23 August 2017: Maine Public Radio is doing a Story on Clary Lake

Maine Public Radio Deputy News Director and General Assignment Reporter Susan Sharon is going to be doing a story on Clary Lake. She came out to Whitefield last Monday to interview me and Malcolm Burson. Her visit included a boat ride to see first hand the impact of our water level crisis on the life and times of Clary Lake. Our tour included a stop on the north shore to meet and interview Kelsie French, long time Clary Lake shore owner with a camp over on Duncan Road in Jefferson. Ms. Sharon’s visit concluded with a stop to see the Clary Lake dam and Clary Mill.

Her story will likely appear sometime within the next week. When I find out the particulars I’ll post them here.

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22 August 2017: CLA Petition to DEP Submitted

I want to thank EVERYONE who signed our petition to DEP and to let everyone know that the Petition which the Board introduced at the Clary Lake Association Annual meeting on August 12th, along with over 350 signatures collected both at the meeting and over the course of the week following the meeting, was hand-delivered to the office of the Commissioner of the DEP yesterday, Monday August 21st, as planned. Looking over the signature sheets I believe ALL Clary Lake Association members managed to sign the petition even if they weren’t at the meeting; quite a few people who are currently out of state printed out the signature sheet, signed it, and mailed or emailed it back to me. A lot of people collected signatures for us, but I’d particularly like to thank Debbie Duncan, Ellis Percy, Malcolm Burson, and Jack and Ann Holland for their efforts to collect signatures. It seems like more often than not, when I asked someone to sign they’d say “Already signed it!” 🙂

CLA Petition to DEP August 21, 2017

It remains to be seen how the Department will respond to the petition and what if anything action they will take towards enforcement of the Clary Lake water level order. They have a variety of enforcement options and while I don’t expect miracles, I am cautiously optimistic they will take this matter as seriously as we do. I do expect to hear from them and will keep everyone apprised of any developments.

The petition was also sent to the Lincoln County News, Central Maine Papers, and the Portland Press Herald, and I do expect articles to appear later this week in most if not all those papers.

22 August 2017: Clary Lake Water Level Order Appeal Update

At long last, 3 Orders which we’ve been patiently waiting for since the hearing on April 25, 2017 have finally been issued by Lincoln County Superior Court Judge Daniel Billings. The first Order was a Joint motion for Extension of Filing Deadlines to April 28, 2017 (thanks for that!) and was GRANTED. The second Order has two parts, the first, Petitioner’s Motion for Taking of Additional Evidence and Discovery is DENIED, and Respondent’s Motion for Consideration of Extra-Record Evidence is GRANTED. The third Order pertains to Petitioner’s Motion Requesting Court Modification of the Record and GRANTS the motion with respect ONLY to those exhibits agreed to by DEP. The remainder of Petitioner’s motion is DENIED with respect to those exhibits DEP felt were not relied upon by them in preparing the Water Level Order [WLO] and hence were not relevant in a review of the WLO.

In short, these Orders represent a favorable decision for the State: DEP got everything they asked for while Aquafortis Associates LLC got none of what they asked for except for several concessions not objected to by the State:

Superior Court ORDERS dated August 15 2017

So after three and a half years of delays, stays, and stalling tactics (and let’s not forget the 13 months of pointless mediation), the jockeying for position is finally OVER and the time has come to hear the arguments for and against the Clary Lake Water Level Order. We won’t have long to wait: included with the Orders is a Notice and Briefing Schedule which spells out the schedule for the filing of briefs and responses. Assuming everyone uses their allowed time to file their briefs and nobody tries to delay the proceedings further (I expect the Judge has little tolerance for additional delays from here on out) AQF’s brief will be due no more than 40 days from August 15th, by September 25th. The State then has 30 days from the filing of the Petitioner’s brief to file their response, by October 25th. Finally, the Petitioner’s response to the State’s response will be due 14 days later, around October 8th.

