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*Now is a Great Time to Support our Year-End Challenge Grant!
*Annual Meeting Recap
*News from the Lake Protection Coalition
*LakeSmart Impact
*Winter Webinars Starting in January
*Watershed Survey Grants Open
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Greetings!
As we approach the end of another busy year, the board and staff of Maine Lakes want to express our appreciation for the work that you all do to keep Maine’s lakes clean and healthy. Whether it’s volunteering for LakeSmart, running a CBI station, speaking up in Augusta, or supporting lake organizations like Maine Lakes with your philanthropic dollars, we appreciate you and the work you do. We wish you a peaceful holiday season and the best in the year ahead.
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Susan Gallo
Executive Director of Maine Lakes
On behalf of Maine Lakes Board and Staff
| | Now is a Great Time to Support our Year-End Challenge Grant! | | |
Thanks to the more than 70 wonderful people and lake associations who have so far contributed more than $13,000 toward our Year-End Challenge Grant. We are grateful for gifts of all sizes but appreciate a couple of larger gifts that have come in from California – from a Mainer who loves her family’s lakeside camp – and from Susan Adams, outgoing Maine Lakes president, who had the opportunity to direct a stipend to a nonprofit of her choice. And of course she chose Maine Lakes! Those gifts, along with so many others, have gotten us ever closer to our goal of $20,000…which will unlock an additional $10, 000 from an anonymous donor.
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We have SO much work to do in the year ahead with our advocacy, outreach, programming, and lake association support. By ending the year with this Challenge, we’ll be able to:
- Strengthen LakeSmart and native buffer expansion projects
- Advocate for an incredible lake funding bill - $2M annually for lake restoration and protection (see below for more information)
- Support freshwater education and educators across the state to expand access to programming
- Organize another fabulous lake conference with the Lake Stewards of Maine, this year at the University of Maine in Orono on June 12th, more details coming after the new year
- Bring more information and outreach to lake communities across the state, including an updated edition of the Lake Book
Thank you for your support for clean and healthy Maine lakes!
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Thanks to the 60+ people who registered for the Maine Lakes annual meeting this past Wednesday. Members voted to renew board terms for Toni Pied, Cheryl St. Peter, Susan Adams, and Camila Plana. We are thrilled they are coming back for another three years supporting Maine Lakes' work!
Members also voted for a new slate of officers. New officers include Toni Pied who will be stepping in as President and Garrison Beck who will be our Second VP. Kelly Margolis will continue as Treasurer, Lidie Robbins will continue as the First VP, and Cheryl St. Peter will continue as the Secretary. Maine Lakes is in good hands with this leadership team!
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| | A huge thank you to Susan Adams for three years of service as the Board President. Her leadership helped grow the board, expand development, strengthen connections to lake communities, and keep the Maine Lakes ship afloat. Thank you to Susan for your passion, dedication, and leadership! | | | | |
The business meeting included board elections as well as an update about what and how Maine Lakes has been doing over the last year. The short summary is that Maine Lakes is on solid financial ground, raising enough revenue each year to cover expenses, investing in employees, and prioritizing quality programming. Maine Lakes staff have been busy delivering programs and outreach to lake communities across the state over the last year, including our flagship LakeSmart program which is thriving thanks to 129 volunteers and a passionate and dedicated LakeSmart team at Maine Lakes - Andrea Stevens, Program Manager, and Caroline Seibert, Program Coordinator (see more below). Leah Gauthier has played a key role as office administrator, program assistant, and designer. Her help developing appeals, improving our website, and creating newsletters has been invaluable to the organization. Our leadership role in the Lake Protection Coalition, the annual lakes conference, and the Freshwater Education Network has strengthened those programs and help them be more effective and reach more people.
After the business meeting, members heard from James Reddoch, who just finished after three summers with Maine Lakes leading the Look Out for Loons program. He gave an update on the incredible work that has come out of the overall Common Loon Restoration Program, as well as the incredible success he had with almost 90 loon volunteers across the state. Thanks to James and thanks to the many volunteers who helped that program succeed!
Mark Pokras, retired veterinarian from Tufts University, finished off the annual meeting program with a presentation that delved into the history of how loons have been viewed over time, their role in native cultures, and the many threats they face in Maine today.
You can view James’ and Mark’s presentations HERE.
Thank you to all who joined the annual meeting and to all members of
Maine Lakes who support our work!
| | News from the Lake Protection Coalition | | |
Many of you joined the LPC member update this past week. If so, you heard not only about the work the coalition has done pulling together policy recommendations based in large part on your feedback, but also some very exciting news about the upcoming legislative session.
There will be a bill before the legislature to allocate $2 million each year to the Lake Water Quality Protection and Restoration Fund, which is housed at the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). The fund is set up to support all kinds of projects related to water quality, including funding watershed surveys, erosion mitigation (e.g., the installation of Best Management Practices), in-lake phosphorus treatment (e.g., alum treatments), research, and lake education. This is a game changer for DEP staff and for all of us who work to keep lakes clean and healthy. We are excited by the possibilities for matching grant programs that will get some of this money out to communities and the lake associations that do so much great work to protect lakes.
