Margaret Snell, a master’s student studying resource utilization in the School of Economics, and Christine Paluga of Mount Desert Island, Maine, an undergraduate in UMaine’s Parks, Recreation and Tourism Program, spent last summer interviewing community leaders to gather information. They asked about the role lakes play in the community; management challenges and uses over time; changes in residential development and water quality; and challenges of invasive plants and fish.
Concurrently, Paluga and Snell did their own survey of kayaks and motorboats, docks or moorings, shoreline landscaping and the type of buildings around each lake. Different lakes have distinct personalities. Their survey initiated a mapping of attributes related to this variation in character.
“We were trying to get a feel for what is going on at the lake, the relationship between development and recreational use,” Snell says. “Were there recreational conflicts? Do patterns of housing affect recreational use?”
Two other graduate student researchers involved in the project – Megan Tylka in the School of Economics and David Ellis in the Department of Wildlife Ecology – are studying water quality and invasive plants and fish, respectively.
Information the UMaine researchers collect, produce and share will provide a rich, layered picture of Maine’s Great Ponds. It will serve as the basis for a tool kit that lakefront communities can use as a guide to make sustainable decisions.
“By thinking more creatively about the interactions among economic, social and environmental systems, we can better support the resiliency of these systems,” Bell says. “Sustainable lake management is one of many opportunities to improve our economy and our environment.”
