LSM Webinar – What kind of lake is that? Deeds

What kind of lake is that? Using monitoring data to organize Maine’s lakes into categories for better water quality assessments and protections
Presented by Jeremy Deeds
Recorded on 2023-08-13

Maine has thousands of lakes, and all are unique. However, many lakes share traits that help lake managers, watershed organizations, and researchers, compare and evaluate them. This is especially important for lake assessments, which often compare a lake’s condition to the condition of reference lakes from minimally-disturbed watersheds. By determining which natural attributes of lakes and their watersheds have the strongest influence on lake condition, we can place lakes into categories that define what the conditions of certain types of lakes should be. These categories help managers place lake data in the proper context for better evaluation and planning. This talk will be about how lake types were developed for Maine lakes, and how these types may be applied to lake assessment and protection. Work like this is possible in large part because of significant contributions of long-term data from citizen scientists through the Lake Stewards of Maine. Applications of these data, beyond basic water quality monitoring, will also be discussed.