June 11, 2025 Breakfast Meeting Notes

 

Announcements: Tony announced that this is the last day to request a new name tag. See him if you need to order one.

 

Styrofoam recycling may not be able to happen this weekend..

 

Tony opened with his famous NH trivia, Ghosts and Goblins of NH edition.

 

Phil won the 50/50.

 

Lora got the chance to play the card game but drew the 10 of diamonds. The game continues.

 

Alicia and Mike went to Whole Village to stuff camp bags yesterday.

 

This Saturday will be our Plymouth road cleanup. Meet at 10 at Walmart’s parking area. Bring gloves and wear bug spray (DEET and/or permethrin) as the ticks are out. Lunch afterwards at Lora and Ken’s house.

 

The changeover dinner will be on June 25th at the Covered Bridge Restaurant. Note that we will still have a program that morning and at least one of our transition grant recipients will be attending.  

 

Denise announced that she and Mike were up in Magog for the district changeover this past Saturday. It was lovely, on the lake, and the food was wonderful. All of the Northeast district governors formed a group at PALS this year and they are trying to attend all of the district changeovers in the area. Denise also attended the Lincoln-Woodstock changeover and it was spectacular. She noted that here will also be a motorcycle training class at Mt Prospect this Saturday. See her for more information.

 

Ben Amsden introduced our speaker, EB James, who is the president of the Squam Lakes Association.

 

The SLA has been around “forever.” It was formed to protect the Squam Lakes area, in partnership with many other area agencies. The SLA is also working to keep public access to maintain community involvement with the lake. In the last few years the SLA has seen a lot of effects of climate change and development on the area, and so it was decided to be proactive in protecting the lake and its watershed. The association took inspiration from the Lake George Association. The data that the SLA has been monitoring for years concerns the slow progression of geologic change, but now the SLA is trying to be more involved in mitigating the effects of the much more rapid changes that are occurring. The SLA needed to rebuild their laboratory and they got a large grant that allowed them to do a huge renovation, larger than they had originally planned. They now have a state of the art laboratory and are working with UNH to get a research grade lab. 

 

As a result of this expansion, they now monitor 67 sites in the lake (previously they could only do 16). They are able to rapidly identify problems that are arising in each area and direct treatment and mitigation to that area. They have addressed about 70% of the publicly owned areas where there is runoff, and they will be doing more this fall. All of this work removes a lot of phosphorus and other nutrient runoff from the lake. 

 

In the past the SLA worked with the Center for the Environment at PSU, but that program was discontinued. Now the association is doing that work for PSU! They have also worked with Americorps, which has been a fantastic program for them. They used to hire college kids but they needed 5 weeks of training and then they only had time to do 4 weeks of work. The joined  with other organizations to be large enough to get Americorps volunteers, who do all of the area cleanup, trail maintenance, milfoil removal, and cyanobacteria mitigation. This has created a corps of people who could share  their expertise with incoming volunteers. The SLA has also used Americorps volunteers to interface with the community to help build community structure and community relations. 

 

Unfortunately given the upheavals in Washington, there is uncertainty about future funding. The program was cut by DOGE but fortunately they had been preparing for this so they are able to retain the Americorp staff for now. Twenty-six states joined together to successfully sue the federal government to restore the  Americorp funding,, but NH was not part of the lawsuit and so did not get any additional funds.

 

James noted that the milfoil removal program at Squam Lake costs only a fraction of what is spent at Lake Winnipesaukee and is more effective. The new lab allows them to rapidly test for cyanobacteria, as well as put out phosphorus mitigation islands in localized areas. As a result they are able to start mitigation efforts sooner. The SLA will be holding a grand opening celebration, along with an art show, on the 21st of June, from 1-3 PM.

 

James noted that the lake is very crowded on weekends but it is very quiet during the week. The conversion of the housing stock is also an issue, as seasonal cabins are being converted to year-round dwellings and the septic tanks are not being upgraded. As are a result there is an influx of nutrients that triggers algae blooms. SLA is dropping tiles near phosphorus sources; these will absorb nutrients and can then be retrieved, dried, and the problem identified. State of the art septic units help eliminate this influx of nutrients.

 

The loons are doing well.

 

Happy dollars were shared by Steve, Tony, Lora, Mike, and Alicia.

 

Steve noted that last night there was an event at the Common Man by the author of The Last Bake Sale, a book about school funding in NH. Steve has been one of the plaintiffs suing the state over its use of property taxes to fund schools, which has resulted in wealthier towns paying less and poorer towns paying more. Yesterday the NH Supreme Court ruled in the case and, sadly, it did not go well. The court held that the state’s method of funding of schools was constitutional.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Lora Miller, secretary