Complete History of Lake Maspenock

Check out the new site cre­at­ed by Dave Cormi­er!  Many thanks to Dave for his count­less hours of prepa­ra­tion and ded­i­ca­tion to this!  It is a won­der­ful trib­ute to our beloved lake.

He has com­bined all of the pho­tos and com­plete his­to­ry of Lake Maspenock into one fan­tas­tic site.

The link can be found on the side­bar on the right.

Here is the link, enjoy!!

The Com­plete His­to­ry of Lake Maspenock

Extended Drawdown Approved by Conservation Commission

The Hop­kin­ton Con­ser­va­tion Com­mis­sion approved the Extend­ed Draw­down of the lake to eight (8) feet at their Sep­tem­ber 27th meeting.

Con­ser­va­tion Com­mis­sion Meet­ing Min­utes — 9–27-22

Hop­kin­ton Con­ser­va­tion Com­mis­sion Meet­ing on Octo­ber 18th con­firms the approval of the extend­ed draw­down to eight (8) feet, not­ing the full draw­down only lasts 2 weeks before the lev­els start to rise. Mr. West­er­ling stat­ed he may ask the Com­mis­sion for addi­tion­al time to keep the lev­els low if the weath­er isn’t cooperating.

Con­ser­va­tion Com­mis­sion Meet­ing Min­utes — 10–18-22

Help Keep the Lake Healthy

After a sum­mer of sig­nif­i­cant weed growth, we are ask­ing for your help!

In a con­tin­ued effort to main­tain the health and via­bil­i­ty of our lake, we are repost­ing the list from our fall newslet­ter of the most effec­tive ways we can help pro­tect the lake and poten­tial­ly pre­vent fur­ther weed growth. We tru­ly appre­ci­ate your diligence.

How you can help:

1. Use Phos­pho­rus-Free Fertilizer

The three num­bers in fer­til­iz­er bags show the N‑P-K nutri­ent analy­sis. The mid­dle num­ber is the phos­phate (phos­pho­rus) con­tent. A “zero” in the mid­dle means it is phos­pho­rus free. Soils in most parts of Mass­a­chu­setts already have an ade­quate amount of phos­pho­rus to grow a healthy lawn. In these instances, adding more phos­pho­rus with fer­til­iz­er is not need­ed and will not ben­e­fit your lawn. If you are con­cerned that your lawn may need phos­pho­rus, you can have your soil test­ed. Soil test­ing is avail­able at a rea­son­able price through the Mass Depart­ment of Agriculture.

2. Fer­til­iz­ing at the right time

• Fall is the time to apply fer­til­iz­er for the best results in spring.

• Don’t fer­til­ize before a storm.

• Nev­er apply to frozen ground.

3. Take care of Yard Waste Properly

Nev­er blow or rake leaves, grass clip­pings, and sim­i­lar debris direct­ly into the lake because they will use pre­cious oxy­gen as they decompose.

Keep soil, leaves, and lawn clip­pings out of the street, ditch­es, storm drains, and streams by bag­ging them, com­post­ing them, or leav­ing them right on the lawn as a nat­ur­al fer­til­iz­er. Yard scraps that enter rivers absorb oxy­gen as they decom­pose which can strain or kill aquat­ic life.

4. Pick up pet waste

Pet waste can con­tain harm­ful bac­te­ria as well as phos­pho­rus. Use news­pa­per, bags, or poop­er-scoop­ers to pick up pet waste. Place wrapped pet waste in the trash or unwrapped in a toi­let. Nev­er dis­card pet waste near or in a storm drain or in the lake.

5. Con­trol soil ero­sion around your house

When left bare, the soil is eas­i­ly washed away with rain, car­ry­ing phos­pho­rus with it. Soil ero­sion can be pre­vent­ed by cov­er­ing exposed soil with veg­e­ta­tion or mulch.

