August 2020
Hello Harriman Pond neighbors! The hot weather this summer and the COVID-19 pandemic have made many of us appreciate the specialness of Harriman Pond even more than usual. We thought it would be a good time to celebrate the uniqueness of our pond and connect with our fellow neighbors. Therefore, we have created this newsletter to highlight some of the special things about Harriman Pond and start a conversation about how we can protect this special place. Please check out this one-page summary and the following pages for even more details.
Here are some of the special things about Harriman Pond:
1. The pond is small, deep, and clear
• Harriman Pond sits near the top of the watershed that ultimately feeds into the Union River and Branch Lake. We are receiving our lake water from a small area (or watershed), from streams that drain the mountains where we sit.
• Harriman Pond is very deep (75 feet over by the ledges), is 41 acres, and has a 1.1- mile diameter.
• Harriman Pond is quite clear; it is in the top tier of ponds in terms of clarity, with Secchi disk clarity between 22-29 feet in 2019 and 2020, and phosphorus level of 4 mcg/L.
2. There are lots of fish and wildlife living on/in the pond
• We have had loons on the pond almost every year since 1983
• There is a baby loon on the pond this year for the first time in over 5 years. • Brook and brown trout, eels, smelt, dace, shiners, minnows, sunfish, sucker fish, and banded killfish have all been described
• Some of our long-term neighbors see less leaches and frogs than years past, and crayfish are commonly seen now (a new species). These are things we need to learn more about.
3. We are already protecting our pond
• Motorboats over 6 horsepower are prohibited on the pond, per Maine Special Fishing Laws.
• There is no public landing dock.
• Fish are not stocked in the pond.
Please scroll down to see more specific information about all these important facts.
Next steps: There are many other things we can do to protect our pond. A lake survey is a good first step. The Lake Stewards of Maine will help us perform this assessment with volunteers and survey organization (https://www.lakestewardsofmaine.org/programs/other programs/watershed-survey/).
We hope to perform this survey in the spring of 2021. Once the survey is done, we will be eligible for state funds to help us protect this special place. Please call or email us to let us know your interest.
What’s special about Harriman Pond?
A small, deep, clear pond
Harriman Pond sits near the top of the watershed that ultimately feeds into the Union River and Branch Lake. It’s great to be near the top of a watershed because we are mostly receiving our lake water from a small area (or watershed), from streams that drain the mountains where we sit. The pond is located at 540 feet elevation. Harriman Pond’s own watershed is small so it collects water from just that small area of land. That’s one more reason why it’s good to consider what we are doing within the watershed, since everything we do around the lake affects the lake.
Harriman Pond is very deep (75 feet over by the ledges), cold, and quite clear; according to recent data, it is among the top tier of ponds in terms of clarity, with Secchi disk clarity between 22-29 feet in 2019 and 2020. Jordan Pond at Acadia is typically among the clearest, with Secchi disk clarity typically 50 feet or sometimes more. You can click around a new data visualization to see clarity of Maine lakes: https://public.tableau.com/profile/lake.stewards.of.maine#!/vizhome/MaineLakeTransparencies/Lake Transparencies
Secchi depths (reported in meters, instead of feet) are added after they are taken and can be seen here: http://mainelakesdata.org/dbp.q?pg=seasonplot&hilite=Harriman_Pond
Volunteers measure the lake water clarity using a round plastic disc (weighted with a small steel plate) called a Secchi disk. We lower it into the water and mark where it disappears. We call this the “Secchi depth” and it tells us how clear the lake water is. Secchi depth is one of the very best tools for keeping an eye on water quality in lakes in Maine. If we start to see the clarity decline, we could see if anything about
the lake is changing. Declines in clarity can signal some really significant problems for lakes, like algal blooms. Some algae can even be toxic to pets and people, so it’s important to monitor the clarity and be careful with our actions in the watershed.
We also have begun to measure phosphorus in Harriman Pond, thanks to a grant through the Lake Stewards of Maine (https://www.lakestewardsofmaine.org/). Lake Stewards of Maine is a non-profit organization that trains, certifies and provides technical support to hundreds of volunteers who monitor a wide range of indicators of water quality, assess watershed health and function, and screen lakes for invasive aquatic plants and animals. Phosphorus is the nutrient that most influences the growth of algae in lakes. Phosphorus tells us more about the lake’s status and is really a great warning signal about the potential for algae and other problems in the lake. We only have one phosphorus result so far, but will be testing it again this summer. Last year our phosphorus concentration was 4 micrograms per liter. For our lake to stay clear, cold, and oxygenated, we should aim to ensure that phosphorus concentration stays below about 6 micrograms per liter.