For background on the proceedings leading up to these Orders, see “24 March 2017: State files 2 Motions in Aquafortis v. Maine Department of Environmental Protection WLO Appeal” and “11 April 2017: State Files Response to AQF Motion to Modify Record.”

I have not heard anything about the Rubin/Ayer lawsuit lately but it seems reasonable to expect that with the WLO appeal now moving forward, that their suit against Kelley and Smith will also start moving forward.

15 August 2017: Membership Update

At our Annual Meeting just concluded, we added 22 people to our membership rolls, less than usual only because so many people joined or renewed their membership before the meeting. This brings our current member total to 104, by far the most members we’ve ever had right after the Annual Meeting. Typically dues continue to come in for several months after the Annual meeting so I am confident we’ll reach this year’s membership goal of 140. Eight of our new members have never been members before. I find it particularly heartening that we continue to attract new people! Now more than ever, Membership Matters.

For those of you who are a little confused about our membership year, it is not based on the calendar year but instead straddles it, running from Annual meeting to Annual meeting which is usually on the 1st Saturday in August (this year it was changed to the second Saturday to accommodate our meeting hosts). It’s been this way since the the Association was first formed back in 1960 and while there has been talk over the years of changing our membership year to correspond to the calendar year, it’s never happened and probably won’t anytime soon.

I posted these membership numbers last spring in a previous “membership update” and they bear repeating here:

Clary Lake Association Membership History

Membership Year	Number of Members
2011/2012	28
2012/2013	41
2013/2014	50
2014/2015	70
2015/2016	81
2016/2017	120
2017/2018	140
2018/2019	150
2019/2020	154
2020/2021	164
2021/2022	168
2022/2023	177
2023/2024	??

While the change in our bylaws a few years ago allowing 1) multiple members per family and 2) not requiring that members own property on Clary Lake or have deeded (legal) access to it explains some of the increase in recent years, it doesn’t begin to fully account for it by any means. Clearly, there is increased concern over the health and wellbeing of Clary Lake and a burgeoning of interest in and appreciation of the important role the Clary Lake Association is playing in current events. The value of the work we’re doing to represent the interests of lake shore owners and community members alike and keeping everyone informed and engaged is extremely important. While we haven’t succeeded in resolving the current water level crisis yet, we are helping guide it to a satisfactory conclusion. And progress IS being made.

Again, I would like to thank everyone for their ongoing commitment to Clary Lake, and the Clary Lake Association.

12 August 2017: Annual Meeting a Great Success

Annual Clary Lake Association Meeting, August 12, 2017. Meeting finally underway. About 50 people attended the meeting. Photograph by George Fergusson

The Annual 2017 Clary Lake Association meeting was a great success. I’ll post a thorough update in a few days, but for now I just wanted to get a few pictures online and say THANK YOU!! to all the people that helped make this a great meeting. In particular, many thanks to Erin Grimshaw for hosting the meeting.

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These pictures are in the Spring/Summer 2017 Gallery.

12 August 2017: ANNUAL MEETING NOT CANCELED!!

Despite the somewhat wet and rainy conditions outside your window this morning, we’ve been assured that Partly Sunny conditions will arrive for this afternoon. The rain is forecast to stop later this morning with only a chance of showers late this afternoon and evening.

We will NOT be invoking the rain date provision of our meeting announcement! Going forward we will be moving away from having a rain date at all, which means finding a venue that works rain or shine. This time of year, it’s hard enough to schedule an afternoon let alone keeping 2 consecutive afternoons available. People are busy.

Hope to see you at the meeting!

12 August 2017: Moderate Drought Conditions Continue

Visit the Drought Monitor page to check conditions in your area.

09 August 2017: ClaryCam2 Back In Service

ClaryCam2 is back in service! David Hodsdon has replaced the dead camera with a new one of the same make and model and we got it hooked up and connecting this afternoon. From the looks of it I’d say he hasn’t been keeping his shoreline mowed. You can just make out the State Boat launch on the right side of the photo. I think David is going to straighten the image just a bit if he hasn’t already.

