects data and water samples from Lake Clear as a citizen scientist for the Adirondack Lake Assessment Program (ALAP), based at the Paul Smiths College Adirondack Watershed Institute (AWI). AWI processes the data and water samples, and produces an annual report on the water quality of Lake Clear and other participating lakes in the Adirondack Park.
Please follow this link to review the most recent ALAP report: https://www.adkwatershed.org/adirondack-lake-assessment-program-alap
Please follow this link to review the final report of the 2020 Adirondack Aquatic Invasive Species Early Detection Survey Report including Lake Clear **attention** this is a very large file (197 pages) and will take time to upload onto your device
To prevent the introduction of aquatic invasive species to Lake Clear or any lake, we encourage you and your guests to CLEAN, DRAIN and DRY your boat and all your gear, including your water shoes, after leaving any water body, to be ready for your next trip. Not all invasive species are easily visible, so it is important to CLEAN, DRAIN and DRY thoroughly every time you visit any lake, no matter how clean your boat and gear appear.
The nearest free boat washing station to Lake Clear is located in Saranac Inn at the DEC public boat launch at the north shore of Upper Saranac Lake. For directions to this location, as well as the location of other free boat washing stations throughout the Adirondack Park, please visit the following web link: https://www.adkwatershed.org/stewardship/boat-wash-stations#
Our volunteers also monitor the lands surrounding the lake for terrestrial invasive plant species such as Purple Loosestrife, Japanese Knotweed, Lesser Celandine, and the non-native species of Yellow Iris, Honeysuckle, and Phragmites. Careful identification is needed to avoid confusion with native species. Some small areas containing these invasive species have been confirmed and mapped on the Imapinvasives website https://www.imapinvasives.org/, and hand management is ongoing where possible. Education and outreach is occurring for known areas on private lands. We also monitor for Hemlock Wooly Adelgid, an invasive insect that attacks Hemlock trees.
Please review the website of the Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program http://adkinvasives.com/ , the Adirondack Watershed Institute https://www.adkwatershed.org/stewardship and the NYS DEC https://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/265.html to learn more about invasive species, and their prevention and management.
If you have any questions, or think you may have found an invasive species, please email Emily Tyner, Environmental Chair, at dwblakeclear@verizon.net Thank you!
RoaD SALT POLLUTION
The Lake Clear Associations Proposed Management Plan to Reduce Road Salt Use
The Lake Clear Association advocates responsible and reasonable efforts by government agencies to reduce or eliminate the use of road salt. Our review of publicly available data for Lake Clear indicates that sodium and chloride levels in the Lake and groundwater are higher than normal and, in certain cases, unacceptable when measured against applicable government guidance. Lake Clear is not alone among Adirondack lakes in facing this situation. However, the development of roads and highways near the shoreline of Lake Clear and the apparent nature of the soil and groundwater in the area point to a situation where road salt may easily enter the Lake. Water quality can be expected to worsen over time unless measures are taken now to restrict the use of road salt. According to the Adirondack Watershed Institute at Paul Smith’s College, chloride and sodium concentrations in the Lake are particularly high when compared to other Adirondack water bodies. The potential environmental and other dangers presented by high levels of chloride and sodium are well documented.
The Association asks government environmental and transportation officials to develop a road salt minimization program that would protect Lake Clear. This program should represent a significant step toward reversing the threat presented by continued reliance on road salt. We are cognizant of, and support, the need to protect the motoring public. We also believe that the potential severity of the existing situation calls upon all parties to make reasonable changes in order to achieve the goal of minimizing the use of road salt and protecting the environment. Our position is that reasonable highway safety goals and environmental protection are not mutually exclusive and that numerous programs are in place at state and local levels elsewhere which could be duplicated for Lake Clear. These programs would achieve both highway safety goals and environmental protection goals at Lake Clear. The association has petitioned state government officials to institute a low salt zone into the highways in the Lake Clear watershed.
