Author Archives: George Fergusson

Whitefield 2024 Property Revaluation Causing Concerns

RJD Appraisal has completed its town-wide revaluation of Whitefield for the 2024 tax year, the first such property revaluation since 2009. The revaluation represents a 100% market value assessment of all the property in the town and the mil rate has dropped from 16 down to 10.10 mils. Regarding the revaluation of Clary Lake shore property, the valuation of a 1/2 acre “base lot” which used to be valued at roughly $40,000 now has a valuation of $275,000. The result is that while estimated taxes on many properties in the town have dropped, the estimated taxes on most Clary Lake shorefront properties in Whitefield have risen dramatically, in many cases by more than 200%. This revaluation has created a serious hardship for some Clary Lake shore owners, many of whom are Clary Lake Association members. We have watched helplessly in recent years as the prices paid for shorefront lots on Clary Lake have risen higher and higher, realizing that a property revaluation reflecting those higher prices was bound to happen. And now it has. Mainers are in fact some of the most heavily taxed citizens in the United States. As Benjamin Franklin so aptly said, “Nothin is certain except death and taxes.” Continue reading →

August 2024 Water Level Chart Archived

August 2024

I have archived the August 2024 water level chart (above, and at left). This is typically the time of year when drought takes over and evaporation controls the lake level but we actually received enough rain in August to mostly offset water loss from evaporation and leakage. We started the month with the lake level down -0.54 feet and ended the month down only -0.70 feet for a net loss of 0.16 feet or 1.9 inches. What’s more, the average rainfall from any given storm was only a quarter of an inch so we didn’t have any large, fast storms which would have washed sediment into the lake. The upside is it helped our water quality remain high while still getting enough rain to keep things green but the downside is it did seem like it rained all month. In fact, we got some amount of rain on 19 of the 31 days of the month so it might have seemed like we got more rain than we did. As for rainfall, we ended the month having received 4.92 inches of rain, only 1.59 inches more than normal but for the year, we’re at a whopping 40.56 inches of precipitation or fully 12.81 inches MORE water than is normal for the end of August. Continue reading →

August 2024 Purple Loosestrife Update

Last year Clary Lake Association member Alan Clark made a major effort to remove Purple Loosestrife plants from around Clary Lake (see: Purple Loosestrife Eradication Project Update), and this summer he’s really outdone himself. He just finished tossing onto our burn pile 14 grain bags stuffed with plants he dug up over the past couple of days from areas adjacent to Clary Lake. I really don’t know how to thank Alan for the effort he has put into this eradication effort! Alan is also one of our more active Courtesy Boat Inspectors and due to his education and experience, he has a lot to offer the Clary Lake Association. Alan Clark and his wife Linda spend the summer at their camp on the Devine Road in Whitefield and the remainder of the year in a small town in Utah (Grantsville), 30 miles west of Salt Lake City. Linda is from Greene, Maine and Alan grew up in southwestern Ohio in a small town west of Dayton. They attended the University of Maine-Orono where they met, married after their junior year and received their BS degrees, Linda in biology and Alan in Wildlife Management, in 1973. We’re fortunate to have them as Association members!

[Show slideshow]

The 2024 Annual Membership Meeting Happened!

We held the 2024 Annual Membership Meeting last Saturday, August 17th, at the home of Gareth & Beverly Bowen. With 36 members attending the meeting, attendance was perhaps a little lighter than expected but nonetheless way more than enough to meet the quorum requirement. I’ll post formal minutes when they’re ready. In the meantime, the main takeaways from the meeting were:

We have a new Treasurer! Mary Gingrow-Shaw, first elected treasurer back in 2015, announced at last year’s Annual meeting that her 5th term as Treasurer to which she had just been elected would be her final term. We were able to find a replacement in Donald Hogg. Don brings extensive financial savvy to the table. He and his wife Maggie Muth (a Board member, by the way) live in Portland and have owned a camp over on Maplewood Road since 2019. Don was elected Treasurer by a unanimous vote. Mary was given a certificate of appreciation and a lovely Weigela bush as a parting gift. We’re grateful for her many years of service to the Association. Mary will continue to handle the Annual Loon Count.
Malcolm Burson stepped down from his second and final term on the Board to make room for a new Director, Hillary Relyea. Hillary’s family owns property on the south side of Clary Lake in Jefferson. Hillary is a school teacher and the daughter of Association Vice President Steven Relyea and lives with her husband Ben Gerdts, also a school teacher, and two young children. We’re all excited about this young and energetic addition to our Board. Malcolm first served as Vice President from 2011 to 2014, then as President from 2015 through 2018, and as a Director from 2019 through 2024. We’re not done with Malcolm yet. He will continue in his role as Chair of the Watershed Survey Steering Committee and of the LakeSmart program.
On a recommendation from the Fundraising Committee, a motion was made to the Membership to raise our Membership dues from $25 to $30 per member to take effect next year. There was little discussion of the motion except to express surprise that we hadn’t raised our dues a long time ago. The motion passed unanimously. We last raised our dues fifteen years ago, in 2009. Those 2009 Dues thanks to inflation are now worth somewhere around $16, or to look at it another way, we’d have had to raise our dues to $39 or more to stay even with 2009 dollars. Sigh.
The Main Program on the recently completed 2024 Watershed Survey (presented by Malcolm Burson, see picture above) and the committee reports presented by Charlene Andersen (Fundraising), Steve Cowles (Dam Operations), Margaret Fergusson (Events) and George Fergusson (Courtesy Boat Inspections and Water Quality Monitoring) were all very interesting and informative.
This year for the first time we offered Zoom access to the meeting so people who couldn’t attend in person would be able to attend virtually. We had 6 people online for the meeting including myself and my wife Margaret (both with COVID), Ben Gerdts and his wife Hillary Relyea, Steve Relyea, and Leslie Gillette. Technically it went better than I had expected! We’ll be doing this again.

Continue reading →

Coffee Klatch on Clary Lake: August 24th

Many thanks to June Lordi and Steve Cowles for taking charge of this year’s Coffee Klatch! Here’s June’s pitch for the event:

Hey Clary Lakers: to wrap up the summer, we’re resurrecting the Coffee Klatch out on the Lake which first happened back in 2019. A number of water craft tied up near the middle of the lake and shared coffee, donuts, and laughter. You are invited to meet again this Saturday August 24th at 10:00AM. See you there!!

The rain date is the next day, Sunday the 25th. Where exactly on Clary Lake the flotilla will form will depend in part on the prevailing winds. Wherever the wind is coming from, that’s the shoreline you’ll find us closest to. If there isn’t much wind, look for us near the middle of the lake. Steve & company will be in his pontoon boat serving up coffee and donuts. We shouldn’t be too hard to find!

Clary Water Transparency Record Broken!

Yesterday August 11th, during our regularly scheduled water quality monitoring session I obtained a secchi disk reading of 5.45 meters (17.88 feet) which is a new transparency record for Clary Lake. The previous record was 5.30 meters observed on September 14, 1994. You can see today’s data point sitting all by it’s lonesome, high on the right side of the above chart, and noticeably higher than any other dot on the chart. Kelsie French who normally accompanies me wasn’t able to join me today so my wife Margaret came out to help. She tried her hand at taking a secchi disk reading and got 5.25 meters, only 4 inches shallower than my reading.

We also took a 4 meter core water sample for Total Phosphorus testing, our third TP test of the summer so far, We’ll take another one in mid-September. Not surprisingly given our clear water this summer, the first 2 TP tests came back at 0.012 mg/L which is exceptionally low for Clary Lake.

Our water quality data is available on our Clary Lake Water Monitoring Data page.

Yet Another Purple Loosestrife Eradication Update

The invasive plant Purple Loosestrife has been popping up around Clary Lake for some years now (the above picture shows Malcolm Burson cautiously sneaking up on an unsuspecting Purple Loosestrife plant back in July 2018) and this year is no exception. In previous years Malcolm Burson and I have taken on the plant removal task ourselves, but last year was just more than we could manage alone. Thankfully, Alan Clark stepped up and did an epic job of digging loads of PL out of a nearby field (see Purple Loosestrife Eradication Project Update) bagging it, and disposing of it on my burn pile. This year I had spotted some new plant locations, but with both Malcolm and I recovering from illnesses, we needed some more help. Well Hillary Relyea and her husband Ben Gerdts stepped up! They have property on the south side of Clary Lake (Hillary is the daughter or our Vice President, Steve Relyea) and they jumped at the opportunity to help with this initiative. They headed out today in kayaks and extracted 5 plants from around the lake including this monster up in the marsh that I had by chance spotted during the Marsh Paddle event last month. I’ve removed some big plants and I still can’t believe the size of that root ball he got out of the ground. Continue reading →