We are also excited that this bill does not pull money from the general fund (a source that is difficult to get in the first place and challenging to maintain over time). Instead, it pulls money from unclaimed bottle deposits. There is an estimated $10-$17 million dollars in unclaimed bottle deposits each year, the majority of which remain with the bottling industry. This is public money that should be put to public use related to the environment. And dedicating just a fraction of that money towards protecting our lakes as public resources is money well spent. The bill would also provide $2M for farmland protection, so will bring even more advocates and supporters behind the rallying call for support.
Opposition from industry lobbyists will be fierce. We will need all of you to speak up for this bill when it comes before the Environment and Natural Resources Committee!
The upcoming legislative session is an “emergency” session, which means it is shorter than the “regular” session with fewer bills before committees. This bill will likely not be heard before the end of January. Until the bill is “printed” (generally a couple weeks before the public hearing) there are no more details to share. But here’s what you can do:
- Join an online LPC webinar in January to learn more about the legislative process and how you can help move this bill forward. Dates and registration links below. Both meetings are via Microsoft Teams. Note that both trainings will cover the same material, so please register for just one:
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Tuesday, January 13th noon-1, register HERE or
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Thursday, January 15th 5:30-6:30, register HERE
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Sign up as a member of the Lake Protection Coalition HERE for regular updates, calls to action, and news about this and other lake protection bills.
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Sign up for Maine Lakes’ Legislative Alerts HERE. Although there will be some overlap with LPC emails, there may be lake bills not covered by the LPC that you’ll want to hear about (and support)
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Watch the recent presentation to LPC members with more about the bottle deposit funding bill as well as a general update about LPC activities.
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Visit the LPC website to learn more about what the LPC is doing as well as to find more resources.
Look for more about this bill, and actions you can take, in January!
| | Evaluator LakeSmart Training on Pushaw Lake. Photo Credit: Caroline Seibert | |
LakeSmart continues to build capacity and rigor as it enters its fourth year under the leadership of Andrea Stevens. Andrea has brought consistency, attention to detail, and supreme organizational skills to the program, as well as an abundance of valuable insight and professional expertise. Caroline Seibert, LakeSmart coordinator based in Milbridge, has helped expand LakeSmart to new areas in downeast and northern Maine as well as offered support and expertise in mapping, evaluation training, and outreach.
Andrea and Caroline work with an incredible team of 129 volunteer evaluators and coordinators as well as five regional “hubs” who support and expand LakeSmart in their regions (30 Mile River Watershed Association, 7 Lakes Alliance, Lakes Environmental Association, Midcoast Conservancy, Southern Aroostook Soil and Water Conservation District, and Piscataquis Soil and Water Conservation District).
The biggest thanks goes to the 285 homeowners who had a Lakesmart Evaluation in 2025. Without you, the LakeSmart approach would not work. But with you, and with the help of so many volunteers and partners, LakeSmart is making a difference for the future health of lakes. By identifying problem areas around lakes, and helping homeowners with resources to fix those problem areas, the LakeSmart program reduces sources of erosion (and phosphorus) that feed unwanted algae and cloud clear waters. Look for more news from the LakeSmart team in the spring!
| | LakeSmart By The Numbers: | |
Thank you to all who have made LakeSmart a success in 2025! | | Watershed Sruvey Grants Due February 9 | | |
Watershed Surveys engage community volunteers to help identify sources of erosion in the lands around a lake as a way to identify, prioritize, and hopefully resolve the largest sources of erosion that have the biggest impact on lake water quality. They are an effective tool as not only do they help identify problem areas, they help increase overall public awareness about threats to lake health and can serve as rallying calls to action for a community.
Maine Lakes has renewed its commitment to funding small grants for watershed survey activities in 2026 together with Lake Stewards of Maine. By pooling our resources, our two organizations will be able to provide small grants to assist many groups as they embark on new (or repeat) watershed surveys.
Although the surveys are intended to identify relatively easy-to-detect and resolve problems associated with soil erosion (the greatest non-point source of phosphorus in many Maine lakes), they also examine properties within the larger watershed, not just on the lakeshores. Addressing watershed health in this holistic way helps bring together individuals with diverse ecological, economic, recreational and social perspectives. This has been shown to enhance successful long-term lake stewardship.
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Funding is available for lake, watershed, or other community organizations that have major involvement with watershed survey planning. Grants are due on February 9, 2026.
Grants are generally less than $750 and fund activities associated with volunteers (e.g., food for events, printing invitations, marketing community meetings, community meeting space rentals) or expenses that are not otherwise covered by other grant sources.
Grant applications are reviewed by a joint team from Maine Lakes and Lake Stewards of Maine through the month of February, with decisions made by March 1. Major considerations in the review process include: coordination with Maine Department of Environmental Protection, work that has already been done by the organization, and past funding.
Questions? Email info@lakes.me or stewards@lakestewardsme.org.
For more about watershed surveys, click HERE
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