Conservationist of the Year

At our Annual Meeting in December, we recognized Friends of Lake Winnecook (FOLW) with our Conservationist of the Year award.  Lake Winnecook is also known as Unity Pond.  It straddles three Waldo County towns: Unity, Burnham, and Troy. There are 300 individual lots on the lake that are located within 250 feet of the shoreline.  Unity Pond was declared an impaired lake by the State of Maine as a result of its poor water quality and increased incidence of nuisance algal blooms. FOLW is determined to restore the lake to healthier ecological conditions.

FOLW Vice President, Charlie Schaefer, graciously accepted the award on behalf of the lake association.  Charlie married into the Unity community when he wed Arlene, who is a local gal.  They moved back there when Charlie retired from military service after achieving the rank of Colonel, and he has served on the FOLW board intermittently since its inception in 1987.  FOLW Board members and other volunteers have contributed countless hours of service to keep the lake community thriving.  They are dedicated to addressing the needs of the lake and its residents, and repairing the challenging ecological conditions seen at the lake over the last few decades. 

Here are some of the examples of FOLW’s hard work and accomplishments in recent years.   

· Organized and hosted Lake Smart trainings and conducted Lake Smart property assessments. 

· Organized gravel road surveys and offered related workshops. 

· Conducted bi-monthly water quality monitoring and data collection in the lake.   

· Offered a septic rebate program and conducted septic education and outreach. 

· Offered courtesy boat inspections and sent plant fragments for identification. 908 inspections were completed in 2022 with 397 hours donated.

· FOLW collaborated with our District and other partners to bring about the completion of a new 10-year Watershed-based Management Plan in 2022. 

For the updated 10-year plan, valuable baseline data were gathered through various surveys, assessments, and monitoring activities as described above.  It was also confirmed that Sandy Stream backflushes into the lake during heavy storms.  More data are needed about this phenomenon and a study will be organized as part of the new plan. 

Friends of Lake Winnecook is spearheading fundraising efforts and the application for a Maine DEP 319 grant, an important first step for studying and fixing nonpoint source pollution in the watershed.  The road will be long but FOLW is off to a great start and they won’t be walking alone.  We applaud their devotion to the lake and look forward to supporting their efforts.

Visit their website to read about these topics and in more detail!