Blue Massawippi needs your immediate help!

Blue Massawippi, formerly The Massawippi Water Protection Society and your “go to” watch dog on the Lake, is celebrating its 50th Anniversary this summer and, in the midst of reflecting on its achievements, faces what may be its greatest challenge to date, the prospective invasion of Zebra Mussels.

We must act quickly and definitively, and we must be prepared to sustain our efforts in perpetuity. We cannot do this alone.

We just found out last week that these dangerous mussels have invaded Lake Memphremagog. Massawippi could, if we fail to act, be next.

What are Zebra Mussels?

Zebra mussels are an aquatic invasive species that multiply rapidly. One mussel can produce up to 1 million eggs in one spawning season. They have hair-like filaments which they use to attach themselves to hard surfaces like docs, pipes, boats, and other mussels. While this is a problem in and of itself, as population densities can reach up to 10,000 mussels per square meter, the main environmental risk would be to the fish population in the lake.

Each mussel can filter up to one liter of water per day in order to digest plankton, the same source of food eaten by fish. 

While scientists believe that the improved water clarity that is a by-product of this filtration might be a short term “plus”, the serious negative is that more sunlight reaches rooted plants, allowing for more plant growth. And in Lake Massawippi,  with its high PH level, the threat of a high rate of propagation is very serious.

What is Blue Massawippi doing?

Just as it has for fifty years, Blue is monitoring, reporting and acting. Our actions have played a key role in improving water quality in the lake, going from raw sewage being dumped into the Tomifobia and Massawippi Rivers, to the development of sewage treatment plants at both ends of the lake, with strict enforcement of lakeside septic systems. Our efforts along the shores of the lake have established vitally important filtration from pollutants, and our ongoing work with the farming community promises to reduce contaminants coming into the lake.

That work continues as we address the zebra mussel threat. Courtesy of the resources that we have obtained from the federal government in our Intelligent Boating program, we have divers active in the lake to observe if the mussels have invaded. To date, the answer is “no,” thanks in good part to the successful public-private boat washing and certification program. There are two boat washing facilities on either end of our lake, but they are only open from June to September. They need to be staffed in the spring and fall, and we ARE lobbying VERY HARD the five municipalities around the lake to ensure that ALL non-monitored boat access points are shut down immediately.

We know for a fact that more than 50% of the boat traffic on the lake is from boats that reside on other lakes, and 10%, or 500 boats, directly from Lake Memphremagog that has Zebra Mussels. Boats from there and other lakes can and do use our lake, without having local staff wash their boats to ensure mussels are not present. We need to hire people to cover off on this washing in the shoulder seasons, from late April through October, and we need to be on the lake throughout the summer to defend our waters. And we want the boats to be washed at 40C, not with cold water.

What can you do?

Tell your friends and neighbours, and get involved.

We need to raise $20,000 immediately, and we must generate $500,000 for the C. Wayne Hall Endowment for Blue Massawippi, held by the Massawippi Foundation, to sustain these efforts. The price is not small, but the alternative is horrific. Our lake could die, and restoring it could cost many millions of dollars. The stakes are immense.

Join us also at our 50th Anniversary Celebration on August 11, as you motor, paddle, or row to Ayer’s Cliff with Mylene Paquette, who will be joining us. She has rowed across the Atlantic single handed… support her and support us.

Please send any donations, large or small, to Blue Massawippi, P.O.B. 2703, North Hatley, QC, J0B 2C0, and check us out online at www.lacmassawippi.ca

Together, we can save our lake!

Thomas Pick, Vice-President, Blue Massawippi