Author Archives: George Fergusson

Watershed Survey Volunteer Update

The response to our post looking for volunteers (see: 2024 Clary Lake Watershed Survey: Volunteers Needed!) has been good! I’m happy to announce that we’ve lined up a sufficient number of people to assist with the watershed survey this coming spring. That said, it certainly can’t hurt to have a few extra people lined up so if you were on the fence about volunteering for this important project, please consider doing so! There is plenty of work to go around.

Many thanks in advance to the people who’ve signed up to volunteer:

Anya Lagasse, Ashley Prescott, Brian Vogel, Carolyn Curtis, Charlene Andersen, Cheryl Smith, Dave Knight, Dee Ann Grazioso, Eric Sroka, George Fergusson, Julie Cowles, Kathryn Ference, Malcolm Burson, Megan Breece, Michael Keller, Paul Devlin, Steve Cowles, and Wynne Keller.

A Sunny Winter Day

Clary_cam3 casts a shadow on the lake on this clear, cold, sunny day. I don’t really have anything to say, I was just thinking it was time for a picture. I haven’t seen anyone ice fishing, but I heard someone drilling holes with an ice augur yesterday.

2024 Clary Lake Watershed Survey: Volunteers Needed!

clarylake_with_watershedOur Watershed Steering Committee has begun planning the 2024 Watershed Survey, with the assistance of DEP Staff. This is not our first watershed survey, the picture at left is the actual Clary Lake watershed map developed for the 2001 watershed survey. While the watershed itself hasn’t changed in 22 years, a lot of land development has occurred in those intervening years. It is way past time to take this important step in protecting and preserving Clary Lake and its water quality.

The purpose of a watershed survey is to identify sources of non-point source pollution- areas where soil erosion is taking place within the watershed such as along shorelines, gravel driveways, camp roads, road side ditches, dysfunctional culverts, etc. Runoff from rainstorms and snowmelt can result in soil erosion and sedimentation which makes its way into the lake, bringing with it sediment and nutrients, the most damaging of which is Phosphorus.  If you’ve been paying attention over the years, you’ll know that Phosphorus is the primary cause of algal blooms and If we want to keep our lake free of blooms (see picture at the top of this post), we need to reduce the amount of Phosphorus entering the lake. A watershed  survey is the first step in doing that.

Once we’ve completed a watershed survey and have developed a Watershed Plan, we become eligible for Nonpoint Source Water Pollution Control Grants. DEP administers Nonpoint Source (NPS) grants to help communities make progress restoring or protecting waters named as NPS Priority Watersheds (Nonpoint Source Priority Watersheds List). While Clary Lake is not listed as an “Impaired” lake,  it IS on the list of Threatened Lakes, making it eligible for 319 funds- a dubious distinction but an important one! Grants for projects are funded with monies provided to DEP by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under Section 319(h) or Section 604(b) of the Clean Water Act.

Volunteers Needed!

We’re going to need roughly 15 volunteers to help with the actual field work of the survey. The plan is to divide the watershed into 4 roughly equal sized sectors and assign each sector to a survey team consisting of 3-4 volunteers and a Technical Specialist who will oversee and guide the survey fieldwork. It is anticipated that the  actual field work will take approximately one day to complete. It will obviously be a long day! Food and refreshments will be provided.

The survey is to take place on Saturday May 4th (rain date, Sunday May 5th). Volunteers will need to attend a Zoom training session held a week or two before the survey. The training will be offered several times to accommodate varying schedules. To volunteer to help with the watershed survey field work or to volunteer in any other capacity on this important project, please email watershed@clarylake.org or call George Fergusson @ 207-242-2256. If you have any questions at all about the survey or why we’re doing it, please do not hesitate to contact us!

CLA Hors D’oeuvre Party Announcement!

