Lake George Watershed Lake Steward Program End of Season ...

DRAFT
Norowal Marina and Mossy Point were the launches with the highest rate of traffic. Stewards
had been located at these two marinas for the past two years, for this very reason. However,
this year Dunham’s Bay was added on as a third major marina location. We thought it would
have a similarly high traffic level. Based on these numbers, it actually appears to be the
second slowest launch location. These results are based on the assumption that the Lake
Steward spent the same amount of time, 8 hours, each day at each location. This is most
likely not the case, as weather and occasional personal conflicts would sometimes affect the
number of hours spent at a location. However, most of the time the Lake Stewards were at a
launch for 8 hours each day.
Time of year could also affect these results, especially for the launches that the Lake
Stewards spent only a few days at. Some launches could be busy in July and not in August,
while it could be the opposite for others. There is no way to correct for such seasonality in
this data. We have to rely on local knowledge and coordination with marina owners to work
out such fine details.
We had also selected Dunham’s Bay since users must pass under a bridge to reach the lake,
which limits the size of the boat that can be launched there. We thought that since smaller
boats would most likely be trailered greater distance than larger boats, this marina might
get more traffic from farther away, increasing the risk of the spread of an invasive species.
28 samples were removed from 13 boats at Dunham’s Bay, for a total of 11 identified
invasive species. This was the third highest number of invasive specimens removed from a
launch. There are many more launch locations on Lake George than we can find funding for
a steward for, so launches need to be prioritized in some way. This data about launch traffic
rates will help us prioritize launch locations for 2009.
Where are the boats coming from?
2,489 boats were inspected that had been in 159 different waterbodies in 19 different
states. Lake George itself was the most common previously visited body of water at 1,770.
After that, the Hudson River was the most common, with 89 boats (figure 3). New York was
the state with the most waterbodies at 56, while Massachusetts was second at 19 and New
Jersey was third at 18 (figure 4).
Waterbody
Most Common Previously Vistited Waterbodies
for all Launches (excluding LG)
L o ng Is la nd S o und (NY )
G re e nw o o d L a ke (NY )
C a ndle w o o d L a ke (C T)
C o nne c tic ut R iv e r (C T)
S c hro o n L a ke (NY )
S a c a nda ga L a ke (NY )
S a ra to ga L a ke (NY )
L a ke C ha mpla in (NY )
Atla ntic O c e a n
L a ke Ho pa tc o ng (NJ )
Huds o n R iv e r (NY )
22
22
22
23
24
25
47
51
52
54
89
0 2 0 4 0 6 0 8 0 1 0 0
Number of Boats
Figure 3: Most common previously visited waterbodies.
56
# of Previously Visited Waterbodies by State
1 11
11 1
9
3 2 2 2 4
Figure 4: Number of waterbodies by state.
18
7
2
8
12
19
New Jers ey
Rhode Is land
Connec tic ut
Mas s ac hus etts
New Hamps hire
V ermont
Maine
North Carolina
Mary land
Mic higan
Florida
Penns ly v ania
Illinois
Tennes s ee
Ohio
Delaw are
Ontario
Quebec
New Y ork
10 Lake George Watershed Lake Steward Program End of Season Report 2008