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Ecology
Chairman: Bob Reffelt, 973-764-6869
The Ecology committee helps keep the health and welfare of our local environment top of mind—it makes recommendations to the Voting Board on all issues concerning ecology in Highland Lakes. The committee annually reviews the Club’s contract for lake water treatments, monitors readings taken from our lakes, offers advice to members about environmentally-safe products, and organizes events that showcase the importance of knowing how to protect our precious resources. In addition, the committee makes recommendations to members about ecological issues that may interest or concern them, such as how members should consider native plants when planting in the springtime.
Protecting our lakes is of critical importance to all of us. For guidance, please see our publication Ecology Committee - For The Lake's Sake.
European Water Chestnut - An Invasive Threat The committee remains concerned about the spread of water chestnut into our lakes. This invasive plant has been found in the lake in neighboring Wawayanda State Park, and Ecology committee volunteers assisted in removing water chestnut plants from that lake in 2010.
For more information, this fact sheet from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is helpful. This video shows volunteer efforts removing water chestnut plants from the Mystic River in Medford, MA. This video (from the Perkiomen Watershed Conservancy located in southeastern PA) provides a good background about water chestnut plants and shows volunteers working together to remove the plants.
If you travel with your boat, please help guard against the spread of this invasive plant by completely draining all water from your boat, including livewells, and thoroughly inspecting your boat, electric motor and boat trailer before launching in any our lakes.
Native Plantings and Web Resources For helpful information about beneficial plantings, see Go Native!
Click here for a list of native shrubs, trees, etc. and helpful web resources.
Recent News from the Ecology Committee:
Ecology Committee Meeting this Week
The Ecology Committee will be meeting this Thursday night at 7 pm in the Lake Room. Their agenda is full and will begin with a discussion about starting a native plant demonstration garden to educate and encourage lakefront owners to create these natural barriers on their own property. Gardens of this kind reduce nutrient runoff [...]
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Renewing your Garden
Now that spring is in full bloom your property is undoubtedly beckoning for some attention. Once you have picked up the sticks and other debris that may have collected in your yard since last fall you can turn your attention to pulling out the pesky weeds that have already begun to grow. Then spread a [...]
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2011 Water Quality Presentation – January 12th at 7 pm
Dr. Stephen Souza, Ph.D., president of Princeton Hydro, LLC, will present a summary of the 2011 Water Quality Report to the Ecology Committee on January 12, 2012 at 7 pm. Princeton Hydro conducts the water sampling program that is designed to not only augment the long-term database of our lakes’ physical, chemical, and biological processes, [...]
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Ecology Committee Expands Information Resources
Please check out the expanded information available from our hard-working Ecology Committee volunteers. This page includes tips on what you can do to help keep our lakes healthy, reference material about beneficial, native plantings, and fact sheets and links about the threat posed by the European Water Chestnut plant, found as nearby as the lake [...]
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