Category: The Environment

You could win the right to “name-the-view” in the Lake George Land Conservancy’s (LGLC) fundraiser. (Click image to see full-scale.)

The public is invited to participate in the Lake George Land Conservancy’s (LGLC) Name-The-View drawing, a fundraiser for the Berry Pond Preserve in Lake George.

One drawing winner will be given the right to name the view from Berry Pond’s northern overlook, and will also receive a catered picnic for eight on Dome Island, complete with transportation and tour of the island. The drawing will take place this summer at LGLC’s Annual Meeting on July 17th.

In 2008 the Lake George Land Conservancy took on $2.654 million of debt to purchase the 1,435-acre Berry Pond tract and protect it from further development. This purchase represents LGLC’s commitment to the West Brook Conservation Initiative, an agreement between three Lake George environmental agencies, the Village of Lake George and Warren County, working together to protect the lake from polluted West Brook inflow in Lake George Village.

LGLC’s Executive Director Nancy Williams, explains, “Berry Pond has become a beloved recreational asset for hiking and winter use to residents and visitors to Lake George. It is a vital link for snowmobilers between Warren and Washington County. The LGLC purchased the land in order to provide for these recreational uses and to stop development on the mountain, an event that would have delivered more nutrients and sediments into Lake George.”

Berry Pond includes high peaks overlooking Lake George and provides spectacular views of the Narrows and Rattlesnake Cobble. The tract is home to the headwaters of West Brook, and three tributaries cross the Berry Pond tract to flow into West Brook as it passes through Gaslight Village and into Lake George.

To enter the drawing and for more information visit: www.GoFundMe.com/Berry-Pond-Lake-George. A donation is not required to enter the drawing, but is encouraged.

Margot Kapusinski stands in front of an ice sculpture at the 53rd annual Lake George Winter Carnival. The Carnival opened this past weekend and runs every Saturday & Sunday in February.

Denton Publications reviews it here.

The official website is: http://www.lakegeorgewintercarnival.com/

The Mossy Point Boat Launch in Ticonderoga (DEC Photo).

The Lake George Association is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a $15,000 Pollution Prevention grant from the Lake Champlain Basin Program for Stormwater Mitigation at Mossy Point Boat Launch on the northern end of Lake George in Ticonderoga. The project will retrofit the 3.5 acre boat launch area/ parking lot and try to capture and treat stormwater runoff that is currently entering the lake untreated using several different filtering methods including; a vegetated swale, rain gardens, infiltration beds and porous pavers. Matching funds for the project will be provided for by the LGA through the Helen V. Froehlich Foundation and by the NYSDEC.

In the summer of 2012, the Warren County Soil and Water Conservation District (WCSWCD) was asked by the Town of Ticonderoga to complete a town wide stormwater outfall assessment. Included in the assessment was the 3.5-acre Mossy Point boat launch site that is comprised of approximately 30% pavement and 70% compacted cinder stone dust. The final report identified the Mossy Point boat launch area as a priority project listing the numerous solutions to capture the flow from the site that is carrying sediments, road salt and other pollutants.

The Mossy Point Boat Launch as seen from above in Google Earth.

“We are pleased to have received funding to implement this project which includes the solutions outlined in the report as well as final design work, project oversight and the use of porous pavers,” said Randy Rath, LGA’s Project Manager. “We will work this spring and summer to survey the site, take elevations, and create the final design. Construction is tentatively scheduled for late summer/early fall. We will be working with Warren County Soil and Water and the DEC on this project moving forward, but if it wasn’t for the Town of Ticonderoga having the stormwater assessment done, we wouldn’t have been able to get this all pulled together so quickly. It is just another example that goes to show how important our partnerships really are for protecting the Lake.”

The initial concept calls for a long vegetated swale along the side of the roadway entrance to the launch that would direct runoff into a rain garden or bio-retention area. Additional rain gardens and a berm will also be used to create infiltration beds. Plantings will consist of native vegetation. The plan also includes the use of porous pavers for approximately 2000 square feet of the boat launch area. “Besides being an important stormwater mitigation project, we also hope to be able to take advantage of the public nature of the site to provide education as well, said the LGA’s outreach coordinator Emily DeBolt. “Since the project will incorporate multiple green infrastructure practices, it will be a great chance for some educational signage. This isn’t part of the grant, but we hope to be able to work on this aspect after the project is done.”

This month’s meeting of the Lake George Park Commission is looking like an important one, with a vote on the Proposed Aquatic Invasive Species Regulations.

Here is a copy of the agenda.

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. ”

This past fall the Lake George Association (LGA) partnered with the Warren County Soil and Water Conservation District (WCSWCD), the Towns of Bolton and Queensbury Highway Departments and the Warren County DPW on several very important stormwater retrofit projects that will provide great protection for Lake George for many years to come. Fourteen new dry wells were installed, twelve in the Town of Bolton and two in the Town of Queensbury, with plans for more to be installed in Queensbury next spring.

