May 24, 2022
First Day at Lake George
Today was filled with the kinds of chores that go with opening up a camp after winter: cleaning out the spaces just abandoned by the mice, working through a yard and garden that look lovely in nature but have to be recovered, making sure the water pump and hot water heater are ready to live in happy harmony, and wondering whether a repair here and there should be delegated to Flex Seal® tape instead of to my ham-handed craftsmanship.
Pulling my guide boat out of my neighbor’s small barn across the road was on my to-do list today if only to take stock of the repairs that I’ll need to attend to before I push off in July. I’ll trust Jason and Ian up at Adirondack Guide Boat to get at the structural stuff because to approach a boat of theirs with a roll of Flex Seal would be a felony, even if it worked.
Gentle Reader, I try not to pitch high and inside for commercial establishments in my blogs and I’ve never taken any sponsorship money, but I’ve GOT to tip my broad-brimmed hat to the folks up at Adirondack Guide Boat ( adirondack-guide-boat.com ) in North Ferrisburgh, Vermont. I’ve said it for fifteen years and over 4,000 miles of adventuring, and I’ll say it again: my guide boat enables me to take these trips. One can load it with gear, settle in with those beautiful nine-foot cherry oars, and sustain a good pace for hours on end through water and wind that might be otherwise troublesome. Guide boats were designed for hauling stuff, and their seaworthiness and efficiency make them a great choice for duffers like me. So before I get too far into this year’s adventure, I want to thank Ian and Jason for keeping me going. I hit things, I run over things, and I live a slovenly life while aboard, and once in a while my boat needs, shall we say, a tune up.
Today’s barn find reminds me that I’m at that “once in a while” moment.
So, Ian and Jason, thanks! You and your boats rock!
I’m a retired English teacher, and I see much of life these days through the lens of literature, much in the way I encouraged my students to experience the joys and travails of others’ lives through reading. Great books teach empathy. After two decades of working with young people, I’ve come to believe that empathy is the too-secret sauce of healthy relationships and responsible citizenship.
Anyway, an English teacher might describe the recent developments in the proposed ProcellaCOR chemical situation at Lake George as the “rising action” of an increasingly troubling drama. For those of you following the story (and anyone interested in environmental stewardship in general and the challenges of working towards solutions in particular should be following this process), the Lake George Park Commission (LGPC) has been heading towards a test of ProcellaCOR, an herbicide proven to kill Eurasian milfoil, and the Lake George Association (LGA) has sued the LGPC and others to prevent the “test” until more lake-specific fact-finding can take place.
In my last blog entry I wrote that “as truly excellent environmental organizations face off against the very authorities charged with the protection of the lake, I feel like I’m watching an argument between two best friends who agree on a Destination but differ in the all-important Route.” As I read and listen further, though, I’m not sure this situation is as simple and clear-cut as that.
A sense of urgency around a timeline in ink has pressed the use of ProcellaCOR into the courts. The temperature of the debate is rising, and I would recommend the last two issues of the Lake George Mirror (5/13 and 5/20) as excellent reading for gathering insights on positions. This is, indeed, “rising action” right here at home…
In a clear and compelling essay in the 5/13 issue of The Mirror, Jeff Killeen and Peter Menzies of the LGA offer the basis of the LGA’s objections to the impending use of ProcellaCOR. To the Mirror’s credit, a week later, on 5/20, Ken Parker and Dave Wick of the LGPC presented their position on the planned test along with significant context, and Anthony Hall’ typically excellent synopsis resides in a separate column.
One would do well to read these articles back-to-back, along with Tony’s commentary, to gather foundational facts on the way to forming a responsible position. There’s a lot more to learn.
The background for ProcellaCor is compelling; it’s easy for a layperson like me to see it as a long-awaited silver bullet, one that has a track record elsewhere and advocates in high places. Yet it’s what we don’t know (yet) about its application in the lake - especially about the ramifications of even a successful test against milfoil- that concerns me. I myself hope that cool and collaborative heads prevail, taking the time necessary to answer what we don’t know (or to ask what has yet to be asked) while, at the same time, keeping the long term health of the lake as the paramount concern.
On a more unified but no less important front, the LGPC is moving ahead with a focused and transparent process to establish basin-wide standards for septic system inspection, and this is uncontestable good news and vitally important. As faithful readers of this blog already know, my admiration for the folks at Keuka Lake is sky-high; their basin-wide commitment years ago to septic system monitoring literally saved their lake from dramatic decline (and saved their tourism, their property values, their health, and their sense of what it takes to do anything across many constituencies!). I hope that the Keuka Lake success story becomes a part of the Lake George public dialogue when this worthy initiative gets to that stage.
And, tomorrow, when I get in my boat for the first time this season, I hope I remember how to row.
More later….
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