Clean up the boat!  

Don't bring invasives into our lake!  Join our Lake Stewards next summer and help to inform boaters how they can help to protect our lake. Did you see our Lake Stewards in their yellow tee shirts each weekend last summer?.  A total of 69 volunteers spent 542 hours, checked 1,478 boats and spoke to 3,778 boaters.  With some minor changes the program wil continue in the summer of 2008.  If you are willing to be part of this effort, please contact us.  We need your help!

How It Gets Here  

The stems of milfoil break apart (senesce) easily and each plantlet can drift around and eventually sink to the bottom where it becomes rooted.  Floating pieces of milfoil can easily become caught on boat trailers and boat propellers so that milfoil can be carried from one water body to another.  Perhaps the most important function of our volunteers it to hand out educational materials on milfoil and other invasives.   While they are doing this they are also able to look for milfoil on incoming boats and trailers.  Some launch ramps have installed wash stations for boaters but the problems with effective washing and disposal of material make visual inspection a better alternative for milfoil spotting.

For more information, see our Eurasian Watermilfoil page.

How Can I Help?  

Our members Bill McGhie (also President of the ESSLA), Chrys Matterson and Jane Smith (also members of both SLA and the ESSLA), together with our member John Huston are heading up the Launch Ramp Project for the summer of 2008.  If you are interested in being a volunteer to help with this project please contact Bill at wmcghie@nycap.rr.com for the Horicon launch ramp or John Huston at (northwild@msn.com for the Town of Schroon launch ramp.

The Launch Ramp Project is yet another project in which the SLA is continuing a long tradition of partnering with volunteers from the (ESSLA) East Shore of Schroon Lake Association.