The Association also suggests that the most desirable approach should be comprehensive in nature and call upon the best management skills that exist at state and local agencies. A salt reduction program should involve recognized management tools such as:
a. Continuing research on the potential for beneficial, alternative materials, equipment and methods to reduce the need for salt
b. Real-time evaluation of alternatives to the use of road salt as a highway ice control agent
c. On-going training at all levels, from management to operations, in the need to protect the environment and in the application of available measures to reduce the use of salt.
d. Ongoing monitoring and evaluation of actual winter road maintenance practices to minimize the use of salt while meeting safety requirements.
e. Management and operation incentives to achieve a measurable programmatic goal of salt reduction.
f. Education of the motoring public on the need to protect the environment and applicable methods of achieving highway safety.
g. Inventorying equipment needs that would reduce the need for salt
h. Long term budgeting to support all phases of the program.
The development and progress of this program must be transparently reported to the public. State and local government has a role to play in developing the program and achieving its success, and should mutually cooperate in developing it. The first step must be to recognize that the existing situation must change in order to avoid the escalating potential for environmental damage that can affect tourism, property values and potentially, human health.
View: Adirondack Watershed Institute -
#1) Ground Water & Surface Research Summery #2) Ground Water & Surface Summery
**NEWS RELEASE on Road Salt from Gov. Cuomo
Property & Land Protection
SUMMARY OF COMMENTS BY THE LAKE CLEAR ASSOCIATION CONCERNING THE DRAFT UNIT MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR THE SARANAC LAKES WILD FOREST
In 2018 the association formed a committee to comment on the draft state DEC unit management plan for the Lake Clear area. Following are the complete comments that were submitted. Many of these comments were accepted and included in the final plan.
After considering the proposals in the Unit Management Plan, members of the Lake Clear Association unanimously passed a resolution at their annual meeting in July asking the State to provide no increased access to this small Lake. The resolution was founded on (1) the need to protect a valuable public resource from aquatic invasive species and (2) the need to more completely assess the need for the various development proposals in the UMP in light of their potential impacts on water quality and the overall character of the area. Specific concerns were identified, including:
1. Increased access will create new and unnecessary risks of invasive species entering Lake Clear and impede achievement of the management objectives for invasive species stated in the draft UMP, which are:
· preventing the introduction of invasive species
· eliminating occurrences of invasive species
As is pointed out in the draft Plan, increased access to water bodies increases the risk of aquatic invasive species. Eurasian milfoil and other noxious invasive species are not present in Lake Clear. While visitors regularly use numerous access points on the Lake to bring outboard-driven boats, kayaks and canoes to the water, the number of visitors appears to be within the carrying capacity of the Lake. Because the number of visiting boats is relatively small when compared to other lakes, the very real risk of invasive species being introduced to Lake Clear is much reduced from what it might be. Proposals in the draft UMP, even without the possible construction of the proposed Rail Trail next to the south shore of the Lake, could easily change this equation. The Lake Clear Association has no position on whether to build the trail. However, if it is constructed, significantly more people and more boats may be attracted to Lake Clear which will put new and unquantified pressures on the environmental and social carrying capacity of the lake and the area, presenting increased dangers of aquatic invasive species.
The Lake Clear Association recommends that, while all available management tools and strategies should be considered to minimize the possible introduction of aquatic invasive species, no measures will be sufficiently effective unless access is limited and controlled. Limiting access to the existing launch sites not only helps protect against the introduction of invasive species, it also effectively creates time and opportunities for a more full and complete evaluation of the potential impacts of additional visitors coming to the area, and allows experience to be gained regarding how to manage them. It is significant that none of the existing access to Lake Clear is managed, and that additional access will be inadvertently created for small boats if the Rail Trail is constructed.
Management issues to be evaluated in assessing the risk of invasive species for Lake Clear include:
· Public resources to control invasive species are inadequate. A primary control strategy suggested by the State is to partner with lake associations. But the few residents of Lake Clear would be unable to compile the necessary resources to combat invasive species once they take residence, and the State has neither sufficient financial resources to correct the problem or the manpower to effectively prevent it.
