The Lights Are On

by Rod Johnson

As Maine's summer season skips along, a certain mindset and aura engulf us all. I think we could all make our own list of what summer means to us and many would look very similar. Some of our list would include: sails on the horizon, family picnics, company from near and far, the laughter of children — and lights around the lake.

As much as 25 years ago we came to realize that the number of cottage lights around the shoreline was the perfect visual representative of the seasons' coming and going. There seemed to be four lights along the West shore of Great Pond that burned all year regardless of season. We suspected that at least some of those few were automated night lights and the owners were now in Florida or Arizona!

The number of lights would slowly grow through May and June then come to a climax sometime in July. After a short period of what we might consider "prime summer," maybe four to six weeks, we would note a lessening of lumens peeking back at us. After early September's Labor Day weekend, an abrupt decline was very evident. Soon in early October, while the days grew shorter and the leaves were busy turning themselves into a fall color harvest, we counted less than a dozen. On or about November 1, a light count produced the familiar number of four. We knew that in six months a full cycle had occurred — and it was time for us to turn out our own light.

Let's not rush it, but as we all enjoy this wonderful warm time here in Maine, we know that soon a slow transition will be coming along. The nights will become a tad cooler — great snoozing weather! — and the water temp for swimming will drop a few degrees. In mid to latter August it seems there is always a "first red leaf" spotted, a visual reminder that fall is creeping in. For now, the lights are on, enjoy your summertime to the fullest and don't turn out your light until absolutely mandatory!

What to Do With Storm Water Runoff

by Dale Finseth

It is a reoccurring topic — storm water and storm water runoff. "Storm water" is the rainfall or melting snow that then runs across the landscape. Given the time of year, we are most focused on the storm water generated by rain and hail storms. While we had a good deal of rain this spring, the past few weeks have not seen much rainfall.

So…, here are some of the areas to pay attention to: The ditch next to your driveway will have a lot of water in it during and soon after a rainstorm. The culvert beneath your driveway may run full. That storm water flow is just nature doing what nature does. Water runs downhill and sometimes, during or after a large rainstorm, nature can generate a rather large runoff. We need to prepare for those cases. There are some things you can do to help!

Pay attention to where the water flows during a rainstorm. Where does it travel once it falls from the sky? Where does it flow off of the roadway and parking areas? Where does it flow off of your roof or deck area? Do you have other impervious areas that channel and concentrate the water like pathways or storage areas One inch of rain on a single square foot of pavement, sidewalk or roof equals 0.6234 gallons of water.

During a large rainstorm where we may get 4 – 6 inches of rainfall and you have a 500 square foot paved parking area, you would have about 1560 gallons of water running off of your parking area. That is about twenty-five, 55-gallon drums of water with no place to go but the discharge area of your parking lot. Those impervious areas channel to the lowest point and cascaded into the lake from a concentrated runoff area. An impervious surface doesn't soak up the rain but carries it off to another location. For every inch of rain that falls on those surfaces, your property needs to deal with tens of thousands of gallons of water. Depending upon how your structures are designed, that concentration of water can do a lot of damage. Now consider your property. How much impervious surface do you have? And how is the runoff managed?

What can a property owner do to mitigate the damage? Direct storm water into vegetated areas or rain gardens. Install filtration steps in any area where the pathway may get steep. The water from parking areas can be sheeted off the edges and into areas that do not erode the soils. Take the opportunity now to use some of those Best Management Practices. You need to manage your yard and property to protect it and water quality. Control the water runoff. Look for places that have been damaged in past storms. It will happen again unless you do something.

And don't forget a good buffer planting, if well established, does a good job of intercepting water runoff and filtering it before it gets to the lake. The objective is to filter it, so it doesn't concentrate and transport soil, chemicals, or other toxics into the water.

Remember, there is a lot to do in order to protect water quality

Don't Hesitate, Vegetate!

by Sabine Fontaine

This buffer has five tiers of vegetation: pine needle mulch, ground cover, shrubs, midstory, and canopy. Current LakeSmart standards require awardees to have at least three out of the five tiers. Photo courtesy of Maine Lakes Society LakeSmart.

This tip is all about how to vegetate. And no, I don't mean vegetate as in being passive, inactive, and dull. I mean vegetate as in to grow or sprout or plant! Plants save the lake by catching rainwater runoff and filtering chemicals out of it. Vegetation also covers soil with its leaves, and holds soil with its roots. The vegetation along your shoreline is called a buffer. The larger it is, the more it protects the lake. Please note that grass is not a proper buffer! In fact, I've often heard that grass is as good as a dirt hill. It does not protect the lake compared to other ground covers, shrubs, or trees.

