Photo courtesy of the family of Chuck Houghton
Our guest blogger for July is Marj Wexler.
The mission statement of the Friends of Prospect Lake (FOPL) is simple: To monitor, maintain, and enhance the environmental, aesthetic, recreational, and economic values of Prospect Lake and its watershed and to provide education with respect thereto.
Simple to say, but not so simple to do. We aim to keep the lake the gem that it is, and we do that by controlling the invasive weeds.
Weeds that are allowed to grow unchecked in a lake such as ours, with limited water turnover, die back in the winter, adding to the muck in the lake bottom and providing a fertile substrate for the growth of more weeds. Plant life increases exponentially, and the resultant lower oxygen levels lead to algal blooms (sometimes toxic) and reduced animal life (starting with fish and amphibians). Therefore, we work to eliminate the invasive weeds so that Prospect Lake won’t become Prospect Marsh.
Unfortunately, managing the weeds isn’t cheap. We need to hire a consulting company, which also manages the treatment. Of course, we are all committed to following the environmental rules set by the MassDEP and enforced by the Egremont Conservation Commission.
The Friends of Prospect Lake work hard to earn the money required. Many of you know how much effort goes into our annual tag sale, and many of you actively participate, which is wonderful. We have baked cakes at holiday time, done a stint at redeeming bottles and cans at Egremont’s Transfer Station, and we’re always looking for new fund-raising ideas.
One thing we can always count on is the money collected as dues and contributions from our members. Our membership consists of people who live on the lake, and people who don’t live there but use it, and people who simply love having the lake and its ecology in place. We deliberately keep our dues low ($50 per voting member) because it’s important to have an involved community. Many of you add a generous contribution above that amount, and we couldn’t be more grateful.
Our heartfelt thanks to all of you who have become members over the years. We look forward to having a healthy Prospect Lake for many more years.
If you would like to become a member of the Friends of Prospect Lake click here.
If you have questions about membership please email info@prospectlake.org and you will be contacted by someone on our membership committee.
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