You can see all 3 cameras on the Clary Lake Webcams page. Here’s the updated Remote Access information:

Remote Access

Realtime remote access is currently working for all 3 cameras. The username and password is the same: Username: guest Password: 123abc
Clarycam 1
For access with a browser: http://clarycam1.ddns.net:88/
For access with VLC: rtsp://guest:123abc@clarycam1.ddns.net:554/videoMain
Clarycam 2:
For access with a browswer: http://la9446.myfoscam.org:88/
For access with VLC: rtsp://guest:123abc@la9446.myfoscam.org:554/videoMain
Clarycam 3:
For access with a browser: http://clarycam3.ddns.net:89/
For access with VLC: rtsp://guest:123abc@clarycam3.ddns.net:555/videoMain

07 August 2017: Loon Family Update

The baby loon is growing quickly. It is diving now. It’s stomach feathers are white. Pretty soon we’ll see it flapping across the water, exercising it’s wings in preparation for flying this fall. I’ve gotten quite close to it a few times when I was out fishing, but I didn’t have my camera with me. I shot this picture as the youngster and a parent swam past my shoreline the other day.

Annual Meeting Reminder

The Annual Meeting of the Clary Lake Association is next Saturday, August 12th at 2:00 PM. The meeting is to be held at the home of Erin Grimshaw and Christina Bishop located at 739 Gardiner Road in Jefferson. Erin and Christina hosted the meeting last year and it turned out to be such a great venue that we’ve decided to hold it there again. Their home is located about 1/3 of a mile west of (towards Whitefield) the intersection of Route 126 and 215. You’ll know the place: this is the house at the foot of the old MacDonald hay field overlooking Clary Lake, and at the end of a looooong driveway. Andy Goss built the house a few years ago; Erin and Christina have owned it since 2013. Here’s a Google Map showing the location. If you need help finding the place George at 207-549-5991 for directions.

The rain date, on the off chance it is raining on Saturday, is the same time, same place, the next day. I can’t remember the last time the Annual meeting was rained out (though it got a little dicey last year). As usual, there will be a pot luck supper at the conclusion of the meeting so bring your favorite casserole, salad, desert, bread, dip, or what have you and plan to stay awhile and socialize.

Petition Announcement

This year the CLA Board intends to introduce for discussion and Membership approval, a petition to the Department of Environmental Protection requesting they take enforcement action in the matter of the Clary Lake Water Level Order. As most of you know, the Water Level Order was issued over 42 months ago on January 27, 2014 and a subsequent Notice of Violation was issued on September 28, 2015. Since then the Department has taken no further action. The order however is still in force and has not been stayed. We see no reason why they shouldn’t immediately initiate enforcement action. We hope you’ll be able to attend the meeting and sign this petition.

The Board will be collecting additional signatures and endorsements during the week following the Annual meeting and plan to submit the Petition to DEP on or about Monday August 21st. You do not need to be a Clary Lake Association member or a Clary Lake shore owner to sign the petition. If you can’t make it to the meeting but would still like to sign the petition, please contact George Fergusson at secretary@clarylake.org or call at 207-549-5991 and we’ll try to accommodate you.

Lincoln County News: Whitefield Public Library Opens Doors at Arlington Grange

My wife Margaret has been helping setup and run the new Whitefield Public Library at the Arlington Grange. This is a great resource for the town:

Whitefield Public Library Opens Doors at Arlington Grange

Central Maine Papers: David Pond Losing Water

One of our Facebook followers posted the following article to our Facebook page. An interesting read. There are some clear parallels between the situation facing David Pond shore owners and that facing Clary Lake shore owners, but there is a clear and distinct difference: Clary Lake shore owners and friends of Clary Lake (with 2 exceptions, who shall remain nameless) are united in their opposition to the dam owner’s water level management:

