LakeSmart November E-news

November LakeSmart News

Hello Maine Lakes,

The LakeSmart Teams were busy with evaluations right up until the leaves fell this year with the last one done on November 5th! Thanks again for a wonderful season and we can't wait to see you all in the spring.

LakeSmart 2023 Summary
We'll Make Your Lake Association Logo into a Sticker for LakeSmart Award Signs
New Lake Highlights
Don't Forget Your Award Presentation Photos!
Erosion Control Mulch Guide
New LakeSmart Online Tools 2023

Caroline

cmurray@lakes.me

LakeSmart 2023 Summary

We put together this informative summary of the 2023 LakeSmart season. A season highlight is the group of 118 dedicated volunteer evaluators (listed on page 2) that gave over 1200 hours of their time to the LakeSmart Program. That's a value of over $35,000! Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts for making this program a success year after year.

If you have any questions or comments, you can reach out to Andrea at astevens@lakes.me.

Want Your Lake Association Logo on the Award Signs? We Can Make Logo Stickers for you!

Did you know that the LakeSmart award signs come with a blank space (bottom right) where lake associations can add a vinyl sticker of their logo with association contact information? .

Maine Lakes is happy to help your association design your sticker and we'll pay for an initial batch of 100 for use on signs (which usually takes just over a week to arrive).

Email the information you’d like on your sign (including a JPG or PNG of your logo if you have one) to lakesmart@lakes.me. We’ll send you a draft layout for approval before ordering the stickers.

We suggest including a logo, website address and email, especially if the association has an official contact email address rather than someone’s personal email address.

New Lake Spotlight

We're so excited to have new lakes sponsoring the program this season. Many first-time volunteers really hit the ground running by hosting evaluator training and completing a number of evaluations. We welcome (or welcome back after a number of years): Annabessacook Lake, Branch Lake, Bear Pond, Clary Lake, Embden Pond, Green Lake, Little Sebago Lake, Meduxnekeag (Drews) Lake, and North Pond (Oxford).

Don't Forget the Photo!

Presenting a LakeSmart award sign is a great opportunity to snap a few photos! These photos are great for lake association newsletter articles and other program materials. At Maine Lakes, we love seeing these photos as well, and we use them to promote the LakeSmart program, so please send them along to Caroline or Andrea. Of course, be sure that the homeowner is comfortable with their photo being shared publicly.

Where to Find Erosion Control Mulch

Erosion Control Mulch (ECM) is one of our most recommended Best Management Practices in the LakeSmart Program, however many homeowners are often puzzled by where to find this magical mix! In 2020, John McClaine at the Maine DEP compiled this list of Erosion Control Mulch suppliers in Maine. Feel free to use this list to find a local supplier to you, check to see if they are still supplying, and then share with homeowners!

New LakeSmart Tools Online - A Guide

There have been a couple of new tools and publications released in 2023, so here is a wrap up with links to each. Please bookmark these to access them later!

Evaluator Toolkit

The evaluator toolkit is where we now store materials for volunteer evaluators. These materials include training videos, blank evaluation forms, homeowner follow-up templates, the evaluator manual, and Maine Lakes brochures and publications. Please do not share this link outside the LakeSmart community

Evaluator Toolkit

Interactive map

This map shows the lakes that have completed at least one LakeSmart evaluation within the last three years. Caroline updates this map at the end of each month during the LakeSmart season. Contact her with any questions of comments at cmurray@lakes.me.

Interactive Map

LakeSmart is a highly successful, community-based program that educates homeowners about how to manage their lakefront properties in ways that protect water quality.

For more information and to subscribe to this e-newsletter, visit us at our website.

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