On the shore we name five tiers of vegetation: mulch, ground cover, shrubs, midstory trees, and canopy trees. For example, a five-tier buffer garden might have a layer of pine needles or some undyed mulch; some creeping juniper, lowbush blueberry, hostas, ferns, or daylilies as ground cover; some larger shrubs such as highbush blueberry, dogwood, summersweet, or chokebush; and finally trees such as pussy willow or common witchhazel, and oak or maple. These plants are hardy and they are widely available at local nurseries in central Maine.

If you want more information or have any questions about your own buffer, sign up for a free, no obligation LakeSmart visit by contacting Sabine at lakesmart@blamaine.org or 512-5150.

Just Beautiful Weather

by Dick Greenan

We all know that I love to share the forecast as it's shaping our pond levels, but I really enjoy sharing forecasts when they are projecting just beautiful weather. As of this writing, Weather Underground is forecasting a meager 0.15″ of precipitation over the next 10 days, so it doesn't get much better than this!

Great Pond is just 0.24″ above full pond with both gates still completely closed, essentially at full pond. Remember, last year at this time, Great Pond was down 6.12″ by this time. Long Pond is now 1.2″ below full with both gates still completely closed. Also, last year at this time, Long Pond was down a whopping 9.84″, not only due to the drought but a leaking Wings Mill Dam that has since been temporarily repaired. Salmon/McGrath is down about 4″ below full with its one gate still opened the mandated 1 turn or 1 cfs. Overall, we're still holding our own and looking good.

Although we do still need some rain, we do appreciate the respite from the mosquitos.

Enjoy the family, your vacation, and this beautiful weather!

David McCullough Histories and Maine Connections

by Martha F. Barkley

David McCullough and his wife Rosalee spend summers in Camden to be close to their daughter and grandchildren who live there year round. He used to love sailing, but now David's sons and sons-in-law captain the sailboat while he continues to enjoy outings at 84. He told Brian Lamb on Q&A recently that he loves writing every morning: why stop what you love doing?

How I loved finding The Pioneers, McCullough's newest history, at our Belgrade Library last week. One of the best pages I found was a complete showing of all the covers. Usually, for some unknown reason, Brave Companions has not been included. This time it is in there in all its beauty like the other artfully done covers.

Big, ancient trees, ship building and fishing are a common theme in The Pioneers that constantly made me think of Maine. An 80-pound catfish from the Ohio River and a 100-pound fish — I forget which species — were caught during the first settlement of Marietta, named after Queen Antoinette of France. Our fishing and our French population in Maine are similar to the Northwest Ordinance territory, somewhat larger than France: Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin.

The pioneers were constantly clearing old growth trees and many were used for ship building at Marietta. Bath Iron Works is still going strong here with a wonderful ship building museum to explore. An easy day trip from Belgrade.

It fascinated me to read McCullough's words about Harriet Beecher Stowe who left that area of the country to come with her husband to Bowdoin College and write Uncle Tom's Cabin: "In the early spring of 1850, a shabby woman no more than five feet tall boarded a steamer at Cincinnati, where she had been living for seventeen years, and departed upstream on the Ohio. She was happily heading 'home' to New England, to Brunswick, Maine, where her husband had recently joined the faculty of Bowdoin College…"

McCullough continues to write about Stowe's world famous novel Uncle Tom's Cabin quoting from his earlier book Brave Companions. I loved Brave Companions, because it had short chapters about so many interesting topics, such as Alexander Humboldt the German explorer, map maker, and scientist and Abe Lincoln's horseback riding route from the White House to the summer cottage at the Old Soldiers Home, etc.

New England villages were established all over Ohio and the Northwest Ordinance states. Public schools for every child were promoted for the first time and the university system in each state came into being.

Slavery was not allowed and that was a big demarcation from the first thirteen states, which all had slavery. Maine broke from Massachusetts at a time when slave and free states needed balancing in Washington, DC.

Aaron Burr, after his notoriety of killing Hamilton, arrived in Marietta to promote secession of the west from the east. Not north and south, but east and west! He found money and alliances with an Irish couple who built their magnificent mansion on Blennerhassett Island, just across the Ohio River from Marietta. The Blennerhassett family had a slave to ferry them back and forth to Marietta.

John Adams's son, John Quincy Adams, visited Marietta and Revolutionary soldiers found common ground with Lafayette's great tour 50 years after our country was established. Many veterans were offered land in the Northwest Ordinance territory as payment for their service.

The Greater Journey by McCullough introduced me to Elihu Washburne and all those remarkable Americans from Livermore, Maine. The Portland Museum of Art has many Maine artists who trained in Paris and also Italy.