Fayette’s David Pond losing water, alarming property owners who want action

July 2017 Water Level Chart Archived

July 2017

I have archived the July 2017 Water Level Chart (at left). The most notable feature of the July chart is how slowly the lake level fell especially considering how little rainfall we received over the month. We saw this same phenomena in June but it was even more pronounced in July. In July the lake level fell an average of only 0.21″ per day, falling a total of only 6.48″ over 31 days which is even more remarkable considering we only received 0.95″ of rain in July. For comparison, in June we the lake level fell only 0.38″ per day for a total of 11.4″ drop for the month during which we received only 1.88″ of rain. Average rainfall for July is 3.43″ so for the month we were 2.48″ low and for the year we’re 3.9″ shy of the average.

Back in June I was hard put to explain why the lake level was dropping so slowly, but the reason has finally become clear: the outlet channel is so full of plant growth that it’s impeding the outflow of water from the lake. Go figure. Continuing plant growth also explains why the outflow rate has continued to slow in July and will likely slow even further in August. Outflow at the dam is just a trickle now, and fully half of the daily drop in lake level is due to evaporation.

And Then There Was One: Loon Family Update

Loon Chicks, July 2017

Arolyn Antognoni used to call the southwest corner of Clary Lake the “l0on nursery” as the loons seemed to hang out in this area a lot with their newly hatched chicks. For whatever reason once the loon chicks arrive, the loon family does in deed seem to spend a lot of time in this area. This includes the cove on the west shore by Ron Rollins property south around what we used to call the “Erskine Swamp” and along the Fergusson property over to Ward’s Point. Yesterday they spent the morning hanging out right off my shoreline, at times approaching within less than 50′ of where I had my camera set up and their antics feeding the babies afforded me some wonderful opportunities to record their behavior.

I’m a little (OK, a lot) late on this loon update. I started it back on the 4th of July when we had 2 loon chicks (above). By the next day we were down to one: it appears as has happened in the past, one loon chick out-competes the other for food and attention and ends up being killed by the more dominant chick, while the parents look on. Harsh yes, but the chances of the survival of the remaining chick are greatly increased. It doesn’t always happen, but if often does.

Last Saturday was the annual Audubon Loon Count which takes place from 7:00 AM to 7:30 AM on the third Saturday in July. Mary Gingrow-Shaw and her husband Ernie went counter clockwise around the lake in their boat while I in mine, accompanied by my wife Margaret, went the other direction. 4 loons in all were sighted including the one loon chick (picture at left) Both parents were down in the southwest end of the lake and a lone adult loon was spotted off of Hodsdon Lane, not too far from the State boat launch.

The next morning Tom Vigue called to tell me that a dead adult loon had washed up on his shoreline. He said he’d drop it off later, which he did. It is now in my freezer waiting pickup by an IF&W Wildlife Biologist. It will be sent off to Tufts University which has an ongoing loon mortality project (http://www.tufts.edu/vet/loons/). There have been reports of a loon hanging out at the east end of the lake for a few weeks, acting strangely. It is undoubtedly the 4th loon spotted during our count the previous day, the likely victim of a territorial squabble with the nesting loon pair, defending their territory. Life is hard. We had a dead loon turn up in roughly the same place back in 2012. You’ll find a write up about that event in the News from 2012 page (see entry for 13 July 2012). There was an interesting update about it in 2013 from our friends at Avian Haven.

That’s all for now.

June 2017 Water Level Chart Archived

June 2017

I have archived the June 2017 Water Level Chart (at left). The most notable feature of the June chart is the slow steady decline in the water level on the one hand, and how little the lake level actually fell over the course of the month. The water level fell or remained unchanged every day except the last day of the month when it rose a small fraction as the result of 0.46″ of rain received. That said, the lake only lost a total of 11.4″ in 30 days for an average drop of 0.38″ per day. With the lake at this general level, with the gate wide open, and with so little rain having fallen, I would have expected the lake to have dropped more like 22″ to 24″ over the course of the month- twice as much as it actually fell. I am at a loss to explain this except to speculate that either a) there was considerably less water leaving the lake than expected or b) there was a lot more water entering the lake than expected or c) a combination of both a and b. This bears investigation. Continue reading →

30 June 2017 Video: Baby Loons on Clary Lake

I was able to make a short video of the loon family today:

It’s not the greatest video but what the heck! They’re loon babies!