· The closest wash station for boats is several miles away from Lake Clear, and its location is not communicated on the signs that are posted at the existing access points around Lake Clear. The effect of posting such information is unclear. Lake Clear Association volunteers have encountered visitors who, when asked to wash their boats, have refused.
· The Lake Clear Association sees no section of the Unit Management Plan where controlling the current and potentially expanded risks to the Lake presented by invasive species are adequately quantified or discussed. In fact, the draft UMP notes that “there are very few measures currently in place in the Saranac Lakes Wild Forest to prevent the spread of exotic and invasive species.”
We note two significant research projects which indicate that the risks to Lake Clear are significant:
A 2014 study completed by Yellow Wood Associates for the Adirondack Park Invasive Plant Program found that a conservative estimate of potential direct impacts on the economy from invasive species infestation is as much as $893 million, with nearly all of that number coming from reductions in property values. Estimated annual losses to the tourism industry were calculated at as much as $51 million annually.
A study sponsored by the New York Invasive Species Research Institute at Cornell University and authored Dr. Richard Ross Shaker determined that, because Lake Clear is located in close proximity to lakes already damaged by invasive species, the Lake is at high risk of being infested. The author studied the risks of invasion at 126 Adirondack Lakes and determined that Lake Clear ranked ninth in likelihood of being infested.
· We believe that any reasonable discussion of the risks presented by invasive species, including potential impacts on property values and the tax base, the environment and household water supply systems will conclude that access to Lake Clear should be kept to what is currently available, for the foreseeable future. That access is sufficient to meet current needs and also serves to limit risks.
2. Proposals in the UMP for increased access do not comport with the spirit of the State Land Master Plan
The State Land Master Plan states: “protection and preservation of the natural resources of the state lands within the Park must be paramount. Human use and enjoyment…should be permitted and encouraged, so long as the resources in their physical and biological context as well as their social or psychological aspects are not degraded. “ The UMP points out that questions about carrying capacity of waterbodies and areas around them have broadened from asking how many people are too many, to how much change is acceptable. Answering these questions is a complex undertaking. But answering them is critical for protecting the resources of the Lake Clear area and the answers are unknown. Without answering these questions and then creating a robust management plan for protecting Lake Clear from invasive species and overuse by visitors (including a budget to support such a plan) implementation of proposals to increase access to Lake Clear conflict with the resource protection priorities established in the Master Plan. Such a management plan necessarily must rely on data which can only be gathered through real-time experience, and real-time observations of the potential for unacceptable changes. Without considered management strategies that apply to the cumulative impacts of all development proposals affecting the Lake, including the Rail Trail, a responsible decision regarding the appropriate balance between environmental protection and development is impossible. The Adirondack Council recently supported this point of view, stating: “The draft UMP is lacking required technical inventories, current carrying capacity studies, invasive species control methods for sensitive waterways…”
3.Reasonable Guidance in the State Land Master Plan Indicates that proposals for new boating access should be reconsidered
At least four proposals in the draft UMP will, if implemented, affect public boating access to the Lake. Two are classified as “canoe trails” and two are fishing and waterway access sites. The State Land Master Plan lists a series of management guidelines for establishing waterway access sites. The following guidance is pertinent:
--adequate public hand launching facilities are not available to meet a demonstrated need
--motor size limitations should be appropriate for the carrying capacity of the water body
--there will be no adverse impacts on the physical, biological or scenic resources of the water body and surrounding land
--proposals to create a new waterway access site must be accompanied by an adequate demonstration that the guidelines can be complied with
The Lake Clear Association asks the State to strictly apply these management guidelines to all proposals that will increase boating access to the Lake, and wishes to point out the following:
· Adequate public hand launching facilities are available to meet demonstrated needs around the Lake. Hand launching is possible at the State Beach, at the non-conforming launches on Forest Home Road, at the Route 30 Outlet Bridge, and at the railroad trestle on the proposed Rail Trail.
