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*Early Bird Conference Registration Until May 1st
*LakeSmart Spring Trainings
*Aquatic Invasives Summit
*Legislative Update
*New BMP Homeowner Information Sheets
| | Early Bird Conference Registration Until May 1st | | |
Friday, June 12, 2026
8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
University of Maine at Orono
Wells Conference Center
You have until the end of the month to take advantage of a discounted registration rate for the 2026 Lakes Conference. The schedule of presenters and topics, has something of interest for everyone who attends. Presenters include Mary Szatkowski (Maine Geological Survey) who will talk about the impact of drought on lake water quality and Toni Pied (Maine DEP) who will share the recent work by the Department around social marketing and communications for aquatic invasive species work.
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All LakeSmart, Water Quality, and Invasive Plant Patrol volunteers
receive a discounted registration rate.
Early Bird registration ends May 1st
We hope to see you there!
| | LakeSmart Spring Trainings | | Maine Summit on Aquatic Invasive Species | | |
Hosted by our colleagues at Lakes Environmental Association,
the 2026 Aquatic Invasive Species(AIS) Summit will be held on Friday May 1 from 9:00 am to 12:30 pm at the Elks Lodge, 397 Civic Center Drive, Augusta.
The summit is a gathering of organizations and individuals involved with the prevention, eradication, and early detection of invasive aquatic species in Maine. Presenters share research, current events, legislation, enforcement efforts, and more. This is a great opportunity to connect with like-minded people and learn more about AIS in Maine.
New this year, attendees can stay for lunch following the summit. Cost is $20. A training for Courtesy Boat Inspection coordinators (required of any grant recipients) follows the lunch at 1:30. We hope to see you there!
| | Thank you to all our advocates who made a difference this session. We appreciate every single piece of testimony, every call to every legislator, and every signature on every sign-on letter. We would not have gotten as far as we did without your help. Here's a short summary of the lake bills we followed this year. | | | | LD 1904: An Act to Establish the Municipal Shoreline Protection Legal Fund: This bill, held over from last session, creates a state-managed legal fund to help Maine municipalities pay for costly court cases when enforcing shoreland zoning laws. Towns can draw from the fund to pursue violations, and if they win, they repay the fund using awarded legal fees. The bill was given $100,000 in initial funding from the Appropriations Committee along with added staff time from DEP to oversee the fund. Thanks to all who replied to the last-minute call to sign a letter of support. It made a difference! A huge win for towns enforcing shoreland zoning violations. | | | | |
LD 1474: An Act to Strengthen the Teaching of Wabanaki Studies in Maine Schools: This bill improves how Maine schools teach Wabanaki history and culture by pulling Wabanaki studies out of the general Maine Studies curriculum into a stand-alone Wabanaki Studies unit. It also funds Wabanaki advisors to support curriculum expansion and will require completion of a Wabanaki studies component within teacher certification requirements. While not directly a lake bill, the content of the bill is very closely aligned to Maine Lakes’ work with the Freshwater Education Network. The Network has been working to elevate Wabanaki perspectives and approaches to freshwater education, and this bill may help expand those efforts.
| | | | LD 646: Resolve, Establishing the Commission to Study Unmanaged Storm Water Pollution: This bill creates a commission that will issue a report by the end of 2026 covering the effects of storm water pollution on public and environmental health; strategies to improve storm water mitigation and to address pollutants of concern; strategies to address storm water pollution associated with development not effectively managed through existing rules; and barriers to policies that address storm water pollution to protect public health, water quality, essential habitats and commercially important species. Policy improvement as a result of this report will protect the future of Maine's clean lakes. | | | | |
LD 2141: An Act Regarding Enforcement of the Annual Reporting Requirement of the Laws Governing Unclaimed Beverage Container Deposits: They say that we have to celebrate the small victories, but this is a tough one. The original language of LD 2141 would have designated a small portion of unredeemed bottle deposits ($4 million out of an estimated $11-17 million) to support lake programming and farmland protection. More than 120 people submitted testimony, and many more reached out to their legislators during the frantic last weeks of the session. We knew it was going to be a tough fight, but in the end it was clear the bill would not have enough votes to pass the Senate. The bill was amended to eliminate the funding but keep important language around enforcement. This version was passed and signed into law.
The language requires initiators of deposit to report annually to the Department of Environmental Protection. Those who don't will be prohibited from selling or distributing beverages. While it doesn't seem like much, this change will help assure accountability for unredeemed deposits. We also now have the opportunity to find out more from those who opposed the bill.
Finding a long-term, sustainable funding source for lake protection remains a top priority for Maine Lakes and the Lake Protection Coalition. We are committed to supporting future efforts like LD 2141, and we hope you'll join us in the years ahead.
| | New BMP Homeowner Information Sheets | | |
Best Management Practices (or BMPs), including the installation of live stakes shown above, are conservation practices that keep our lakes clean. BMPs can be implemented on any property to manage rainfall and reduce erosion, protecting long-term water quality and overall lake and watershed health. Andrea Stevens, LakeSmart Manager, was on the team that worked with the Maine DEP and Portland Water District over the last year to update and add to BMP homeowner information sheets. Click below to visit our BMP page and scroll down to access the new sheets covering fifteen practices from dripline trenches to rain gardens.
and scroll down to access fact sheets on topics such as erosion control, native plants, and runoff diverters.
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