The Lake George Association and the Town of Lake George have been working together to address stormwater runoff issues at Usher Park. The majority of the park is very steeply sloped down to the Lake, making stormwater a perennial issue at this location. While the Town has existing stormwater controls on the site, they are undersized for the amount of runoff the property receives after a heavy rain, much of which comes from off the property, further uphill in the watershed and funnels down into the Park.
LGA’s Project Manager Randy Rath with Jim Martino from the Town of Lake George.
“This past spring in April when the snow was still flying, LGA and Town staff met on site at the park to discuss how to best capture the stormwater. A combination of plantings and stormwater structures were planned for the site. The LGA then applied for funding from the Helen V. Froehlich Foundation for the project and we are happy to announce that we received $18,000 for the project this past summer,” said LGA’s Project Manager Randy Rath.
Work began right away this fall with native plantings along the shoreline with some funding for plant material available from the Town of Lake George. New York native perennials including Spotted Phlox, Nodding Onion, and Blue Lobelia and were planted along with shrubs such as Steeplebush and Summersweet. The Town also provided the labor and materials, creating a new planting bed on the left side of the beach in an area where the runoff coming down the hill would just wash right down onto the beach and out into the Lake. Staff from the LGA designed and planted the garden with native plants grown locally at Fiddlehead Creek Native Plant Nursery. The new planting will now help slow the runoff and keep it out of the Lake.
LGA staff worked with the Town of Lake George to plant a new native plant buffer along the shoreline of Usher Park this fall. Pictured above from left to right are LGA staffers Nancy Cobb-Zoll, Mona Seeger, and Alicia Nichols.
After planting along the shoreline, LGA and Town staff moved uphill and worked to stabilize a slope on the park property next. Two different native groundcovers were utilized here – Foamflower and Barren Strawberry. Not only will the native plants help stabilize the slope, reducing erosion from runoff, but they also are aesthetically pleasing for the park setting and make maintenance of the property easier for Town staff, who had a hard time mowing such a steep area in the past. 100 feet of straw wattle was installed along the bottom edge of the slope to ensure stabilization of the site while the groundcovers take hold. “Next year, park users can enjoy beautiful yellow flowers on the Barren strawberry followed by the airy carpet of white flowers of the Foamflower and they might not even realize that the planting is a stormwater project!” said DeBolt.
Native groundcovers are a great way to stabilize steep slopes. This was not the first time the LGA has worked to stabilize a steep slope in a public park with native plants. In 2010 the LGA partnered with the Town and Village of Lake George to stabilize the slope at the north end of Shepard’s Park with native plants.
Staff from the LGA and the Town of Lake George worked to plant this steep slope with native groundcovers. The groundcover will fill in, stabilizing the slope and preventing any future erosion.
“We are pleased to be building on our past successes, making our partnerships stronger all the time,” said LGA’s Executive Director Walt Lender. “Last year we worked with the Town of Lake George to help address some stormwater issues and installed a native plant demonstration garden in front of the Town Hall. We continued our partnership again this year with work at Usher Park. There are so many projects that need to be done around the lake, and partnerships such as ours with the Town are the most efficient way to get many of these projects done. We are glad to be continuing our work with them, as well as other Towns around the Lake, next year.”
Since there is a large amount of runoff at the site, more storage capacity is needed than the small areas available for planting could provide. “The native gardens installed this fall were a great start, but there is still more work that needs to be done,” said LGA’s Project Manager Randy Rath. “A series of dry wells and other stormwater management structures will be installed in the spring to catch larger amounts of runoff further up the hill before it makes it to the bottom. That is where the majority of the funding secured from the Helen V. Froehlich Foundation this year will be needed. We already have a concept and will finalize the design this winter with Warren County Soil and Water, so we are all set to start in the spring. Jim Martino at the Town of Lake George has been instrumental in all this. He called us up and said they were having some stormwater problems at the Park and asked if we could take a look. We are excited that the Towns look to us as a partner in protecting the Lake. We have strived to build good relationships with all of the municipalities over the years and we can see that all the hard work is paying off. ”