Photo courtesy of Peter Horsfall
The epidemic stretches into the new year. Covid-19 morphed into the Pandemic of 2020 and is now about to become the Pandemic of 2021, though this time with a vaccine providing a light at the end of this dark tunnel. A faint light so far, but a light nonetheless.
In these difficult times, the Friends of Prospect Lake (FOPL) reaffirm their basics:
Simply put, FoPL’s mission is to keep the lake healthy and useable for all the flora and fauna that live in it or make use of it for one purpose or another.
That mission translates into controlling the weeds that would overwhelm the lake if they were not carefully and persistently managed. That’s where our motto -- “stubborn as the weeds” – comes from.
The Friends are a membership organization, made up of individuals who want to support the group’s goals and who contribute a membership fee to join.
Every year since our beginning in 2006, we have hired a professional lake management firm to guide our understanding of the lake’s evolving needs and the options that exist for managing the weeds.
Our lake management consultants guide us in ongoing reviews of possible weed mgt approaches – benthic barriers, weed cutters, herbicides, drawdowns. Our consulting partners then implement the method chosen.
In addition to membership fees and the generous assistance of the Town of Egremont, the Friends undertake fund raising initiatives to provide the money needed for the work on the lake. This year our annual tag sale took the form of online and smaller, highly focused live markets, all of these more successful than we dared hope.
The Friends hold a public meeting every July, a meeting open to all comers. The meeting discusses options and plans, budget issues, and participant questions/ideas. The meeting also elects the group’s leadership – president, treasurer, etc.
FOPL wishes everybody a safe and healthy year. We are delighted that the lake is one thing that the pandemic has not shut down, though we ask all lake users to exercise due care.
In keeping with the mission to keep the lake & its surrounds healthy & vibrant, late in the season, I took it upon myself to clip & haul away the bittersweet vibes that were taking over the few shrubs & trees at the entrance of the lake. I burned those vines at home & also marked the remaining “roots” of the vines with fluorescent tape. I’ve contacted a low-impact invasive controlling landscape company in Cambridge & they recommended the safest herbicide to apply near water. I hope this can be on the agenda for the July meeting. Thanks! Julia Erickson