21 February 2013: Resumed Water Level Measurements, Etc.

With the warming trend and melting snow of late, I resumed making water level measurements  yesterday but with the snow storm due in this weekend I suspect I’ll knock off again for a while. I had to remind myself the other day why I’m making water level measurements: primarily I am interested in modeling the complex hydrological system that is Clary lake.  With its variable inflows from runoff and ground water and variable outflows depending on the status of the dam’s gate, how the lake rises and falls at any given time is anything but obvious.  There’s a lot to ponder and a lot to learn.

More pictures

Jane Chase has given me some more pictures that I will scan and add to the Chase Family Archive when I get a chance. Also, Colin Caissie has given me a CD full of photographs he Colin Caissie cross country skiingtook last week while cross country skiing down the channel to the dam. He is particularly concerned about the impact that ice flows are having on the shoreline: as result of the historically low water levels, ice flows are  plowing up soil,  sediments, and sensitive wetland vegetation around the lake. This has already resulted in erosion and sedimentation of the waters of Clary lake as well as the Sheepscot river, a serious condition that will accelerate this spring when ice and snow melts and outflows increase. If you will recall, I expressed similar concerns in a recent post with accompanying photographs in the Winter 2013 album. I’ll post some of Colin’s pictures soon.

18 February 2013: Suspending Water Level Measurements

I’m suspending water level measurements for a while- I went down to the lake this afternoon and just didn’t have it in me to dig through 3′ drifts of snow for 40′ to get out to where the water is. I’ll resume when it warms up a little and some snow melts. At last measure 2 days ago, the lake was down to 145.94′ or -56.40″ below the top of the dam.

Still no word from the DEP on a decision. It’s been 14 days since Senator Chris Johnson talked to Jerry Reid at the District Attorney’s office. It was suggested at that time that if we might hear something “in a couple of weeks.” I’ll look into getting an update later this week if we haven’t heard anything.

09 February 2013 Blizzard

Hope everyone is faring OK in this blizzard, it’s about as bad out there as I can remember- white out conditions, wind chill somewhere around -20° and 3′ drifts in the road.  For contrast, there’s no snow in my yard or on my deck- it’s blown clean. I managed to get my cars started and moved after my neighbor blew a hole in my drifted-in driveway. The advice from a Maine Emergency Management Agency spokesperson on Channel 6 this  morning: “Stay at home, hunker down, and hope for the best.” 🙂

3' drifts in my driveway made it a little hard getting my car out.

3′ drifts in my driveway made it a little hard getting my car out.

08 February 2013: Snow storm, a few new pictures.

From the way the  main stream media is hyping this storm, you’d think we’d never seen a big  snow storm before. That said it does sound like the biggest snow storm we’ve seen in some years.  The NOAA Graphical Weather site gives a pretty good picture of what to expect late this afternoon and tonight: blizzard conditions, high winds, and snow. Lots of snow. Stay safe.

I accompanied David Hodsdon on a jaunt up into the (DRAINED) meadow at the northwest
end of Clary lake yesterday afternoon to check it out and take some pictures. I took pictures of David as he used his Gigapan Robotic Camera Platform to take pictures of the meadow. The Gigapan is designed to take multiple images with a regular digital camera which are then combined into a panorama. It was neat to watch as it panned around the horizon snapping pictures without intervention. The camera is a Nikon D7000 digital camera and a wide angle lens (want one). The wide angle lens resulted in a 360° panorama only 1200 x 240 pixels (mine is more than twice that size). The other one he sent me I’ve cropped slightly and added it to the random pool of pictures used as  site banners.  Both have been added to the Winter 2013 album.

In other news… the lake level has again fallen to -60″ below the top of the dam. I’m not entirely happy with the page layout of the Water Level Chart, the chart is really too small when constrained to fit in the primary column. So when I get a chance I’ll dig into the CSS (Cascading Style Sheets, supposed to make web page design simpler?) and design a better looking page.

Proposed Legislation to Ban All Soft Bait in the State of Maine

Jack Holland brought this matter to my attention. On January 17, state Representative Paul Davis introduced H.P. 37/L.D.42, legislation that would prohibit the use of all “rubber” lures. The legislation seeks to ban “rubber” baits but does not define the term. Even so, the intent of the legislation is clear – to ban the soft baits that Maine anglers use every day.

To add your voice to the growing list of people opposing this legislation, point your browser to http://keepamericafishing.salsalabs.com and fill out their form with your name, address, and email address and click send. Easy. I did it.

