Please donate for a Healthy Lake Boon

Fundraising for the Healthy Lake Boon lake study and Hallock Point preservation is going very well—we have just reached the $100,000 mark in gifts and pledges. We are coordinating with Stow Conservation Trust, which is helping take our message town wide and soliciting funds from their supporters as well.

We have just $68,000 to go in the final two months of the campaign. Together we can do this! If you haven’t already donated or want to donate again this year, please consider doing it NOW. This will show the important strong community support ahead of key town votes which will allocate Stow Community Preservation Act funds for conserving Hallock Point. The Community Preservation Committee has approved putting Community Preservation Funds toward the purchase of Hallock Point, but this must also be approved at Town Meeting in May.

April 27th – Stow Selectmen’s meeting will vote on exercise of the town’s right of first refusal to acquire Hallock Point. This is a necessary step in the process.

May 22nd – Stow Town Meeting must vote to purchase the property and allocate Community Preservation Funds toward the purchase.

Our goal is to have the private fundraising completed by Town Meeting so that voters can be assured that all the funds will be raised. Your tax-deductible contribution is strongly leveraged by CPA funds. Hudson resident contributions are even more strongly leveraged as they support using Stow CPA funds for a project which preserves much of the Hudson shoreline vista and the whole lake environment, especially the 3rd and 4th basins.

Donations can be mailed to:

Lake Boon Improvement Association / memo line: Healthy Lake Boon
c/o Treasurer
12 Pine Point Rd
Stow MA 01775

or given online at https://charity.gofundme.com/o/en/campaign/the-healthy-lake-boon-initiative

For more information see this Healthy Lake Boon brochure.

Boards are back in the dam

The highway department has replaced the boards in the dam so we can expect the level to rise gradually about 14 inches over the next few weeks, depending on groundwater flow and rainfall. This week is our last chance to do waterfront work and cleanup at the lowest lake levels. Also, be sure any boats, floats or docks pulled up at the edge are secured.

Healthy Lake Boon Sampling Team training coming up

Healthy Lake Boon water quality sampling training has been scheduled with the project’s initiatives team, and Citizen Science Coordinator, Rebecca Longvall. If you haven’t already signed up to be part of the sampling team, but are interested in helping out, please contact Rebecca at r.longvall217@gmail.com or Dave Gray at grayscale@earthlink.net to introduce yourself and RSVP for the training. We need more community members to become oriented with Lake Boon and the monitoring effort to ultimately improve the health of the lake for the environment and for recreation.

Note that training must be completed before you can participate in the project.

Training sessions have been scheduled as follows:

March 31st 2021 at 7 p.m.: Orientation on Lake Dynamics (via Zoom)

April 11th 2021 at 2:30 – 3:30 p.m.: In-person training (Stow Town Beach)

Please note you must RSVP to ensure you receive the Zoom invitation and any preliminary information prior to the training.

Drawdown update: refilling Lake Boon

We may still have a few cold days ahead of us, but ice out is well underway. So. . . it’s time to refill the lake. Per the Order of Conditions, we’re letting you know that we will install the boards in the dam and begin refilling the lake, starting on about Mar 25, 2021. We expect it will fill back up again by mid-April. Welcome to spring!

Dan Barstow, Member
Lake Boon Commission

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A new season of found flotsam

The following two items have been located:

A large plastic floating dock, now at the dog beach just south of the Stow Town Beach. Note that this dock may float elsewhere with the strong winds in the forecast.) Help is available retrieving it by emailing Dave Gray at grayscale@earthlink.net.

Also a blue LeTube, which is now in the yard at 20 Lakeside Avenue.

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Healthy Lake Boon update

The Healthy Lake Boon Initiative got started just over a year ago as concern arose over the 2019 closing of the Lake due to cyanobacteria blooms as well as general poor water quality. The Initiative is to take a comprehensive lake management approach to maintaining and improving the health of the Lake for the environment and for recreation.

Additional funds are still needed to achieve our goals. See the end of this email for how to donate.

Here is the Healthy Lake Boon progress so far:

• Past lake studies have been reviewed and posted at https://lakeboon.wordpress.com/water-quality/.
• The LBA purchased an instrument to measure depth profiles of dissolved oxygen, temperature and conductivity (dissolved minerals) which has been used monthly, even through the ice!
• The level/flowrate at the dam, rainfall and evaporation rates have been regularly monitored to develop an accurate hydrological model of the lake.
• We have obtained a Massachusetts Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness grant to thoroughly study the lake to understand its dynamics and plan to mitigate climate change effects.
• In a competitive bidding process we have accepted the proposal from Brown & Caldwell to provide the project consulting services and are contracting with a laboratory for water sample analyses.
• We have hired a Citizen Science Coordinator to work with volunteers (that’s us!), possibly including students in Nashoba High School’s extracurricular Green Team and Hudson High School’s Earth Council, depending on their interest/availability.
• We have established a successful fundraising campaign to provide the required grant private matching funds.
• The opportunity to preserve Hallock Point arose during the year and it was decided to bundle both the private funding needs for the MVP grant and the Hallock Point conservation into the same campaign since both will help the health of the lake. See the attached brochure and https://charity.gofundme.com/o/en/campaign/the-healthy-lake-boon-initiative

Next steps:

• Confirm volunteer availability for water sampling and measurements based on earlier responses.
• Work with our consultant and coordinator to begin volunteer training by Zoom and later in boats.
• Work with our consultant to establish a project website with dashboard displaying measurement results and significance.
• Continue fundraising.

If you are able and haven’t already done so, please consider contributing to the Lake Boon Association, earmarked Healthy Lake Boon Initiative…

by check sent to:
LBA Treasurer
12 Pine Point Rd
Stow, MA 01775

or through our GoFundMe site which includes additional information and photos accessible by scrolling at https://charity.gofundme.com/o/en/campaign/the-healthy-lake-boon-initiative