6. House­hold Clean­ers and Oth­er Chemicals

It’s impor­tant to dis­pose of clean­ers and chem­i­cals in the prop­er man­ner. Read the instruc­tions on the con­tain­er or con­tact your local trans­fer sta­tion or waste man­age­ment district.

*Upcom­ing Lake Maspenock Weed Advi­so­ry Group (a.k.a. Cit­i­zens Input Group (CIG) Meeting

On Thurs­day Oct 27th, CIG will be meet­ing at 5pm via zoom (link can be found on the town cal­en­dar page) to con­tin­ue their dis­cus­sion as to which tool will be pre­sent­ed to Con­ser­va­tion Com­mis­sion to be used in the Spring to man­age the weeds.

The LMPA E‑Board

Corn Hole Tournament 2022 in the Books!

Thank you to all who played and who joined us for the 6th Annu­al Corn Hole Tour­na­ment on July 30th! A fan­tas­tic day was enjoyed by all! This year’s win­ning team is Corn­hole Budz, who won the final match 2–0!! Con­grat­u­la­tion as well to our run­ners up, Over Cornstruction!

ConCom Notice of Intent — Update

On April 26th, the Hop­kin­ton Con­ser­va­tion Com­mis­sion approved the Notice of Intent sub­mit­ted by the Hop­kin­ton DPW and the Cit­i­zens Input Group (CIG) to man­age the exces­sive inva­sive weeds in Lake Maspenock.  The next step is for the Com­mis­sion to pre­pare the Order of Con­di­tions for each treat­ment option. They will review and final­ize this doc­u­ment at their next meet­ing sched­uled for May 10th.

Each sea­son, the DPW along with the CIG will deter­mine if a treat­ment is nec­es­sary and select an option among the “tools in the tool­box”.  Once an option is select­ed, the DPW will return to the Con­ser­va­tion Com­mis­sion to present their rea­sons for choos­ing that tool and show that they have or will meet all of the Orders of Con­di­tions set for that option.  The Com­mis­sion will then need to reach a con­sen­sus if that tool will offi­cial­ly be used. 

March 29th Con Com Meeting

The link for Tues­day’s Con Com meet­ing regard­ing the Lake Maspenock — Notice of Intent — con­tin­u­a­tion (Aquat­ic Veg­e­ta­tion Man­age­ment Pro­gram) is below. It looks like it is third on the agen­da. We hope you can make the meeting.

The LMPA Exec­u­tive Board

When Tue, March 29, 7:00pm – 9:30pm

Descrip­tionLink to Doc­u­ments: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1nLQ4kO5Fh8mZNtjiS6ZIDBZzTQyicA04?usp=sharing

Top­ic: Con­ser­va­tion Com­mis­sion
Time: Mar 29, 2022 07:00 PM East­ern Time (US and Cana­da)

Join Zoom Meet­ing
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83873854964?pwd=UTU5YkdEQkRvNlBiT1BWNHFIbGhiQT09

Meet­ing ID: 838 7385 4964
Pass­code: 566333
One tap mobile
+13126266799„83873854964# US (Chica­go)
+16468769923„83873854964# US (New York)

Meet­ing ID: 838 7385 4964

March 29th ConCom Meeting — NOI is on the Agenda

The Hop­kin­ton Con­ser­va­tion Com­mis­sion is meet­ing via Zoom on Tues­day March 29th at 7:00pm to dis­cuss the Notice of Intent sub­mit­ted by the Hop­kin­ton DPW to address the exces­sive weed growth in the lake. The LMPA Exec­u­tive Board has dis­cussed this top­ic exten­sive­ly. We vot­ed in 2020 that the use of her­bi­cides as a spot treat­ment, when need­ed to con­trol exces­sive weed growth, is impor­tant as a “tool in the tool­box”. We encour­age all the LMPA mem­bers to become involved in the process.  Here is an arti­cle from the Hop­kin­ton Inde­pen­dent which pro­vides a good back­ground on the sub­ject. Zoom link will be sent when it becomes avail­able.  The LMPA Exec­u­tive Board