Current news for the Hancock and Sand Ponds Association Go to our website for general information, maps, news letter, archived documents, environmental information and calendar events.
Saturday, April 18, 2015
Friday, April 17, 2015
Monday, March 9, 2015
1990 Dam Reconstruction Video
In July 1990 Ed Baumer had the foresight to video tape the dam reconstruction project. He produced a 44 minute VHS tape which came to the attention of Clare Mckeagney. Clare obtained Ed's approval to convert to digital media and successfuly converted the whole tape to DVD. YouTube required one more conversion before being able to view online but could not successfully convert all 44 minutes. This is the first 16 minutes of Ed's original video. We can arrange for additional full length DVDs to be produced, if there is interest from the membership.
Click here for the Dam video.
2015 Newsletter and Temp Graph Insert
Good day.
As usual Joan did a great job putting this together!
The paper version was printed with the newsletter itself in black and white and the temp graph insert in color. Color allows the graph gradients to be more easily read.
Click for Newsletter
Click for Graphs of Daily Water Temperatures
As usual Joan did a great job putting this together!
The paper version was printed with the newsletter itself in black and white and the temp graph insert in color. Color allows the graph gradients to be more easily read.
Click for Newsletter
Click for Graphs of Daily Water Temperatures
Saturday, February 28, 2015
Milfoil Conference 2015 Factoids and Notes
Chris Gouterman is our milfoil coordinator but was unable to attend so I filled in for her..... Jerry Holt
A few notes on what I learned at the conference.
Courtesy Boat Inspection Handbook http://www.maine.gov/dep/water/invasives/cbi-handbook.pdf
Invasive species does not just mean plants and other marine life from "away". Example - a Maine native bass introduced to a primarily brook trout body of water is an invasive species because the bass is more aggressive and has no natural predators in the new body of water.
Maine provides over 90% of the brook trout fishing in the US.
Any plant transfer from a body of water via boats or trailers is illegal regardless of it being an invasive species or not.
LEA coordinates the milfoil training and is the financial conduit for much of the funding state wide.
LEA is pursuing electronic data collecting for boat inspections.
In 2014 there were over 30,000 CBIs (courtesy boat inspections). There were 109 inspections that identified invasive plants (saves).
65 of the 109 saves were from Lake Arrowhead in Limerick!!
Lake Arrowhead has two milfoil harvesting boats running 6 days a week.
A panelist from Lake Arrowhead reported real estate values of waterfront properties on that lake have dropped 32% since 2007, causing Limerick to raise the mill rate for all property owners in town.
Discussion regarding closing access to surface waters of severely infected waters varied from no way to yes. There were many variations of the two extremes which were noted by state officials for further consideration. Two moderate ideas were to close access points (with a gate) when no inspectors are available and direct launching and take out activities to a single access point for better monitoring.
Bass tournaments may or may not be sanctioned by the state. If sanctioned they must have a trained CBI and all boats inspected upon launch and take out. This does not prevent the local CBI from also performing their duties. Sanctioned tournaments will have stickers on the boats indicating such.
Bass tournaments are a highly visible activity and an easy target for blame but may only be part of the problem. Activity that we don't see or is not organized may play a stronger role in spreading milfoil.
I tried to hit the high points with enough description for you to understand the issues discussed but not so much as to bury you in details. I hope I succeeded.
Remember Chris Gouterman is our milfoil coordinator and any general concerns should be directed to her.
A few notes on what I learned at the conference.
Courtesy Boat Inspection Handbook http://www.maine.gov/dep/water/invasives/cbi-handbook.pdf
Invasive species does not just mean plants and other marine life from "away". Example - a Maine native bass introduced to a primarily brook trout body of water is an invasive species because the bass is more aggressive and has no natural predators in the new body of water.
Maine provides over 90% of the brook trout fishing in the US.
Any plant transfer from a body of water via boats or trailers is illegal regardless of it being an invasive species or not.
LEA coordinates the milfoil training and is the financial conduit for much of the funding state wide.
LEA is pursuing electronic data collecting for boat inspections.
In 2014 there were over 30,000 CBIs (courtesy boat inspections). There were 109 inspections that identified invasive plants (saves).
65 of the 109 saves were from Lake Arrowhead in Limerick!!
Lake Arrowhead has two milfoil harvesting boats running 6 days a week.
A panelist from Lake Arrowhead reported real estate values of waterfront properties on that lake have dropped 32% since 2007, causing Limerick to raise the mill rate for all property owners in town.
Discussion regarding closing access to surface waters of severely infected waters varied from no way to yes. There were many variations of the two extremes which were noted by state officials for further consideration. Two moderate ideas were to close access points (with a gate) when no inspectors are available and direct launching and take out activities to a single access point for better monitoring.
Bass tournaments may or may not be sanctioned by the state. If sanctioned they must have a trained CBI and all boats inspected upon launch and take out. This does not prevent the local CBI from also performing their duties. Sanctioned tournaments will have stickers on the boats indicating such.
Bass tournaments are a highly visible activity and an easy target for blame but may only be part of the problem. Activity that we don't see or is not organized may play a stronger role in spreading milfoil.
I tried to hit the high points with enough description for you to understand the issues discussed but not so much as to bury you in details. I hope I succeeded.
Remember Chris Gouterman is our milfoil coordinator and any general concerns should be directed to her.
Friday, February 27, 2015
Maine Milfoil Conference 2015 Pictures
Panel discussion regarding restricting surface access to infected lakes/ponds.
Commissioner Inland Fisheries and Wildlife presentation on invasive fish.
LEA's Mary Jewit training session on Courtesy Boat Inspections.
Saturday, January 24, 2015
Water Testing - heat maps
The following is from Colin Holme of LEA regarding heat maps of Sand and Hancock ponds.
Hi Hancock and Sand Ponders,
I thought you might be interested in seeing the new temperature data from Hancock and Sand Ponds in another (perhaps more easily digestible) form. These maps (the first two attachments) show temperature variation in the water column over time. The left hand side of the graph shows the depth from the surface, with the top of the graph representing the top of the pond. Lake layering deepens over time (block of color extends further down) until it breaks down. The uniform color on the right side of the graph indicates lake mixing. This type of display gives a very quick synopsis of an entire season’s temperature data and when we have data from a couple years, it will be easy to see big differences that are likely one of the primary drivers responsible for changes in algae growth. This type of detailed data is only possible because of the new sensors that were put in last year. Feel free to pass this on to anyone interested.
I also attached our full temperature and gloeotrichia report (the 3rd and 4th attachments) from 2014 for those of you who did not see them yet. Previously posted in this blog December 2014. Scroll down this page and you will see the other water quality testing reports.
Thanks for all the help in making this possible.
Colin
Colin Holme
Lakes Environmental Association
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