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Group seeks help with lakes

BROOKLINE – The town Conservation Commission is looking for a few good volunteers – teenagers, college, students, retirees and anyone else interested in helping the New Hampshire Lakes Association, a statewide, nonprofit organization – to keep New Hampshire ponds and lakes free of variable milfoil, an invasive weed that in recent years has infested Melendy Pond and Lake Potanipo.

The commission also plans to hire a manager to schedule volunteers and oversee the weekend inspection process at Lake Potanipo.

In a prepared release, Conservation Commission Chairman Jay Chrystal said the manager will receive a uniform and a “small stipend.”

“Volunteers train boaters so when they get to the ramp, they’re in the habit of inspecting their boats, and if they find any plant, take it off,” said Andrea LaMoreaux, education director for the New Hampshire Lakes Association.

The 18-year-old, nonprofit Lakes Association, which claims a membership of roughly 26,000, began the Lake Hosts program as a federally funded pilot in 2002 and last year trained 450 volunteers and 225 paid workers, LaMoreaux said.

She said in 2003, the state funded the program, and until last year, state and federal grants covered the costs of providing Lake Hosts to inspect boats and educate boaters across the state.

This year, no federal money is available, and state and local governments have promised to pick up the tab, LaMoreaux said.

Serving as a Lake Host is an opportunity for a high school or college student to fulfill a community service obligation. But it also affords an older, retired person an opportunity to learn about aquatic plant infestation and help to control and reduce it.

LaMoreaux said that learning to identify and remove the plants that stick to the little nooks and crannies on a boat or trailer, including the license plate or lights, for example, is simple and crucial.

Aquatic plants can disrupt the ecological balance of a lake or pond, reduce shoreline property values, and limit or endanger recreation, she added.

“We want to teach boaters how to inspect their boats before and after they go into the water,” LaMoreaux said. “Anything that’s green, you take it off.”

For more information or to sign up as a Brookline volunteer, contact Conservation Commission Chairman Jay Chrystal through the Town Hall at 673-8855.

Hattie Bernstein can be reached at 673-3100, ext. 24, or hbernstein@cabinet.com.