· There is no demonstrated need for a new canoe trail from Conley Road to the Lake, nor for a canoe carry from Little Clear Pond to Lake Clear. Access to Lake Clear in the Conley Road area is already possible at the railroad trestle on the railroad right of way and at the Route 30 bridge; infrequent canoe trippers desiring to reach Lake Clear from Little Clear Pond by using the existing trail to Conley Road can make use of the railroad right of way by walking about 300 yards farther than potential, alternative routes. Long-time residents of the Conley Road area point out that, over the past forty or more years, only one group of canoeists has been observed requesting permission to access Lake Clear after carrying from Little Clear Pond. Perhaps more importantly, it is possible to carry a canoe from Little Clear Pond using the railroad right of way in virtually the same amount of time as using the existing trail that terminates on Conley Road. This route would involve taking a canoe out at a point near the State Hatchery and walking directly to the railroad trestle. There would be no new encounters with residents along this route.
· Proposals in the UMP for new canoe trails cannot be implemented without adversely and unnecessarily impacting private lands. The canoe trail from Conley Road to the Lake will necessarily be located within very short distances of year round and seasonal residences, creating noise and privacy issues, the potential for litter, and unacceptable parking problems on Conley Road. The proposed Sangemo trail and proposals to allow the use of trails by all terrain bicycles will bring people within short distances of the Lake Clear Camp, a regional camp operated by the Girl Scouts of Northeastern New York. The Girl Scouts recently chose Lake Clear as the site for their regional camp, selling off other properties and making significant investments on Lake Clear because of the character of the Lake and its surroundings A new trail and campsite in this area will increase the potential for trespassing and create security issues for young residents of recently renovated buildings located on the 90 acre property, which is occupied and supervised for only part of the summer. While the Sangemo trail is described as a canoe route from Upper St. Regis Lake to Lake Clear, it also is likely to open new, direct and unneeded access to the north side of the lake and attract visitors who drive over the State road from Route 30 and park at the Girl Scout camp gate.
· The UMP proposals to consolidate hand launching sites on Forest Home Road and to facilitate hand launching at the State Beach can only succeed in protecting the Lake and the Lake Outlet from invasive species if trailered boats are successfully prohibited and if enforcement of rules to clean all boats is adequate. As the draft UMP points out, experience with users of the Beach to date has produced negative impacts, including uncontrolled fires, litter and noise. Without sufficient barriers and on-scene enforcement of rules, it is unlikely that boating activity will be limited to hand launching of small boats, especially if access is located within 50 feet of the Lake, as is proposed. Personal watercraft are a particular concern because exotic and invasive species can take residence within the internal drive systems used to propel these craft. Unless time consuming procedures are followed each time the craft are removed from an infected water body, Eurasian milfoil and other species can be easily transported without being detected. Without sufficient barriers limiting access to the water and enforcement of appropriate rules, personal watercraft transported on small trailers can be manually pushed to the water, especially if the distance is short.
· While a size limit is proposed for motors used at the Lake Clear Outlet, no such restriction is proposed for boats launched at the Beach, highlighting safety concerns for persons swimming or sailing in the area. (A particular concern is the safety of the sailing and swimming program operated by the nearby Girl Scout Camp.) Limitations on motorized use should fully apply at both sites. Restrictions on motorized use are an effective tool for reducing the risk of invasive species, since they effectively favor the launching of only small boats which are easily inspected. They are also an effective safety measure.
· Proposals in the draft UMP for increased access to Lake Clear are likely to create adverse impacts on biological and scenic resources. The UMP proposes an insufficient management plan to protect the Lake from invasive species or to protect the area from other objectionable activities. Without significantly increased resources beyond the management team outlined in the Plan to control litter, fires and camping, the scenic resources at Lake Clear beach and the peninsula beach at the southwest corner of the lake, as well as other areas, are likely to be adversely affected.
· An adequate demonstration of compliance with the State Land Master Plan guidance would necessarily require a considered, quantitative projection of increased use that is shared with the public, a management plan and a legislated budget to support dedicated personnel. For such projections to be accurately made, disposition of questions regarding the Rail Trail will be required.