July 2024 Water Level Chart Archived

I have archived the July 2024 water level chart (above, and at left). July was a hot and seemingly dry month, though in fact we received the average amount of precipitation for July of 3.53 inches. Most of the rain fell in the first half of the month and as a result, the lake level remained at or slightly above the top of the dam until the 17th when drier weather settled in for the rest of the month. We ended the month down -0.54 feet below the HWM, having lost only 0.37 feet of water, with evaporation accounting for about 3/4 of that loss. Still, even with only average rainfall for July, we’re at 140% of annual precipitation for this date, thanks to above average rainfall in March, April, and June. Continue reading →

Midsummer Water Quality Update

Clary’s water quality this summer is in a word, awesome. I’m sure any of you who’ve been swimming will agree! The clarity so far this summer is measurably better than we’ve seen in a long time. Last weekend on July 14th Kelsie French and I went out for our biweekly water quality monitoring session at the “deep hole” and we both had secchi disk readings of 4.81 meters (15.77 feet). This is the deepest secchi disk reading we’ve recorded since a 4.88 meter (16.00 feet) reading back in May 2003 (see chart at left). There have been less than 10 secchi disk readings as good or better than today’s, going back to 1975, and none in the last 20 years. Extraordinary. Today’s secchi disk reading was actually the 5th consecutive reading deeper than 4 meters, also extraordinary. We haven’t had a stretch of clear summer water like this in Clary Lake for a long time. Continue reading →

Upcoming Event: Our Ice Cream Social and Marsh Paddle

Our Annual Summer Ice Cream Social is scheduled for Saturday July 20th at the Clary Lake dam. It will be preceded by a BYOK Marsh Paddle (Bring Your Own Kayak) which will take place in the morning. Needless to say, a canoe is fine too! The Ice Cream Social will follow, at its usual time of 1PM. People who wish to participate in the Marsh Paddle should arrive at the dam by 10AM and bring appropriate clothing, water, and perhaps a light snack. The plan is to leave the dam around 10:30AM and paddle out to the lake (about 1.6 miles one way), explore the floating bog a bit, and then return to the dam around 1PM, just in time for ice cream. The ice cream is free but donations are gratefully accepted!

We’d like to have an idea of how many people are planning to paddle so if you’re looking to participate, please let us know by emailing the secretary@clarylake.org.

(The photo at the top of this post shows a large portion of the great marsh from the air looking roughly southwest. The dam is near the upper right corner, Clary Lake is about a quarter mile off to the left and the Sennett Road is just off the right side. Photo by George Fergusson taken during a flight with pilot and lakeshore owner Terry Crummett, on July 10, 2022).

4th of July 2024

I think everyone would agree that this year’s fireworks display was excellent. Many thanks to those responsible for the show! I set up my camera and took dozens of photos, these are some of the ones that turned out the best. They were all taken from my shoreline, 3/4 of a mile away. When I get a chance I’ll upload some pictures of the boat parade, by all accounts it was the best parade yet 🙂

[Show slideshow]

Sailboat For Sale

Occasionally for members we post items for sale. This is one of those occasions!

1978 O’Day Javelin, with trailer. Excellent lake sailer, great in Clary’s light or gusty winds. Seats 4-5 comfortably, wide beam very stable. All lines replaced a few years ago. Recently re-varnished rudder. Needs some work, but currently very sea-worthy. $1000 OBO. 207-838-6519

June 2024 Water Level Chart Archived

I have archived the June 2024 water level chart (above, and at left). June was a dry month, until it wasn’t. Things were getting pretty dry by the 19th of the month, having received only 1.15 inches of rain up to that point. Then the sky opened up! Over the next 10 days we received an additional 6.90 inches or rain bringing us to 8.05 inches for the month, making June the second rainiest month of the year so far, only inch and a half behind March (see chart below). This brings us to 32.11 inches for the year, close to a foot more than normal. The lake level, which had been gently falling for the first 20 days of the month, spiked at 0.15 feet ABOVE the HWM on June 25th, flooding a few docks around the lake and making many others perilously close to flooding- including mine. Only some hasty gate adjustments kept the lake from getting even higher. It’s not that we were caught napping, the problem was that the three biggest rain events, while anticipated, far exceeded the forecast amount of rain.

