Defending Our Lakes: The Essential Role of Lake Hosts
Clean water, healthy wildlife, and stable property values depend on healthy lakes free of pollutants and invasive species. The NH LAKES Lake Host Program is the first line of defense in protecting our lakes from invasive plants and animals.
Lake Hosts are heroes. They protect the lakes we love by capturing aquatic invasive species that try to sneak in or out of our lakes on boats, trailers, and gear.
Lake Hosts offer free, complimentary boat inspections and teach boaters the Clean, Drain, and Dry method for preventing aquatic invasive species from spreading from lake to lake.
What are aquatic invasive species and which ones are in New Hampshire’s lakes?
Aquatic invasive species are plants and animals that thrive in waterbodies where they are not naturally found and that cause harm to the environment, economy, or people.
Approximately 97 lakes and rivers in New Hampshire are infested with invasive species.
Invasive species are commonly spread from lake to lake by transport on boats, trailers, and recreational gear that haven’t been adequately cleaned, drained, and dried between waterbodies. Large areas of invasive aquatic plants, such as variable milfoil, in a lake make swimming and boating difficult and dangerous. Infestations of invasive species are expensive to control and nearly impossible to get rid of. They also reduce shoreline property values.
These are the known aquatic invasive species found in New Hampshire’s lakes:
Plants:
- Curly-leaf Pondweed
- Eurasian Watermilfoil
- European Naiad
- Fanwort
- Variable milfoil
- Water Chestnut
- Brazilian elodea
- Water violet
Animals:
- Asian Clam
- Mystery Snail
- Spiny Water Flea
Download our Aquatic Invasive Species Identification Flyer here.
How are aquatic invasive species stopped through our Lake Host Program?
It takes a community to prevent these hitchhikers from entering and exiting our lakes. Read on to learn all the steps—from spotting a potential invasive to officially reporting it.
- It all starts with a courtesy inspection when a boater meets a Lake Host at the boat ramp. Outfitted in a royal blue shirt, the Lake Host will greet the boater and ask their permission to do a quick visual inspection of the outside of the boat and the trailer. Walking around the boat, the Lake Host will look for plant material and organisms stuck on the outside of the boat, trapped in the trailer wheel wells, wrapped around the propellor, and other snag points. While conducting the inspection, the Lake Host will talk to the boater about the clean, drain, and dry method for preventing the spread of invasive species. The Lake Host will also ask the boater a few simple questions about their boating habits, like what waterbody the boat was used in. While this may seem nosey.
- If a Lake Host sees something during the inspection, they ask to remove it. Then, they use their reusable, laminated Suspicious Specimen Photo Submission sheet. They document their group and lake name, whether the boat is arriving or departing, add the date, and then take a clear picture with the specimen laid out on the sheet. There’s a ruler on the sheet to help show the scale/size of the specimen.
- The Lake Host includes this picture when they submit their inspection into our Boater Survey Online App. If they’re very concerned about the specimen they found, they may email it directly to us.
- NH LAKES works with the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services to identify all images weekly. Once NHDES confirms the specimen was, in fact, invasive, NH LAKES reports the ‘save’ on our website and celebrates!
Want to know more about the latest “saves” made recently? Click here!
Why do Lake Hosts need to ask questions?
If the Lake Host finds a hitchhiking invasive plant or animal on a boat or trailer arriving at the lake, they need to know what lake the boat was last used in. This could help identify an invasive species infestation that hasn’t been found in a lake yet.
What is the Clean, Drain, and Dry method?
It’s a way for boaters to take care of their boats so they don’t inadvertently spread invasive species from one lake to another. Before leaving any boat launch area and before going to another waterbody, if you’re a boater, and whether or not you enjoy paddlesports or motorsports, please take these steps:
CLEAN.
- Clean off all mud, plants, animals, and debris from your boat, trailer, and equipment.
- Clean off anchors and anchor lines, water intake grates on jet-powered craft, kayak and canoe cockpits, storage compartments, and paddles!
- Please dispose of all material away from the waterbody where it won’t wash back into the lake.
- Cleaning is the law in New Hampshire!
DRAIN.
- Drain the motor, bilge, live wells, ballast tanks, storage compartments, and gear.
- Blow out water in jet-powered craft.
- Tip paddle craft and motors to let out water.
- Drain all equipment where runoff won’t flow back into the lake.
- OPEN/REMOVE drain plugs and keep them out/open while trailering. You may need a wrench to remove your plugs.
- Draining is the law in New Hampshire!
DRY.
- Let your watercraft dry outside in the sun for five days.
- Dry off everything that came into contact with the water.
- If relaunching your boat within five days, thoroughly rinse with clean water somewhere runoff won’t flow back into the lake and towel dry.
If you don’t have the time to let your equipment adequately dry between visiting waterbodies:
RINSE.
- Use high-pressure hot water before launching again, especially if the boat has been in a waterbody containing an invasive species.
- You can visit a carwash to rinse the boat hull and trailer with clean water and flush the motor, bilge, live wells, ballast tanks, and storage compartments with clean water per the boat manufacturer’s instructions.
- Make sure rinse water does not flow into a nearby waterway or wetland.
Want to help protect your favorite lake from invasive species? Learn more about the Lake Host Program and how you can get involved here!
by NH Rocks