Mirror Lake in the village of Lake Placid is seen on Oct. 12, 2015. (Enterprise photo — Andy Flynn)

LAKE PLACID — As warmer spring temperatures continue to melt the ice on Mirror Lake, concerned citizens in this village are preparing for another busy year of protecting the lake from invasive species by expanding their summer watershed steward program.

The need is there. So is the desire. They just have to have the money to do it.

“Can you imagine the village and the town without a healthy lake?” Mirror Lake Watershed Association board member Sandy Edgerton Bissell asked the North Elba Town Council during their Tuesday, April 4 meeting at the town hall.

She was there with MLWA co-chair Bill Billerman to ask for help in funding this year’s steward program.

Mirror Lake is in the heart of the village of Lake Placid. In the winter, it’s used for dogsledding, ice skating, pond hockey and tobogganing. In the summer, it’s a bustling community of recreationists, and it’s used for swimming, fishing, paddleboarding and boating.

It’s the location for the municipal beach, where — every July — it’s packed with athletes swimming in the Ironman Lake Placid triathlon race.

Simply put, Mirror Lake is integral to the economy of Lake Placid.

That’s a major reason MLWA volunteers work year-round to protect the lake. As invasive species continue to threaten Adirondack waterways, expanding the lake steward program is on their priority list.

In 2021, through the Paul Smith’s College Adirondack Watershed Institute, the Mirror Lake summer steward program was launched. Grant money from the town of North Elba’s Local Enhancement and Advancement Fund (LEAF) was used to help pay for the program.

“We wanted a preventative action for invasive species coming into the lake from other waterbodies,” Billerman said. “We wanted to educate people as to the impact of invasive species, and we also wanted to get data on who were coming to the lake, where the boats are coming from and how many.”

A steward spent two days a week from mid-June to late August, eight hours a day, at the public boat launch near the tennis courts — mostly for canoes and kayaks since gas-powered motorboats are not allowed — inspecting boats and educating their users about invasive species.

Sophie Morelli, who is now the director of the Lake Placid-North Elba Historical Society, was the watershed steward in 2021. In the MLWA’s “Looking at the Mirror” column for the Lake Placid News in June of that year, she said that initiating conversation with those near the launch — “even if they do not have a boat” — is an important part of the job.

“Part of my position with the AWI is to be properly equipped to educate locals and tourists alike on our ‘Clean, Drain, Dry’ philosophy so that they can better understand our role as well as theirs in keeping our Adirondack waterbodies clean,” Morelli wrote.

In 2022, the program was expanded to four days, with the help of a $9,216 LEAF grant. Yet the steward noticed an influx of boaters, which means more potential for spreading invasive species.

“Surprisingly,” Billerman said of the 2022 season, “… just about every 15 minutes, there was a boat being put into Mirror Lake.”

In 2022, he said the steward counted almost 1,200 boats entering the lake, of which 53 had organisms on them.

“None of which were invasive species, but you could see that there is the potential — because of the invasive species that are in the lakes around us, such as Lake Flower and Lake Placid — that there is that possibility,” Billerman said.

This year, MLWA board members want to expand the program to seven days — eight hours a day from mid-June to Labor Day — and the cost is almost $26,000. The MLWA applied for another LEAF grant this year — to cover the cost of four days — but it was denied because it was the same application as the previous year.

“Our intention was to expand the program and get other funders to help with (the other three days),” Billerman said.

The MLWA has applied for $5,000 grants from the Cloudsplitter Foundation and the Henry Uihlein II and Mildred A. Uihlein Foundation. Billerman was asking town council members to either reconsider the LEAF grant application or contribute to this year’s steward program with direct funds from the town.

Both Billerman and town Supervisor Derek Doty recognized that this year’s funding needs to be secure before coming up with a long-term financial solution for the Mirror Lake summer steward program.

“We have to find a way that this program of yours is sustainable,” Doty said.

In 2018, when the Lake Placid News asked regional green groups, the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the Adirondack Park Agency to name the top five environmental threats to the Adirondack Park, most put invasive species on their lists.

Why?

As the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration puts it, “Invasive species can lead to the extinction of native plants and animals, destroy biodiversity and permanently alter habitats.”

In his presentation to the town council, Billerman noted that invasive species is one of the major impacts that is going to happen in the Adirondack Park.

“Or not happen, if we do preventative action,” he said, adding that prevention is less expensive than trying to eradicate invasive species already infesting a lake. “Because it’s almost impossible to eradicate invasive species once they get in.”

Some of the species threatening Adirondack waterbodies include Eurasian watermilfoil, variable-leaf watermilfoil, zebra mussels, hydrilla and spiny waterflea.

“With an abundance of high-quality water resources comparatively uninvaded by the scores of invasive species in other state waters, the Adirondacks present a crucial opportunity for stewardship and AIS prevention,” the AWI website states.

There are about 2,800 lakes and ponds, and over 30,000 miles of rivers and streams in the Adirondack Park.

Two invasive plants — purple loosestrife and the yellow iris — are already impacting Mirror Lake. With an “active infestation” of purple loosestrife around the entire lake, MLWA volunteers pull all those plants before they go to seed. Last summer, 258 purple loosestrife plants were removed.

Billerman has already asked the Lake Placid village board for money to expand the steward program, but no funds have been allocated as of yet. And while North Elba Town Council members did not approve funds for the program during their April 4 meeting, Supervisor Doty pledged his support.

“Please know all your hundreds of hours of efforts for this is greatly appreciated,” Doty said. “That part doesn’t get said enough. Because government’s not watching it, and it takes a small passionate group to pull something like this off. So you have our sincere thanks, and we’ll find a way to make it work.”

Billerman said Wednesday morning that the town council meeting was productive.

“I think it showed the town board how important it is to protect the lake and how to do that by, first of all, getting a steward in place at the most popular boat launch spot on Mirror Lake,” he said.

Doty said he would try to work with the village to see if they can come up with a solution to fund any shortfall from the MLWA’s fundraising efforts for this summer’s steward. Billerman said he’s heard from the Uihlein Foundation that their $5,000 request was granted, meaning they still need to raise about $21,000.

After this year, the long-term plan for funding the program would start with the village and town, asking them to earmark funds in their annual budgets, according to Billerman.

“We would also look at Ironman,” he said. “A lot of people use Mirror Lake that are training and in competition for Ironman, so we believe they should help in preventing any invasives in Mirror Lake.”

The Mirror Lake watershed steward program is still administered by the Adirondack Watershed Institute. Anyone interested in donating money for the program can contribute through the MLWA website, marking the funds for the steward program; those funds would be forwarded to the AWI.

Last summer, officials at the AWI reminded the public about a new state law that affects anyone using a motorboat inside the 6-million-acre Adirondack Park, and within 10 miles of its boundary. Boaters must carry a certificate showing their watercraft has been cleaned, drained and dried for every trip.

The DEC enacted the law on June 8, 2022, in the middle of the Invasive Species Awareness Week.

“Cleaning, draining, and drying protects New York’s waters by reducing the possibility of aquatic invasive species being introduced into new waterbodies,” the DEC states on its website.

Certificates are not needed for canoes or kayaks. However, paddlers are also required to clean, drain and dry their vessels and equipment.