Grafton Pond participating in Lake Host Program!

Grafton Pond on a cloudy day

The Forest Society's Grafton Pond Reservation in Grafton NH is over 900 acres of forest that includes most of the shoreline of beautiful Grafton Pond.  There are more than a dozen small islands dotting the pond, and only three man-made structures can be seen around the entire shoreline thanks to the protection efforts of many groups including the Forest Society, the Grafton Pond Land Trust, and the Upper Valley Land Trust.  Grafton Pond is truly a wild and undeveloped place, where moose can be seen munching on aquatic plants in the early mornings, and loons call to one another over the water.  Because it's so unique to find an almost entirely undeveloped pond in Central NH, Grafton Pond is also a popular place with paddlers and nature enthusiasts.  In recent years, many people have "discovered" the pond and on sunny summer weekends it's now so busy with visitors that the parking area overflows many times over and the loon families barely have a secluded nook left to hide in.  What can be done to keep Grafton Pond from being "loved to death"?  This is the question that the Friends of Grafton Pond, a small group of nearby residents, volunteers, and stakeholders have been asking for several years.

One thing that the Friends of Grafton Pond is doing to mediate impacts recreational use is to participate in the NH Lake Host Program.   This program is administered by New Hampshire Lakes Association, and strives to reduce the spread of invasive aquatic plant species in New Hampshire’s water bodies.    

The Friends of Grafton Pond has been able to hire two paid lake host interns to work the majority of busy weekend and holiday hours at the pond, and will also have volunteer lake hosts filling in the gaps and helping out at especially busy times.  Lake hosts will greet boaters as they enter and exit near the pond’s boat ramp, and check canoes, kayaks, and other boats for pieces of “tag along” aquatic vegetation.  They’ll also provide visitor outreach about loon conservation, packing out all trash, and other recreational guidelines as a means of reducing impacts to wildlife and the sensitive shoreline habitat.  

Lake Host Heidi Hutchinson teaches kayakers how to inspect their boats for invasive aquatic plants.

To date, Grafton Pond does not have any known invasive aquatic plants, but many other lakes in New Hampshire do have infestations of plants like variable milfoil and fanwort.  Boaters spread these invasive plants when pieces of vegetation hitchhike on rudders, paddles, boat trailers, and propellers.  When they do get established, these invasive plants can spread quickly and completely choke out all other vegetation, changing the aquatic ecosystem drastically and even making recreational boating difficult.  They are also almost impossible to eradicate once established, so prevention is definitely the key! 

A new "iron ranger" donation box next to the kiosk will help pay for stewardship activities at Grafton Pond, including the Lake Host program.  Land Management interns Will Walker (left) and Eric Foley (right) pose next to the ranger after installing it.

Mike Barskey (lake host) conducts an inspection of a visitor's canoe

Lake host interns Heidi Hutchinson and Mike Barskey have already been hard at work at Grafton Pond this season, assisted by a handful of dedicated volunteers.  Over Memorial Day weekend, they conducted over 300 boat inspections!  That’s over 300 people who received information about not only aquatic invasives, but also appropriate recreational behavior on our beautiful, wild pond.  We are confident that in the long run, this outreach will help keep the pond as pristine possible – keeping invasive weeds out, limiting trash and other dumping, reducing inappropriate activities, and protecting the pond’s loon families and other wildlife.  If you are interested in supporting this program or becoming a volunteer lake host yourself, please contact Carrie Deegan at cdeegan@forestsociety.org or 603-224-9945.

Candis Whitney (land steward, left) and Mike Barskey wait at the boat ramp for visitors to arrive.