It’s never too early to beat the doldrums, or plan to beat the doldrums!! We’re looking to do just that this coming February when we expect the Winter Doldrums to be at their peak! We’d like to gather as many Members as we can to join in celebrating being together, and to break up the monotony and cold of the long winter with some warm cheer and friendly conversation. To that end we’re planning a party on February 24, 2024 at 7 PM at the home of our President, Gareth Bowen and his lovely First Lady Beverley! Their house is down at the end of the long driveway at 739 Gardiner Road in Jefferson in the field overlooking the lake (MAP). Various events have been held there over the years including our first Doldrums party back in February 2020, just before the COVID pandemic started. It was a great party and we’ve wanted to do a repeat of it ever since, and this is the first year when it seems feasible. We hope you can make it!

Mark your calendars!! This party is going happen regardless of the weather, but if there’s a major winter storm underway making travel unsafe or impossible, we’ll put the party off to the following weekend, same time, same place.

Please bring an hors d’oeuvre or light fare dish to add to what is sure to be a smorgasbord of little party delights, and whatever beverage you care to consume. Hope to see you there!

December 2023 Water Level Chart Archived

12 Clary-Lake-Water-Level-December-2023And that’s a wrap! I have archived the December water level chart (at left and above) bringing 2023 to a close. Once again as has happened so often this past year, December rainfall vastly exceeded the monthly average. We received 7.47 inches of rain in December, 4.03 inches more than the average of 3.44 inches. We ended the year with a total of 60.31 inches of precipitation, 16.25 inches more than the annual average of 44.06 inches. To say it was a wet year doesn’t quite do it justice: we got soaked in 2023! All this rain resulted in some wild swings in the lake level in December with it twice rising above the High Water Mark resulting in gentle overtopping of the dam. This isn’t actually all that unusual. Despite our efforts to keep the lake level “down where it belongs” going into Winter, over-topping in December happens roughly 3 years out of 5. Continue reading →

That Was The Week That Was!

after-the-12-18-23-stormIt seems kinda silly now looking back on the post “10 December 2023: Bracing for a Big Storm” and all the concerns we had at that time about potential wind and rain damage after the absolute pounding the State of Maine took on Monday. On Monday they reportedly clocked winds at Pemaquid Point of 105 mph. That’s humming! The wind wasn’t that high here inland, but the wind was still terrifying and plenty strong enough to knock down trees the telephone poles (see above). You’ve no doubt seen the pictures of the Kennebec River overflowing it’s banks and flooding downtown Gardiner, Hallowell, and Augusta and other pictures and videos from around the State showing roads washed out or blocked with down trees and powerlines. We and most everyone else in Midcoast Maine lost power about 8 AM on Monday the 18th and for us here on the south side of Clary Lake, it didn’t return until about 3 PM Thursday afternoon thanks to the broken off pole (pictured above) just into Jefferson on Route 126 which delayed restoration efforts. At the time of this writing on Friday morning there are still 31,000 CMP customers without power, down from a half a million just a couple of days ago. Continue reading →

10 December 2023: Bracing for a Big Storm

20231210_140720The picture above shows Steve Cowles opening the gate in the Clary Lake dam in anticipation of a lot of rain: we’re in for a big storm later tonight and on through tomorrow with heavy rain and high winds. A few days ago it looked like we’d only be grazed by it but as it got closer, it got worse. Right now the prediction is for 50+ mile per hour winds and between 3 and 5 inches of rain. The worst wind is expected downeast. Flood warnings have been issued State-wide through Tuesday. Even with the gate and weir wide open (picture at left) and with the lake down over a foot, overtopping of the dam is likely. With partially frozen and totally saturated ground, runoff is expected to be substantial and because the wind is from the South, power outages are expected. That is not a wind direction trees in Maine are used to it. Continue reading →

UPDATED: 7 December 2023: Clary Lake Is (ALMOST) Iced In!

ice-in-12-7-2023[UPDATE NO. 2] I did get out this morning and can confirm the lake is solidly frozen end to end and side to side. I suspect the open water I saw yesterday over by Duncan Road was due to seepage of 48° groundwater into the lake, it being enough to ward off freezing until last night’s single digit temps. Whether the ice survives next Monday’s warm rainstorm remains to be seen but for now, as of 8 December 2023, Clary Lake is officially frozen over.