Phosphorus in our watershed primarily comes from fertilizers like lawn fertilizer, and from rainwater traveling across dirt roads, and from soil. As the rainwater crosses bare soil or dirt roads, it can pick up fine sediments and carry them to the lake; these sediment particles contain phosphorus among other things. This is why it’s really important to keep a buffer – think of it like a shield for the lake – around the lake. A buffer strip is usually trees, shrubs, or other plants that help to stop erosion and can actually hang on to phosphorus and other pollutants to keep them out of the lake. As a lake association volunteer put it, “Let’s keep the land that we love out of the lake that we love”.
Why worry so much about buffer strips?
Buffer strips are such good filters for pollution that Maine has developed a strong and successful shoreland zoning ordinance (https://www.maine.gov/dep/land/slz/). This ordinance is why we can can’t build houses right on the water any more, why we need a permit for activities near the lake, and why we can’t cut trees within 75 feet of the lake without a permit (and, only 40% of trees of a certain size or larger can be removed, see: https://www.maine.gov/dep/land/slz/ip-szveg.html). There are restrictions on cutting even outside this 75-foot strip but within the shoreland zone; see the link for details or call Code Enforcement for Dedham for more information. It is encouraged that people with lakefront property try to keep their buffer strip planted to help minimize these problems. There could even be grants to help buy plants if enough neighbors are interested. The good news is that most of our lake’s watershed is forested, and there are relatively few houses, parking areas, etc.
What lives in our lake?
Loons: Harriman Pond has loons – you’ve probably heard them calling – and this year there is a chick with our resident pair. For several years, volunteers have counted loons on a specific Saturday every year for Maine Audubon’s annual loon count. Each year, between one and three loons have been seen during the specific date and time that the loon count occurs. If there were no loons observed, they might still have been on that lake that year, but just didn’t happen to be seen during the official time window when counting occurs around the state. To help protect loons, don’t harass them and don’t use lead sinkers if you are fishing – the lead can kill the loons. Thank you to our lake’s volunteers who have counted the loons over the years!
Fish: Harriman Pond was stocked with fish but stocking ended quite a while ago. Our pond is small enough that public access does not need to be legally provided per Maine’s Great Pond Act. So, we don’t have a public boat launch, and thus, the state fish stocking program doesn’t have it as a high priority. This is actually good for the lake, even though the fishing isn’t great – fish stocking can really introduce a lot of problems, like non-native fish, invasive plants that might be accidentally introduced, and other issues. A page from the DeLorme fishing guide lists fish that were in the lake but the last survey noted on this page was in 1975.
According to the 2007 update provided by Maine IF&W, the following fish species have been recorded in Harriman Pond; these fish observations go back to surveys as early as the 1940s.
American eel Anguilla rostrata
Brown trout Salmo trutta
Brook trout Salvelinus fontinalis
Rainbow smelt Osmerus mordax
Northern redbelly dace Phoxinus eos
Blacknose dace Rhinichthys atratulus
Pumpkinseed Lepomis gibbosus
Lakes of Maine also reports the following fish species in its online information page: Common shiner Luxilus cornutus
Creek chub Semotilus atromaculatus
Golden shiner Notemigonus crysoleucas
White sucker Catostomus commersoni
Boating and fishing regulations for all Maine lakes and ponds are listed online, here: https://www.maine.gov/ifw/fishing-boating/fishing/index.html
Speaking of boating…
Motorboats over 6 horsepower are prohibited on the pond, per Maine Special Fishing Laws. https://www.maine.gov/ifw/fishing-boating/fishing/laws-rules/special-laws.html
What we don’t want living in our lake
Invasive plants are one of the biggest problems for Maine lakes today. Public access, while it’s so great to ensure that everyone can have access to Maine’s wonderful lakes and lands, does pose issues like invasive plant introductions, and it’s helpful that we have one less thing to worry about due to the limited access by folks who don’t live on the lake. BUT – if you take your canoe or boat on another lake and then come back to Harriman – please inspect your boat because even the tiniest fragment of some invasive plants can take hold and overcome a lake. Unless you like swimming in muddy weeds, let’s keep the invaders out.
You can look up more information about Harriman Pond and other Maine Lakes, as well as read more about lake issues, on the Lakes of Maine web site, here: www.LakesOfMaine.org. The Lakes of Maine website is owned and maintained by Lake Stewards of Maine. Harriman Pond has a unique ID number that the state and other organizations use; it is MIDAS #4306.
Harriman Pond overview, with lake water quality location marked.