Outflows from Clary Lake in 2024 (chart at left) remain the highest of the previous 5 years, though 2023 flows are not far behind. To date, 1.6 lake volumes of water have passed through the lake and headed downstream to the Sheepscot River. Keep in mind that the published ANNUAL flushing rate for Clary Lake is only 1.8 lake volumes and with the year only about half over, we’re almost there already. It is pretty clear that we’re going to exceed that published figure this year, perhaps by a lot. The impact of all this flushing on our lake water quality still remains to be seen. There are some indications and some historical evidence to suggest that a high flushing rate good thing. Normally however, high outflows imply high inflows which usually bring sediment, Phosphorus, and other nutrients into the lake, feeding algae growth. So far this year however, lake transparency has remained high: our last secchi disk reading on June 16th was 4.73 meters (15.5 feet) which is very good for early summer, and much better than this time last year. It is however still early in the summer season but for now, it’s looking good.

Clary Lake 4th of July Boat Parade!!

The 5th Annual 4th of July Clary Lake Boat Parade is on! It starts at the State boat launch at 2PM. This event is not a Clary Lake Association event, it’s a Clary Lake event and we support it. Everyone is welcome. It’s organized by Jason and Shanna Pease (pictured above in 2020). Word has it the extraordinary fireworks display is also on, scheduled for 9 PM. Have a happy, safe, and fun 4th!

Clary Lake
4th of July Boat Parade!!

5th Annual Boat Parade
4 th of July 2024
Where: Clary Lake
Time: 2 pm
Details: Decorate your boat
and meet down by the public
landing for a cruise of the
lake! Don’t forget to decorate
your dock!!! Rain or Shine!!
For more information call Shanna Pease at 485-4171.

Summer Officially Arrives!

With the arrival of the Summer Solstice, Summer here in the northern hemisphere has official started. Technically the Solstice occurred today at 4:51PM EDT On this day, the Sun rises the furthest North that it gets in it’s trip around the ecliptic. Until today, sunrise has been creeping to the left (north) as seen on Cam3 (above). It will now start moving back, to the right, towards the south. Today marks the longest day of the year and the shortest night. From now on until the Winter Solstice in December, days will be getting shorter again. Astronomically, the Summer Solstice is when the Sun in it’s path along the ecliptic reaches the furthest point north of the celestial equator. Also ironically, the Summer Solstice marks the point in the earth’s orbit around the sun when it is the furthest from the sun; the earth’s closest approach to the Sun occurs at the Winter Solstice.

Upcoming Clary Lake Association Summer Events!

Our usual Clary Lake Association Summer events have been scheduled, a little later perhaps than we’d have liked but hopefully still in time for you to fit them into your busy summer schedules! We only have a few “standing” summer events. Summer is busy enough without us adding to it! We’ll post notices here, and send around an email or postcard prior to each event as a reminder. You’ll also find these events and more on our Event Calendar.

Whitefield 4th of July Parade: July 4th

The Whitefield 4th of July Parade which coincidentally takes place on July 4th in Kings Mills, South Whitefield. Dave Knight will be once again towing his boat in the parade, decorated with flags, CLA banners, and his granddaughter Kastle. There’ll be room on the boat for more kids! Come down and enjoy the show and buy some food to support the Whitefield Volunteer Fire Department! I also assume the Clary Lake 4th of July Boat Parade will be happening later that same day. It usually starts at 2PM at the east end of the lake by the State Boat Launch. The boat parade is organized by Shanna Pease. The boat parade is not a Clary Lake Association event, we just like to publicize it, and of course, to participate in it!

Ice Cream Social: July 20th

Our Ice Cream Social is back this year, scheduled for Saturday July 20th at the Clary Lake dam. It will be preceded by a BYOK Marsh Paddle (Bring Your Own Kayak) which will take place in the morning. The Ice Cream Social will follow, at its usual time of 1PM. People who wish to participate in the Marsh Paddle should arrive at the dam by 10AM and bring appropriate clothing, water, and perhaps a light snack. The plan is to leave the dam around 10:30AM and paddle out to the lake, explore the floating bog and then return to the dam 1PM, just in time for ice cream. The ice cream is free but donations are gratefully accepted.

We’d like to have an idea of how many people are planning to paddle so if you’re planning to participate, please let us know by emailing the secretary@clarylake.org.

CLA Annual Meeting: August 17th

The Clary Lake Association Annual Meeting is going to be August 17th at 2PM at the home of Gareth & Beverley Bowen at 739 Gardiner Road in Jefferson. All are welcome. Please check out the meeting announcement for more details. The Picture above is of our 2017 Annual Meeting coincidentally held at what it now the Bowen residence.

