It feels like ice out officially starts spring here at the SLA. Friday, April 8th marked the official ice out day, where there was sufficient passage all the way across the Squam Lake and Little Squam. Since then we’ve been gearing up for many new tasks as the weather starts to become more amiable mixed with its fair share of rainy days. Our boats are inspected and ready to go for the season, winter gear is stowed away, and the transition to springtime activity is moving smoothly.
I’ve already had the opportunity to start driving the boats (under the supervision of our senior staff, of course), and I’m excited to get more opportunities at captaining our vessels. Over the last few weeks the LRCC crew has been studying for our commercial boaters licenses and will be testing next week and the week after to obtain those. It’s been lots of acronyms, creating phrases, and different ways to remember terminology, and I’m eagerly anticipating the completion of the exam. Our spring and summer activities such as water quality, milfoil removal, and reinstalling island docks all require boats to be utilized, so it’s important that we study hard and pass the exams as soon as possible.
As for things planned in the interim before we get our boaters licenses, we’re still working hard creating public programs for the Holderness and surrounding areas for people of all ages to enjoy. You can find a list of all upcoming events here! We also have an upcoming water quality day where we will take samples before the lake turnover, which will be some of our first experiences with post ice out water quality. For those that don’t know, lake turnover is the process of a lake's water turning over from top to bottom. This happens twice every year, in spring and in fall, and is important because it redistributes nutrients and oxygen from the bottom of the lake (where decomposition is taking place) to the top. This allows aquatic life to inhabit the entirety of the lake as oxygen becomes more readily available. Taking samples before and after lake turnover gives us a good idea of what nutrients and oxygen are available pre and post turnover, giving us a more holistic view of the health of the lake. Additionally, this first water quality run should give us a good understanding of where we need to spend more time in preparation for gearing up on summer water quality.
I’m most excited for more boating throughout the spring and the summer, but I’m also looking forward to the variety of tasks that the warm weather brings us. We hope to see you out on the lake this year!
Kyle brings a lot of good-natured fun into service here at the Squam Lakes Association. Learn more about Kyle here!