Students join SLAM in Silver Lake water quality monitoring [06/28/2008]

Eleven fifth graders from Madison Elementary School were treated to a morning of scientific exploration on Silver Lake Tuesday, June 10, as they joined representatives of the Silver Lake Association of Madison in performing water quality tests out on the lake.We took them to each of the seven monitor spots that we utilize on the lake and explained why those monitor spots exist, said Silver Lake Association of Madison vice president Ted Kramer. For instance, we told them how we get runoff from Deer Hill, or from the watershed from Forest Brook. We test for visibility with a Secchi disk it's a disk that you lower and have a tube to look at the clarity of water. Ours is about 20 feet clear which is excellent, even with all the pollen on top.For the past 25 years, the Silver Lake Association of Madison in addition to staffing the Lake Hosts to conduct courtesy inspections has conducted water samplings all summer long that are analyzed by University of New Hampshire experts.The outing was the culmination of an Interactive Lake Ecology class that was taught by teacher Vicki Sanborn to the Madison fifth graders, using resource material supplied by the N.H. Lakes Association.The class was accompanied on the two-hour pontoon boats class outing by teacher Vicki Sanborn. SLAM representatives were Kramer, former SLAM president Bruce Gordon and current president Hershel Sosnoff. Also on board were two representatives from the state Department of Environmental Services, Deidre Sargent, who works for DES exotic species expert Amy Smagula and Alicia Carlson, a source water protection education specialist.They [the DES officials] brought a water sampler that goes down to 50 feet and condenses all the plankton into a jar. You then put it in under a magnifier and you see all these little critters swimming around! It's what the fish feed on, and it's too microscopic to see it with the human eye, but the is were really shocked by that they said they'd never drink that water again! laughed Kramer.Kramer said the group did not tour Cook's Pond, an inlet that has been a source of contention by local resident Fred Ham, who has asserted that runoff from a family farm owned by the Riss family is impacting the the water quality there and of the lake.But, Kramer said, SLAM will begin testing there this month.We used to test it once annually now we will be doing it every two weeks. We do all the locations; we now have eight locations, said Kramer, noting that Cook's Pond will be the eighth. We added Cook's Pond due to the questions of excessive algae bloom. We have not found anything as of yet, said Kramer June 13.Kramer said the lake obtains the highest class rating, saying, It's classified as pristine by UNH.He said that SLAM has more than 24 volunteers who perform weekly observations and testing of samples every two weeks which are then shipped to the University of New Hampshire for analysis. UNH tests them for all kinds of things acidity, clarity, healthiness, said Kramer, adding, There are two things that hurt lakes: invasive species, and excessive runoff. We are pretty fortunate in both cases, as with Silver Lake we have a very good vegetative berm.Residents at Madison annual town meeting a few years ago approved SLAM's warrant article request for $7000 to build a boatwash station. That station is now open weekends but will operate daily 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Labor Day, and will then be open weekends through September. The lake hosts greet boaters at the launch and ask if they can perform a courtesy inspection of their boat and trailer to see if there is any plant growth if there is, they remove it, bag it and send off to the DES for an opinion, said Kramer, noting that milfoil is always a threat in the state but that so far, Silver Lake remains protected.We have had two saves in the past five years so far, where we did find invasive species. Last year, we inspected over 1200 boats, said Kramer, noting that SLAM employs six youth workers at the station and also utilizes the help of volunteers.For more information, call Kramer at 367-8459.