“Even though there has been a lot of talk about invasive species and Lake George lately, we have not forgotten that stormwater runoff is still the number one source of pollutants to the Lake,” said LGA’s Outreach Coordinator Emily DeBolt. “So in addition to our invasive species work this past summer, with our award winning Lake Steward Program and other activities, staff at the LGA was also hard at work protecting the lake from stormwater runoff.”

After a storm, water that falls on soil can infiltrate down into the ground and eventually into the groundwater. Water that falls on impervious surfaces, such as roads and parking lots, cannot soak into the ground, and instead moves across these surfaces, picking up speed and pollutants- becoming stormwater runoff. Oils, salt, and sediment carrying phosphorous or other chemicals are also picked up by the water as it travels and are all eventually deposited into the Lake.

“Roadside drainage improvements such as catch basins, dry wells, and roadside ditch improvements, are all projects that the LGA undertakes with partners that protect the lake from nonpoint source pollution carried by stormwater runoff,” said LGA’s Executive Director Walt Lender. “We were very pleased to be able to get these projects in the ground before this winter. That way they are in place to protect the Lake from large amounts of runoff created by snowmelt in the spring.”

In the Town of Queensbury, Sunset Lane on Assembly Point was scheduled to be repaved this fall by the Town. Prior to paving, a stormwater issue was brought to the attention of both the Town and the WCSWCD by local residents. Staff from WCSWCD came up with a retrofit design and approached the LGA to see if it was interested in helping out with the project. With funding available from the Helen V. Froehlich Foundation for this type of work, the LGA jumped at the opportunity to be able to help address this stormwater issue. “This project was a great example of good timing and communication”, said Randy Rath, the LGA’s project manager. “Because the drainage issue came to light before the road was re-paved, we were able to address it. Had the Town gone ahead and just done the paving work, it might not have worked out. ”

The project involved installing two 8 foot diameter dry wells that will capture runoff from a small 3,200 square foot watershed on the southeast side of the lake and allow it to infiltrate into the ground rather than run directly to the lake. The Town of Queensbury Highway department completed all of the installation work with WCSWCD overseeing the entire project this past September. The LGA provided $2,395.00 in funding for the two dry wells. The Town of Queensbury supplied the stone. Additionally, while onsite viewing the installation of the last dry well, another stormwater retrofit project was identified and discussed with the Town and Soil and Water that could be implemented as early as next spring utilizing the same strategy.

After the successful installations in Queensbury, work moved up the Lake to the Town of Bolton where nine 4 foot by 8 foot dry wells were installed in three different areas. The first location was at the old Town of Bolton highway garage and transfer station, where there is over 11,000 square feet of impervious surface that had been generating untreated runoff into Finkle Brook during storm events. The WCSWCD worked with the town’s highway department and Kingsley Excavating to install a single dry well at the back of the property and a side by side installation of two additional dry wells in the corner of the transfer station. The three dry wells and a re-established rock lined swale now handle all of the runoff from the site and treat it before it reaches Finkle Brook.

On Mohican Avenue two 4 foot by 8 foot dry wells were added along the south side of the steep town owned road that has a track record of eroding during storm events. Each dry well is in a separate location and both have a paved swale leading to them. Overflow from the dry wells runs into the woods behind the structures where the stormwater can slowly infiltrate into the soil. Kingsley Excavating completed the work with technical design and project oversight coming from WCSWCD.

Horicon Avenue, also a steep road, is owned by Warren County and the work at this site was completed with in-kind services from the County DPW department. With the planning assistance of the WCSWCD, three dry well systems were initially installed. A single dry well was added on the East side of Horicon near Highland Drive. On the West side of Horicon, two side by side dry wells were installed to capture runoff from a 1700 foot length of road. Additionally along the West side of the road a fourth 4 foot by 8 foot dry well structure was added before the project was complete. This structure was located 500 feet below the previous structure. In all of the locations, the gutter of the road was reconstructed to direct the stormwater into the structures to reduce any erosion potential.

“The LGA contributed $2,969 for materials and $4,000 for labor to the Bolton projects that wrapped up in early October. As the Warren County DPW completed their work with WCSWCD on Horicon Avenue, they realized that they liked how the other structures were working and thought they could add three additional dry wells on Horicon, but had not budgeted for the materials,” said LGA’s Project Manager Randy Rath. “The County DPW asked the LGA if we could help out and purchase the three dry well systems. Utilizing funding designated for Stormwater Retrofits in Bolton from the Helen V. Froehlich Foundation, the LGA purchased the structures for $2,480. The dry wells have a smaller footprint (4 foot diameter rather than the larger 8 foot diameter used in the other locations), but are still able to capture and treat runoff. These were placed along Horicon Avenue in early October as well. “

“We are very pleased with the outcome of these installations this past fall,” said Rath. ”We have already had some rain events and have been able to see how well they are working. Next spring we will pick up where we left off and continue our partnership with Warren County Soil and Water and the local municipalities around the Lake to stop stormwater before it has a chance to enter the Lake. We’ll start in the Town of Queensbury and place two more dry wells at the base of Sunset Lane that will capture some additional stormwater just before it enters the Lake.”