Keep America Fishing is recommending that rather than simply passing knee-jerk legislation to regulate something that may not even be a problem, that a real study be conducted to determine if there really is a problem with soft, so-called “rubber” bait.

04 February 2013: Petition Update, Possible Decision Pending

I just got off the phone with Senator Chris Johnson who had just spoken with Jerry Reid, head of the Natural Resources Division of the office of the Attorney General- the division that typically provides legal services to the Department of Environmental Protection. Chris called to tell me that according to Mr. Reed, the office of the Attorney General has not been and is not at this time engaged in reviewing issues surrounding the Clary Lake water level petition or the motion to dismiss it. He did say that he understands that a decision by the DEP is pending, possibly within the next couple of weeks and he expects his Division will be asked to review it. He also told Senator Johnson that his Division would get right on it and he  encouraged the Senator to get back in touch with him if we have not heard anything from the Department in a couple of weeks. Chris said he would.

If you recall, Senator Johnson spoke at the public hearing last August, questioning Paul Kelley several times on his testimony. I have spoken with Chris several times over the past couple of months about this delay in processing the petition and he’s been concerned and responsive. I am extremely grateful for his attention to this. Stay tuned!

03 February 2013: 300 acres of drained wetland

I went for a walk in the meadow this afternoon, to the confluence of Clark’s Meadow Brook with the stream flowing out of Clary lake, to see what I could see, and
even though I pretty much knew what to expect, it was still a shock to see what was once a viable productive wetland drained, exposed, violated. The magnitude of the ongoing environmental disaster that Paul Kelley has visited on Clary Lake is criminal. It is hard to believe that he cannot be held liable for damage to the environment as a result of the way he chooses to manage the water level of Clary lake. We all know what would happen to any one of us if we went to drain even a small wetland on our property or cause erosion or sedimentation of State waters through our action or inattention, and yet this man can actively destroy 300 acres of wetland and wildlife habitat with apparent impunity.

There is plenty of evidence of erosion where rain and melt water has pooled and run off into the main stream, cutting deep channels through the soft mud and exposing the roots of wetland plants. This soil erosion has no doubt caused significant sedimentation of the outlet stream and below the dam, the Sheepscot River itself.  There are also large areas where water has pooled temporarily and in so doing has deposited a thin layer of sediment on the ground. This sediment will also wash into the outlet stream with the next rain causing further sedimentation of areas down stream. There are some more pictures of this in the Winter 2013 album.

I saw no wildlife save for a bald eagle that flew by, checking me out before heading into the trees over on the Floge property. I did see one abandoned muskrat house- I expected to see more but it appears they were driven from their regular habitat by low water last fall before they could build any lodges. It’s a hard winter on the furbearers.

I also took a series of 10 pictures and then stitched them together into a 360° panorama which is stunning if I do say so myself. The pictures were taken right at the confluence of Clark’s Meadow Brook and the main channel coming out of Clary lake. I scaled it down considerably from it’s original (huge) size and it’s still big- almost 2 megabytes. Hope you enjoy it.

There are other pictures in the Winter 2013 album. As usual, your comments are welcome. Many thanks (again) to Jane Chase for providing access.

31 January 2013: Welcome to New Users Post!

A nice feature of this new site is that it allows for people to register for accounts and to make comments. For the past year, while the old site served it’s purpose, it felt a lot like me bloviating into the void with no input or feedback from anyone. While the primary purpose of the site is to disseminate information, it’s also a community initiative which doesn’t mean me talking endlessly into the void to an unseen and largely, unheard viewership. I’ve exchanged email with a lot of you over the past year and I know you have a lot to say.

No, you don’t need to be an Association member to sign up for an account or to participate by commenting. Registration on the site is open to everyone.

Welcome to our new members!

30 January 2013: Interviewed by the KJ

I’ve had several long phone conversations recently with a reporter from the Kennebec Journal who is doing research for a story on the Clary Lake water level petition. He also has met with Paul Kelley to get his side of the story, and has talked with Beth Callahan about what is holding things up. Beth told him that both the DEP and the Attorney General were reviewing the situation- the first statement from the DEP that this matter is being reviewed by anyone other than Heather Parent, the Presiding Officer; we pretty much surmised this because DEP doesn’t have their own legal department and when they need legal heavy lifting, they tap the AG but it’s nice to have our suspicions confirmed.

So it is now reasonable to assume that the real hold up is at the Attorney General’s office.

