The Paul Smith’s College Adirondack Watershed Institute (AWI) has been awarded a grant from the Lake Champlain Basin Program to expand the Adirondack Lake Assessment Program (ALAP).
ALAP is the largest community-science lake monitoring program in the Adirondack region, run in partnership between AWI and Protect the Adirondacks.
Operating since 1997, community members volunteering through ALAP collect water samples and other data on 90 lakes in the Adirondacks. The results help uncover the impacts of road salt, understand recovery from acidification, and address other challenges to Adirondack lakes.
The recent grant funding expands opportunities for additional community members to contribute toward this effort.
Despite the wide reach and success of ALAP, many of the Adirondacks’ 3,000+ lakes and ponds have not been surveyed for water quality in more than two decades, and some have never been assessed. The lack of long-term data and regular assessments present many challenges to the protection of these important resources.
On the New York side of the Lake Champlain Basin, just 32 lakes are monitored regularly.
AWI and Protect the Adirondacks are recruiting volunteers to help monitor at least an additional twenty lakes within the Lake Champlain Basin. Volunteer training and lake monitoring begin in spring 2022. Funds from the Lake Champlain Basin Program cover monitoring equipment and the first year of lake membership fees.
A map of eligible waterbodies and more information about volunteering can be found online.
Photo of volunteers with the Adirondack Lake Assessment Program collecting data as part of the regional water quality monitoring program courtesy AWI.
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