Recommendation:
Because of insufficient financial resources and other problems, we note worsening management situations in other areas of the Adirondack Park that conceivably could be replicated at Lake Clear. In order to understand and gauge the full potential impact of increased development on Lake Clear, the cumulative environmental and social impacts of proposals in the Unit Management Plan must be viewed together with similar issues that will emerge in decisions regarding the Rail Trail. The two proposals are interconnected, but we note that the UMP lacks a sufficient discussion of the social and environmental carrying capacity of Lake Clear, or an answer to the question posed by the draft Unit Management Plan itself: How much change is too much? These facts argue against expanding the existing access to the Lake, and for measures that will better protect the lake.
Both the draft UMP and the ultimate decision regarding the Rail Trail present potentially significant issues for the water quality and the existing character of Lake Clear because they promise to bring large numbers of new visitors to a small area where they will walk, bike, park, swim and boat within close distances of other visitors and residents. The Rail Trail will certainly create new and more frequent conflicts between residents and users of the trail because numerous homes are adjacent to the trail. Trespassing, illegal camping, littering and ATV use of the Trail are issues that will require resolution if the Trail is to succeed, and they are issues also applicable to success of the Unit Management Plan. Without adequate State resources, careful planning and an experienced staff, public confidence in the State’s abilities to adequately protect the public resources around Lake Clear will be eroded. The existing access to Lake Clear for boaters has proved to be more than adequate to meet current needs. The Unit Management Planning process provides for a review every five years. The State should take this time to concentrate its limited resources on:
(a) managing the many existing access points in order to better protect the Lake, with the primary strategy being to limit access to these points and controlling their use in order to ensure safety for visitors and protection for the lake
(b) understanding the potential, cumulative impacts of the proposed Rail Trail or its alternative and the draft Unit Management Plan, before developing new access which may result in increased risks to the Lake while irreversibly altering the character of the area.
Photograph provided by JD Duval
Water Withdrawal from Lake Clear
The. Lake Clear Association submits the following comments for consideration in connection with the proposed water withdrawal permit for the Childstock Farms property, located on Route 30 in Lake Clear.
As is stated in the permit application, this property was formerly in agricultural production and, for decades, the former owner of the property employed an unregulated irrigation system which was sourced from the Lake Clear Outlet. The Association recognizes the benefits of the property being returned to farming and also recognizes that a properly regulated irrgation system will increase the likelihood of a successful agricultural operation. Our numerous discussions with the CEO of Childstock Farms indicate that he is knowledgeable of best farming practices and the need to protect the environment.
The Lake Clear Association is therefore in favor of the Department granting a water withdrawal permit that meets reasonable agricultural needs for this property, if the permit also provides necessary protection for the environmental quality of the Lake and the Outlet. We look to the Department, as the regulatory agency charged with environmental protection, to identify potentially significant impacts of proposed water withdrawals and include provisions in the permit that address them.
The Association has identified the following for consideration.
General Concerns: The hypothetical irrigation schedules presented with the permit application indicate that proposed water withdrawals from the Lake Clear Outlet are unlikely to produce noticeable changes to normal water levels in the Lake and the Outlet. The Association endorses the conclusions presented by these schedules. One goal of the permit should be to prevent noticeable effects on otherwise normal water levels.
Groundwater: Anecdotal evidence indicates that Lake Clear may be largely fed by groundwater. Studies by the Adirondack Watershed Institute demonstrate contamination of the groundwater and the Lake by road salt.
The Association recommends that, as part of its permitting process, the State should use existing data to assess whether permitted water withdrawals would be likely to cause significant increases in groundwater flows to the Lake with the potential for significantly increased adverse effects.
Related concerns: The Association recommends that accepted "best practice " measures be employed to prevent intrusion of fertilizers or pesticides to the Lake Clear Outlet and Upper Saranac Lake.
Following is the response: The DEC Response