Coffee Klatch on Clary Lake: August 24th

Finally, to wrap up the summer, we’re resurrecting the Coffee Klatch out on Clary Lake which first happened back in 2019. A number of water craft tied up out on the lake and shared coffee, donuts, and laughter for a while. It was a lot of fun and it was going to become an annual event, and then COVID happened. Details of this event are still unclear. We’ll post an update when plans have coalesced. Exactly where on Clary Lake the boats should rendezvous will depend on the wind: if it’s windy we’ll be looking to nestle into a lee shore where there’ll be calmer water.. We’ll provide the coffee and donuts. You provide the laughter.

If you’d like to help out with any of these events, send an email to events@clarylake.org

Summer 2024 Newsletter Is Out

The Summer 2024 Clary Lake Association Newsletter went in the mail a few days ago and it is now now available for download from our Newsletters page. Feel free to grab a copy and share it with your family and friends! Dues envelopes were included in the mailing, and I expect dues to start arriving soon. I’ll be updating the “Next Year’s 2024/2025 Membership List” as money arrives. This year we met our Membership goal of 175 Members. Our Membership goal for the coming year includes a modest increase. You can help us reach (or even exceed!) our goal by becoming a member today! Visit our Benefits of Membership page for more information about why you should join the Association, and how to do it. Incidentally, the sunset photograph above was taken by Danny Bell and was used as the banner image in this year’s newsletter. Continue reading →

Clary Moods

I always marvel at how the character of Clary Lake will change over time. The lake has moods, almost like people do. The moods are reflected in the lighting, the clouds, the wind, the water. Sometimes it’s sad. Sometimes it’s angry, or laughing, or thoughtful. Or mysterious. Margaret and I were sitting on my dock the other evening, watching a storm pass by to the north. We could see rain off in the distance. This storm had just passed over Augusta and was harassing Three Mile Pond in China with wind, rain, and lightning. I always love the way the late afternoon sunlight slips in under an ominous, cloud-filled sky to illuminate the far shore…

Why We Conduct Courtesy Boat Inspections

This is why we conduct Courtesy Boat Inspections! Dave Knight found this fragment of Common Bladderwort (Utricularia vulgaris) on a boat at the State Boat Launch last Saturday morning during his 2 hour shift (picture above and at left). The boat had previously been in Duckpuddle Pond in Nobleboro. There are no known invasive plants in DuckPuddle Pond (one of the questions we ask boaters is what body of water was their boat in last). This particular plant is a native, non-invasive aquatic plant and we already have it and another variety of Bladderwort in Clary Lake (Floating Bladderwort, Utricularia gibba), but there IS a variety of Bladderwort that we don’t have called “Swollen Bladderwort” which has only recently been designated as invasive. Swollen Bladderwort looks a lot like Floating Bladderwort. This particular plant fragment was mostly dried out but it might have lived and continued growing if put back in the water. Continue reading →

May 2024 Water Level Chart Archived

I have archived the May 2024 water level chart (above, and at left). May’s rainfall was more or less normal for a change, we received 3.55 inches of rain, only 0.16 inches less than the normal 3.71 inches. This allowed things to dry out a bit and resulted in a very stable water level right around or slightly above the top of the dam for most of the month. The biggest rain storm of the month occurred on the 27th and 28th of May, dropping a total of 1.35 inches of rain and gently pushing the lake level to just 0.01 feet shy of the “official” HWM elevation (established by DEP back in 2014) of 151.17 feet. I consider the “practical” HWM to actually be 0.22 feet lower, at 150.95 feet (which we’ve adopted from the USGS National Map, see below) which is effectively at the top of the dam; at that elevation, there’s just a wee bit of water dribbling over the dam in a couple of spots, as you can see in this chart from May 5th when the water level was at 150.95 feet: Continue reading →

Clary Lake 4th of July Boat Parade!!

5th Annual Boat Parade 4 th of July 2024 Where: Clary Lake Time: 2 pm Details: Decorate your boat and meet down by the public landing for a cruise of the lake! Don’t forget to decorate your dock!!! Rain or Shine!! For more information call Shanna Pease at 485-4171.

Whitefield 4th of July Parade: July 4th

Ice Cream Social: July 20th

CLA Annual Meeting: August 17th

Coffee Klatch on Clary Lake: August 24th

Clary Lake
4th of July Boat Parade!!

5th Annual Boat Parade
4 th of July 2024
Where: Clary Lake
Time: 2 pm
Details: Decorate your boat
and meet down by the public
landing for a cruise of the
lake! Don’t forget to decorate
your dock!!! Rain or Shine!!
For more information call Shanna Pease at 485-4171.