[UPDATE] I’m sorry I didn’t go check the lake sooner or I’d have held off on posting this so-called news! There’s a small expanse of open water along the shoreline over in the cove by Duncan Road in front of the French, Vincentsen, and Duncan camps. So while the lake is 99.9999999% frozen over, it’s not 100% frozen over and the meteorological conditions necessary for ice-in have not been met. I’m calling it Almost Ice-in.

An overnight temperature of 9° degrees was enough for Clary Lake to completely freeze over. I’ve only checked the webcams so far, I’ll take a drive around the lake in a while and confirm it is completely frozen over and if it is, I will record today as the initial ice-in date. In any case, I wouldn’t venture out there on foot just yet! Give it a couple of more days and then tentatively test the thickness in various spots. You want a solid 3 inches to walk or skate on. Don’t be foolish.

It also wouldn’t surprise me if it opens up again before finally freezing over for the winter: it is supposed to warm up this weekend and Sunday through Monday a large warm weather system is going to blow through with strong southerly winds and heavy rains. It’s unlikely the ice we see today will survive that.

04 December 2023: First Snow at Clary Lake

I woke up this morning to the first snow this fall on Clary Lake, and a short power outage, offering me an opportunity to test my generator (it worked fine). It sure looks like winter out there, but it’s pretty warm out. I expect this 2+” of new snow will not last. The lake is still open but there has been ice in the coves off and on this past week so it’s clearly getting ready. We’re just waiting for some sustained cold weather for it to freeze up once and for all. It’s going down into the low teens for a few days this week so there’s a good chance the lake will skim over if it remains calm overnight, but I think a solid freeze up is still a few weeks off. Now is the time to think about getting your skates sharpened and the ice boat ready! When there is ice suitable for skating or ice boating, you best be ready to go because it usually doesn’t last long before snow makes an appearance. Continue reading →

November 2023 Water Level Chart Archived

11 Clary-Lake-Water-Level-November-2023

November 2023

I have archived the November 2023 water level chart (above, and at left). November is normally the wettest month of the year with average rainfall of 4.58 inches but this year we fell a little short, receiving only 3.24 inches of rain with most of it falling in the latter half of the month. However, we’ve already received 52.84 inches of precipitation this year so we’re way ahead of the average of 40.62 inches of rainfall for November. As it stands now, 2023 will be a record year for precipitation even if we don’t get any more rain (or snow) between now and the end of the year.

[UPDATED] Website Issues

[UPDATE] We’re back in business, no thanks to our hosting provider’s technical support. Moving on.

Our website went down a little after Noon last Saturday for an unknown reason. Our hosting provider offered little help, much to my chagrin. I was able to finally bring it back up this morning after tweaking some essential files on the site. I still don’ t know what happened in the first place to take the site down. I initially considered the possibility that our site had been hacked but I have dismissed that possibility.

While the site is back up, it’s exceedingly slow with abysmal data transfer rates. I’m about to get back on the horn with Support to try and address this issue. In the meantime, until we’re in operating normally again, please be patient. You’re likely to get a 504 Gateway Timeout or simply a “This site took too long to respond” error. Just give it a moment and try again.

Happy Thanksgiving from the Clary Lake Association

This is a repost of a message written by my wife Margaret, 3 years ago on Thanksgiving. At the time we were in the middle of a pandemic and it seems like life had simply been put on hold, and there was little to be thankful for. The pandemic is over thank goodness, but for many of us, times are still challenging, life is still challenging. I thought Margaret’s message was as good today as it was three years ago.

Everyday should be and is an opportunity to give thanks.  During these challenging times, we can easily lose our footing in gratitude and only focus on what we don’t have, what we can’t do, and sadly for some of us, what we have lost.  And so, we must remain steadfast in our work of living in the moment, taking nothing for granted and performing little acts of kindness.  No earthly power can prevent us from living in this way.

May all of us, near and far, take a moment and remember what is truly important and know that it is found within. Happy Thanksgiving… now and always. Be kind and stay safe!