In his Pulitzer Prize — winning biography John Adams, I was amazed to read that as a young lawyer, our nation's second president came on horseback to our nearby Pownalborough Court House on the Kennebec to serve only once. The rough horseback ride into the woods was too much for John Adams to return.

The Pioneers was a slow read for me in comparison to others by McCullough. Mike Hill, his assistant for thirty-five years, certainly had loads of well organized letters and journals to help sort through and I felt I was reading quote after quote of meticulous detail in The Pioneers daily challenges on the frontier. Maybe you could find another McCullough history on the shelves. Most every single one is enlightening and I keep wondering why history in school was not as fascinating as these books by respected David McCullough.

He was kind enough to sign my very old paperback of The Johnstown Flood. when he introduced his daughter at Merrill Auditorium in Portland years ago. She was beginning her writing career with a novel. He certainly was the proud papa.

I also heard David McCullough, Jr. at the Savannah, Ga. Book Festival in February a few years ago when his nonfiction was published, You Are Not Special, a phrase taken out of context from his commencement speech at the school graduation where he teaches English. Boy, did that go viral on the web at that time, so he was forced into explaining the use of that phrase in his speech by writing a book. Very clear what he meant and the World Wide Web certainly does sometimes cause miscommunication. That was way before Tweets!

For the Birds

by Pete Kallin

Amy Soper, John Brower, Pete Kallin, and Liz Tonge admire a downy rattlesnake plantain orchid. Photo by F. Knight.

The third Saturday in July was the annual loon count in Maine, coordinated by Maine Audubon. Every year over 1000 volunteers, of which I am one, attempt to count all the loons on a couple hundred Maine lakes at the same time. It's organized like a military operation, and I am the coordinator for the dozen or so volunteers on Long Pond.

Early in the morning all counters head for their assigned section of the lake to be in position to count all the adult loons and loon chicks in their area between 7:00 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. I left my dock around 6 a.m., passing a loon with a chick silhouetted in the morning sun at the mouth of my cove. As recently as two days ago, we had two chicks in our cove but one disappeared, probably taken by the bald eagle that has been soaring over our cove lately.

After picking up my assistant counter, Fred Knight, at the Village Inn docks, we searched our assigned sector, counting two adult nesting loons, and I dropped Fred off and headed back toward my dock. As I approached Tracy Cove, I saw a loon fly overhead and land in the cove and spotted Dick Greenan, with Jason and Sarah Toner in his boat, the assigned counters for that sector, headed towards Dick's dock. Suddenly a "Battle Royale" erupted and one of our resident loons began chasing the rogue loon invading their territory and threatening their chick. For the next ten to fifteen minutes, the two loons did a high-speed butterfly stroke that covered well over a mile of continuous splashing and squawking before the invader slinked off, defeated. I was truly amazed at the amount of energy expended by the two birds.

Downy rattlesnake plantain orchid

Later that morning, I picked up Fred at his dock and we headed down to the 7-Lakes Alliance (7-LA) Fogg Island property on the Mount Vernon side of lower Long Pond for the official opening of the new trail and boardwalk. Fred and I were planning to land at the "water" end of the trail just south of Ingham Stream to assist anyone coming by canoe or kayak, while 7-LA Stewardship Director, Amy Soper, was leading a group of hikers from the parking lot off Spring Hill Road.

A sandhill crane defends his territory.

When we came ashore at the small beach between two overhanging cedar trees, there was a sudden eruption raucous squawking that sounded like a Canada goose trying to swallow a bunch of bullfrogs. It turned out that a pair of sandhill cranes with a youngster had taken up residence right next to our landing area and didn't approve of our presence. After a few minutes of squawking and flying at us to get us to move, the cranes finally flew about 100 yards up the shoreline toward Ingham Stream.

Fred and I then hiked south along the trail, eventually meeting up with Amy hiking south with Liz Tong and John Brower. We all hiked back to the island, stopping to admire a few stands of downy rattlesnake plantain orchids along the trail. Back at the island, we had atrial lunch, picked a few highbush blueberries and then headed out, Fred and I in the boat and the rest overland. For info on how to access this new bike/hike/ski trail, contact Amy Soper at the MLRC.

This area offers some great outdoor recreation, whether you like to hike, bike, birdwatch, fish, sail, or paddle a canoe or kayak. Pick up a map of the local trails at Day's Store or from the 7 Lakes Alliance at the Maine Lakes Resource Center. Please check the 7-LA Facebook page for details on some interesting events scheduled this summer. Also, check the website and keep an eye on the sign out front. And make sure you take a kid along on your next outdoor adventure.

Print This Article • Print All Articles • Go Back to Top

Download the Print Edition

The print edition includes all the above articles and much more. You can find a complete table of contents on p. 3. Adobe Reader is required.