On this week’s episode of Give Back New Hampshire, we’ll be hearing from New Hampshire Lakes. Founded in 1992, the organization's mission is to restore and preserve the health of all of New Hampshire’s 1,000 lakes and ponds.
Andrea LaMoreaux: Hi, I'm Andrea LaMoreaux. I'm the president and policy advocate of New Hampshire Lakes.
Martha Lovejoy: My name is Martha Lovejoy, and I'm the director of finance and development. I was raised in Warner, New Hampshire, and spent a lot of time growing up in Sunapee, so when this opportunity came up, I was really excited to join the team at New Hampshire Lakes. So I get up every morning knowing I'm doing something that the state benefits from. And so that's really exciting for me.
Martha Lovejoy: When we go out throughout the state, we never find a room where people don't mention that they have a favorite lake. So most people have a favorite lake and they really care about them, and many people consider at least one lake a part of the family.
Andrea LaMoreaux: We have something really special up here in New Hampshire. Definitely lakes are in my heart, and I'm just so fortunate to be able to also work for them.
Andrea LaMoreaux: Like people, lakes age — hopefully over thousands of years. But we're seeing some lakes growing older faster than they should. And so some of the listeners may have heard of cyanobacteria. When the perfect storm of bad conditions come together, cyanobacteria can bloom, and some forms of it can be toxic. We're seeing some increasing blooms of cyanobacteria in our lakes, which threatens our health, which threatens our economy, which threatens tourism. So we're here to let people know what cyanobacteria looks like so that they can not get in the water if they think there might be cyanobacteria there.
But then we offer programs to property owners, whether you live next to the lake or up the hill, there are things that folks can do to minimize the pollution that's contributing to these blooms. So that's one of the programs we run is called our Lake Smart Program, where we help people live in a lake friendly way. And that's really catching fire throughout our state. And people wanting to know that, again, the simple things they can do in their daily lives and on their property to again care for this resource that means so much to them
Martha Lovejoy: Yeah, the Lake Smart program has been growing and been growing really fast and really catching on, which is really exciting for us. People are inspired by what they're seeing happening, and they're so excited to learn that there's just simple things that they can do to help, because it is a problem that requires many, many people to get involved. And we're so encouraged to hear how many people are wanting to get more informed and educated about what they can do.
Martha Lovejoy: I think as the only statewide, publicly supported nonprofit working on this mission, we do really rely on the support of the public. We exist because of the generosity of the public. And so we're so grateful to our supporters. It's a big job what we do and the state is a big state, and we really, really rely on the support of individuals who care about our lakes
Andrea LaMoreaux: At the end of the day, we need to do more. Our lakes are showing signs of becoming unhealthy, becoming sick before our eyes, and we're going through a process right now. What do we want to be doing in the next five years? And we are realizing that we really need to step up our game here in New Hampshire before it's too late.