Margaret Fergusson

Total Phosphorus In Clary Lake

[November 2023] I’ve been working on this article about Total Phosphorus levels in Clary Lake for some time, another in our continuing education series, based on the premise that informed people make better Lake Stewards! The better we all understand lake science the better able we will be to protect and preserve our cherished natural resource. This article on Phosphorus in Clary Lake will be posted under Programs.

Total Phosphorus In Clary Lake

Clary_Total_PhosphorusPhosphorus (P) is an element on the Periodic chart and it exists in nature in rocks and soil in various forms. P is crucial to all life forms and in small amounts it is a good thing, but as you’ve all learned by now, too much P can cause excessive algae growth resulting in harmful algal blooms. Consequently, an important part of our Water Quality Monitoring program is collecting data on the Total Phosphorus (TP) load in Clary Lake, and studying how it varies over time (TP is a measure of ALL the phosphorus found in a sample whether it is dissolved or in particulate form). We take 3 water samples for TP testing every season, and our 3rd and final TP test result for 2023 is back so this seems like good time to dig into this important topic. On September 22nd we took a 7 meter core water sample; it came back showing 0.017 mg/L of TP. I was actually expecting a higher figure in the mid to upper 20s and I’m glad I was wrong, but clearly it was high enough to fuel a moderate month-long algal bloom this fall with sightings of dead green algae collecting along the shore as early as late September and as recently as the end of October. The blessing if there is one is that it didn’t happen during the summer! Last year we had generally higher TP readings and a much more severe algal bloom that started around September 1st and didn’t burn itself out until late November. Other factors do contribute to produce algal blooms, but the presence of Phosphorus (P) in our lake is the single biggest cause. When we say algal blooms, we’re mainly talking about excessive growth of blue-green algae, more commonly known as Cyanobacteria. We’ll cover Cyanobacteria in depth at another time. Continue reading →

Live Streaming Cameras All Working Again

Live Stream Clary_cam3

A couple of our webcams were not accepting connections for live streaming for a while, but all 3 are working just fine now. Wondering what the conditions are on the lake right now? Take a look! When live streaming a camera, you can zoom in, go full screen, or take a picture and save it to your phone or computer. The picture above was taken while live streaming Clary_cam3. The webcam pictures update on the site every 20 minutes, but pictures are actually uploaded to the server every 4 minutes and they’re kept available for 3 days. You’ll find links to the archives on the Webcams page and on the individual camera pages.

Happy Sunrise

I posted this on Facebook and Instagram the other day with the caption “The first snow of the season is expected today. Y’all be careful out there!” and it received so much attention I decided to post it here too 🙂

October 2023 Water Level Chart Archived

10 Clary-Lake-Water-Level-October-2023I have archived the October 2023 water level chart (above, and at left).  Rainfall for the month once again exceeded normal (a common refrain this year!) keeping the lake level higher than intended, at one point coming within almost an inch of the HWM with water flowing over the dam- unusual in October. By the end of the month however the lake was back down to 3/4 of a foot  below the HWM which is about normal for this date. All told we received 5.36 inches of rain (normal is 4.45 inches) bringing us to 49.6 inches for the year, fully 13.6 inches above normal! Even if rainfall remains normal or below normal for the rest of the year, 2023 will still go down in the record book as an exceedingly wet year. We’ve seen greater-than-average rainfall in 7 of the first 10 months of 2023, and normally the wettest month of the year, November, is about to start. Continue reading →

Gallery Confusion

20231028_111511-LargeLast week I created a “Winter 2024” photo gallery and started adding pictures to it, but I’ve thought better of it. I mean winter’s coming, but it ain’t here yet so I’ve renamed the gallery “Fall 2023.” We don’t have a Fall gallery every year but this year we do. I’ll add a “Winter 2024” when the lake freezes over. Until then. it’s still fall.

In the process of shuffling files around I managed to lose the captions from the photographs. I’ll add them when I have a little spare time. The picture at left was taken at the dam, it shows dead blue-green algae flowing over the weir and out of the lake. Good riddance.