Quote:
Originally Posted by NH.Solar
At that time when the light was right it was easy to see the bottom twenty+ feet down, there was no milfoil to speak of, and most rocks didn't have a film of algae. The lake will never again be that beautiful due to the overpopulation it now has, but a lot of ground could certainly be recovered if there were no lawn fertilizing allowed within 250' of the shoreline.
I have covered my shore front from 50 feet back with a few inches of organic NH mulch from Ambrose. It is soft to walk on, smells great, and decomposes naturally just like the forest duff that used to cover most of our lake's shores. Within 50' of the water my shorefront is just as natural as the day I found it and mostly covered in blueberry bushes ...as it should be
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You can still see 20+feet down, if you boat to the edge of winter's ice!
We used a grapnel to pull up our mooring chain. Alas, we can't see the mooring in spring any longer.
Lake Winnipesaukee, like other NH lakes, was formerly surrounded by forests of White Pine. (White Pine is the first tree to recover from forest fires, which were plentiful before "discovery").
Below every mature pine tree is a thick mat of discarded needles, which strongly resists erosion.
Compare with the tiny needles of Eastern Hemlock, which wash away after "tear-down" lots are cleared of the White Pines. (The building industry pays a fortune for straight pine logs--and even more for the decimated
Red Pine).
The lake would be self-healing with a White Pine restoration project and no fertilizers or weed-killer.
Ever seen that 50-foot shoreline-strip of brown,
underfertilized grass?
Me neither.
