While DES protects Winnipesaukee's shorefronts from flagrant removal of shoreline trees, an emerging issue appears to be forming with Lakeport dam operations.
Recent Spring "holdback" keeps Winnipesaukee's level historically elevated at the beginning of summer—just when "specialized" wake-surfing boats are washing silt and shoreline plantings into the lake. Proliferation of NWZs are a flag—not just to boating comfort, but to serious shoreline erosion.
Combined with runoff from hardened surfaces like driveways and roofs, this new sport, among "the usual suspects"
, drags the compounds of Phosphorus, Aluminum, and Nitrogen into the lake
at the beginning of the growing season for bacteria and exotic plants.
•
Phosphorus grows the bacteria responsible for blue-green algae—a poison. The spores of
Cyanobacteria species are appearing earlier in September than usual.
•
Aluminum is
poisonous to crayfish and kills fish when concentrated enough. Yesteryear's huge schools of tiny fish are gone.
•
Nitrogen is a rich fertilizer for exotic milfoil and other invasive plants.
(
None of these elements, or their compounds, benefit lakes).
While DES is to be commended for their "frontline defense" of Winnipesaukee's water quality, why hasn't an excessive lake level been taken into account? The collapse of shoreline trees into the lake is accelerating.
The silting of muddied waters, such as appeared
and photographed early this summer, is taking a toll on water quality.
After polling the summer campers of my generation, it's depressing to watch the rapid eutrophication of Lake Winnipesaukee
in our lifetimes.
.