At Watchic Lake, we are lucky to have two long term volunteer lake monitors (Eileen and David Burnell) with over 20 years’ experience reporting on water quality in our lake. This year the Lake Stewards of Maine (formerly Maine VLMP) asked monitors to write about what it means to them to be a lake monitor. Eileen was invited to share her submission at the 2018 Lake Stewards of Maine annual meeting. Here is what she said: Our lake home is
Read More

One of our members was recently surprised to see a large group of loons on the lake – he counted 10 and photographed nine of them. Generally we have four loons on the lake (2 nesting pairs), with an occasional visiting loon. We do have two loon chicks this year as well. Our guess is that with only one nesting pair this year (if you recall one nesting loon killed earlier this year), there are no loons defending the territory
Read More

Thank you to Watchic Lake Association volunteers Don and Martha Drew, and Agnes and Rick Wiggin for steering our Watchic Lake Ice Cream Boat! 200 ice cream cups and information on protecting the lake were handed out to folks along the shore. And thank your to Hannaford Supermarket in Standish for donating the ice cream!    
Read More

LakeSmart offers free opportunities for homeowners to learn how to manage their home and yard to improve the water quality of the lake.  The primary focus of LakeSmart is to keep our water clean by stopping runoff into the lake (reducing the risk of algal blooms). This is done by stabilizing eroding areas, reducing the use of chemicals, diverting rainwater into vegetated areas, and maintaining or planting trees, shrubs, and ground cover along the shoreline. Currently about 30 Watchic Lake
Read More

Sadly, one of the Middle Island loons was recently found dead on the lake. The loon was found on Sunday May 20th at about 11:00 am in the vicinity of 121 Hi Vu Drive. Based on its injuries it was likely struck by a propeller on or around May 20th . The Maine Warden service was contacted and they picked up the loon, which was a male. The loon had earlier been tagged by the Biodiversity Research Institute, which has
Read More

Maine Audubon is starting a citizen science project this year to look at turtle roadkill in areas around the state (learn more here). As you may know, the Watchic Lake area is likely home to the endangered Blandings Turtles, so the more we know the better. The work required by volunteers is pretty simple – get trained, walk agreed roads around the lake once or twice a month, and report on any turtles found. Maine Audubon is offering two training
Read More

This recent satellite photo (click on the photo for a larger view) of North and East Ponds in central Maine shows how algal blooms impact water quality. The two lakes are similar in most respects but East Pond (right side) blooms yearly, threatening recreation and property values. This problem is believed to have come about due to increased phosphorus from storm water runoff into East Pond. Years of work by the lake association to stop overland storm water pollution have
Read More