Association to hold first charter meeting July 25

The water is still clear in Crescent Lake, a 716-acre body of water that runs parallel to Route 85 in Raymond and Casco. The bottom of the lake is still clean, the wildlife still mostly intact, the bass fishing still superb.

And a newly-formed group of Crescent Lake property owners want to make sure it stays that way.

The Crescent Lake Watershed Association will hold its first charter meeting Saturday, July 25, at 9 a.m. at Camp Laurel South in Casco. The Association’s 10-member steering committee, a grassroots group of lake lovers that aims to protect Crescent from threats like erosion and invasive species, hopes to bring other homeowners into the fold, raising money and awareness of the programs that can keep the lake clear.

“It’s still a very pristine lake,” said Russ Hutchinson, who has been visiting Crescent Lake for 32 years, and bought his place there in 1983. “What we are trying to do is keep it that way.”

“It’s basically preservation,” said Ron Hall, who has spent 25 years coming to Crescent Lake. “We don’t want it to deteriorate. We want to bring the water to a higher standard. God’s not making any more lakefront property.”

The group’s main order of business is to get homeowners involved in the LakeSmart program. Offered by the state Department of Enviromental Protection, LakeSmart provides solutions for people who want to protect a lake by altering their shorefront properties to control erosion and runoff, among other factors.

The involvement of an enforcement organization like the DEP may sound ominous, but the members of the Watershed Association say it is only there to offer tips to homeowners who want to help, not to force anyone to do anything.

“The worse that can happen is you come out with a list of recommendations,” said Hutchinson.

A dozen or so homes around Crescent Lake have already undergone the LakeSmart testing, and four were seen as ideal by the program’s standards. Those homes can then be used as examples to other property owners who want to make changes.

Simply put, said CLWA Chairwoman Bev White, the program teaches neighbors “how their shorefront can help the lake.”

That work, along with the group’s regular water quality tests and efforts to prevent the introduction of invasive species with the help of the Town of Raymond, which sponsors inspections at the town beach, is an outcrop of the group’s desire to stay in front of the forces of development and overuse that threaten lakes.

Like other waterfront areas, the Crescent Lake watershed is experiencing change. Seasonal camps are becoming year-round homes, bringing more people, many of whom are unfamiliar with a lake’s fragile ecosystem, the Association members said. Development is also popping up on the perimeter of the lake, off the water but in the watershed, increasing erosion. On top of destroying shorelines, erosion can push nutrients into the lake that harm water quality.

A handful of homeowners on the lake began to notice problems with erosion, particularly after the Patriot’s Day storm of 2007, and especially in the northern area of Crescent Lake, along Edwards Road, where White lives.

“The erosion really started in the roads coming down here,” said White. “Sand and gravel.”

At the same time, other Crescent Lake property owners from other parts of the lake began seeing subtle changes as well.

“It just feels like there is more sedimentation on the bottom,” said Hutchinson.

While the different groups of people started talking, Crescent Lake was put on the state’s list of lakes under threat from development. Tacy Hartley, an association member, witnessed this firsthand, when a new resident doing construction near her house uprooted some trees. That move, she said, drove away deer and birds in the area, albeit unintentionally.

“They upset habitat and wildlife, and that’s the reason I bought on this lake,” said Hartley, who grew up on Sebago Lake and purchased her place on Crescent seven years ago.

Over the course of many conversations occurring at spots all over Casco and Raymond, a consensus emerged. It was time to get together to protect the lake. There was just too much at stake.

“People have worked very, very hard for many, many years to obtain and maintain their properties,” said White.

The group started taking the first steps last August when residents got together to air their concerns for what was going on in the lake. From there, this informal group felt their way along with the help of the Raymond Waterways Protective Association, which provides manpower and expertise to the town’s lake associations. They opened a bank account, established a nonprofit association, and got an address.

“I had $34 in my pocket and we needed a post office box. So I put $32 on the table. It was that loose,” said Hall.

They also sent out a request for funds from property owners. So far, they have raised around $2,800, most of which has been used to create newsletters to help spread the word about the organization and its burgeoning programs.

The members hope the response to the fundraising request shows the interest of others at the lake. The 10-member steering committee wants to add two members as they become the association’s advisory board, and they hope at least 100 people show up for the July 25 meetings, at which side committees will be formed and Sen. Bill Diamond of Windham will speak. All people living in or interested in the Crescent Lake watershed, which extends through the west side of Raymond and east side of Casco, as well as into a small portion of Poland, are invited.

The steering committee members hope the leave the meeting with the momentum they need to become a fixture on Crescent Lake.

“I’ve been on the lake for 30 years, and it’s a place where my children grew up,” said Hutchinson. “They’ve been on the water their whole lives. I’d like to think their kids could enjoy it.”

Lacy Hartley, Ron Hall, Russ Hutchinson and Bev White are all members of the Crescent Lake Watershed Association, which hopes to educate homeowners in the area about how they can help protect the lake. The group will hold its first charter meeting Saturday, July 25, at 9 a.m. at Camp Laurel South in Casco.Diane Hebold and Elden Lingwood of the Crescent Lake Watershed Association perform water conductivity tests in the lake. Lingwood has done water quality tests for years in Crescent Lake, and the Watershed Association, along with the Raymond Waterways Protective Association, continue the work.