Here are a few pictures:

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29 June 2017: We have Baby Loons on Clary Lake!

We have baby loons on Clary Lake! For the first time since 2008 our resident Loon family has successfully nested, despite a falling water level that has threatened to strand the nest too far from the water. Yesterday afternoon there was a loon sitting on the nest, so the eggs must have hatched sometime today. I first spotted the nest back on June 7th and I estimated at that time that the eggs had been laid on or about May 31st. That date turned out to be right on the money. Fortunately, and no thanks to the dam owner who left the dam gate wide open all month, the lake level has not fallen as fast as expected, having dropped only about 11″ (0.36″ per day) since the nest was started. Given the lack of rain in June and with the dam’s gate wide open, I expected the lake to have dropped twice as much or about 3/4″ per day. I’m still struggling to explain that discrepancy. Continue reading →

25 June 2017: Nesting Loon Update

June 2017 Loon Nest

I’ve been meaning to post an update on our nesting loons for more than a week, but I’ve been a little busy! As of this morning there was a loon sitting on the nest. I first spotted the nest 19 days ago, on June 6th but it is likely that nesting had been underway for about a week earlier. This would make the eggs 25-26 days old. The gestation period for loon eggs is 28 to 30 days so with luck they’ll hatch in 3-5 days. The nest is abandoned shortly after the chicks hatch.

The lake level has fallen 10″ or more since the nest was started. The net effect of this drop in lake level has been to increase the distance between the nest and the water. If the distance to the water becomes too great, they’ll abandon the nest however it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen this time. I’ve got my fingers crossed.

The last time a loon family successfully nested on Clary Lake was in 2008.

Summer 2017 Newsletter Now Online.

Typical Clary Lake Sunset, photograph by Craig Brann, used by permission. Taken at the State boat launch, August 2016.

The Summer 2017 Newsletter went in the mail early last week. It is now available for download from our Newsletter Archive. Please feel free to share it with your friends.

This year’s featured picture is a stunning sunset photograph (at left) taken by Craig Brann. He recently posted it on the Clary Lake Association Facebook Page.

07 June 2017: Loon Nest Spotted on Clary Lake

The Loons are once again trying to nest on Clary Lake. This year’s nest is located in more or less the traditional loon nesting location, in the cove over by the floating bog on the north shore, just east of the outlet. The loons haven’t faired too well in recent years and I truly hope they succeed this time around. The last time they successfully hatched some eggs was back in 2008. We’ve documented numerous failed nesting attempts since then, and severe variations in water level has been the primary cause of nest failure. Last year, their eggs turned out not to be fertile.

Typically the male and female loons build the nest together over the course of a about week in late May or early June and lay eggs shortly thereafter. Gestation is 28 to 30 days. Since they can only walk on land with great difficulty, they try to build their nest just a few inches above the water surface to facilitate getting on an off it. I don’t know when they started sitting on this latest nest, but it appears to be a good 8″ to 10″ above the water surface indicating the lake may have already fallen as much as 5″ or 6″ since being built. Therefore I’d guestimate they started sitting on the nest around the 1st of June, give or take a few days. With a lot of luck, we might see babies somewhere around the end of June. This however depends on the lake level staying relatively stable for the rest of this month. It is currently falling about 3/4″ per day, and it won’t take long to strand the nest at that rate.

The lake level is currently -38″ below the high water mark and falling. I challenge Mr. Kelley to shut the dam’s gate to maintain the current water level for the next month to give the nesting loons a chance to raise a family. Continue reading →