30 January 2013: Storm coming

It sounds like the next couple of days are going to be pretty nasty. The NOAA weather site suggests we’re looking at 3/4″ to 1″ of rain tonight through tomorrow along with high winds. We don’t have any snow pack to speak of but still, runoff from 3/4″ of rain should bring the lake up at least 6″ to 8″. After the rain it is supposed to freeze up hard, tomorrow afternoon.

29 January 2013: Going Live

We’ve gone live with the new site- my wife helped me test and check things over. I don’t think anything is seriously broken, though there are a few mostly cosmetic things that remain to be done. Undoubtedly there are still some links that point back to the old site- I’ll fix them when I find them. There are also features and functionality that I have yet to implement. All in due time.

One of the neat features of WordPress besides being easier to manage, update, and maintain is it’s built-in comment system. In order to leave comment, you need to have a user account and be logged in. Now, I don’t expect a whole lot of people to take advantage of this new functionality, but I sincerely hope some of you choose to participate.

The normal procedure for signing up for an account is to click on the Login link on the right side of the page and then click “register”. You’re then prompted for a username and an email address to send your password to. Unfortunately, outgoing email isn’t working on the server just now. I’m working with the server administrator to solve this issue, but in the mean time to sign up for an account, email me at gsfergusson@clarylake.org and provide the username you’d like to have and I’ll set up an account and send you your password. Once you’re logged in, you can update your user profile and change your password if you want. Sorry for the inconvenience!

UPDATE: I got email working so signing up for an account is a now a simple matter of clicking on the Log in link on the bottom right side of the page and selecting Register (it occurs to me there’s a Register link on the page right above the Log in link). Enter a username and a valid email address and you’ll shortly get an email with your temporary password. When you first log in, you’ll be at your profile page where you can add additional information about yourself. At the top left corner of the screen you can click on the Clary Lake Association link to get to the site.

If you have any questions or problems, email me.

15 January 2013

Beth Callahan has sent around an updated Service List with additions and corrections. There will be more changes: 2 of the 3 Lincoln County Commissioners they have listed are wrong- Sheridan Bond and Lynn Gilley Orne were not reelected last fall. In any case, it’s nice to see something come out of the Department- perhaps this is an indication that DEP is finally getting moving again.

12 January 2013

January Thaw! Saw two sets of ice fishermen on the lake today- the first this year. Not sure I’d want to venture out there too far, knowing what I know about the condition of the Ice fishermen on Clary Lakeice but I suppose it’s safe enough. As cold as it has been, there is likely some relatively thin ice in places- there’s a substantial current running down the length of the lake that kept sections open for the longest time.

Anyways, I’ve added a new album to the site, Album 9: Winter 2013 and I’ve decided to use the picture for this month’s News page banner.

Old January 2013 News Posts

For completeness, I’m posting ALL the original news posts from the old site here in one long post.

  • 06 January 2013:
    • It was just a little over a year ago that I submitted the completed Clary lake water level petition with 54 certified signatures to DEP- on the 3rd of January 2012 to be exact. I made a commitment at that time to pursue this petition process relentlessly to a successful conclusion. I did not expect it to be a simple process, or to necessarily go smoothly. I expected bumps in the road and some push back from the dam owner but I had honestly expected the petition process to be largely behind us by now, not stalled at DEP, in apparent administrative limbo.

      While this situation is admittedly discouraging, rest assured that it is only temporary. DEP cannot sit on this forever. I remain steadfastly committed to doing whatever is necessary to resolve this matter. We have State law and public opinion on our side, and we hold the moral high ground. We will prevail.

      I understand that in the past few weeks a number of people have called and/or written to Beth Callahan expressing their concern over the delays in processing the petition. Thank you. It is important that DEP be reminded that there are real people with real concerns out here. I’ll let everyone know as soon as I hear anything. If you have any questions feel free to contact me. I’d be glad to talk to you.

  • 01 January 2013
    • It’s a new year so I’m starting a new News page. In addition to rolling over the news I’ve rolled over the water level chart. At the bottom of the water level chart page you’ll find links to the 2012 monthly charts as well as the chart for the entire 2012 year. The new chart includes the month of December 2012 for continuity.
    • I had expected more progress on the water level petition in 2012. We start this new year (still) waiting for DEP to rule on the motions before them. The general level of frustration over the delay is rising judging from things I’m hearing. I remain confident that we will see some positive forward motion on the petition real soon now.
    • I’ve started work on the Winter 2013 Clary Lake Association newsletter with an eye towards getting it in the mail by the end of January. If anyone has anything they’d like to contribute to the newsletter, get in touch with me and let’s talk.