Owasco Lake Day on June 24th at Emerson Park

 The Owasco Lake Watershed Association and several co-sponsors will host the 8th annual Owasco Lake Day on Wednesday, June 24th from 2- 7 PM, “rain or shine”, in and around the Pavilion at Emerson Park in Owasco, New York.

 The event will once again include free admission and parking, free guided pontoon boat rides, a variety of family activities and children’s games, and many hands-on educational exhibits. The pontoon rides will launch and recover at the Park’s boat launch area. The family and children activities will be located under-cover on the south porch of the Pavilion. They have been expanded to include pottery painting, backyard bass fishing, animal pelts, fossils, bean bag toss game with prizes, making food chain bracelets or pin-on badges to wear, and looking at the Lake’s water under a microscope, as demonstrated by several Auburn High School students.

 The Resource Fair, inside the Pavilion, has over twenty environmental and water related organizations committed to displaying detailed information about their missions.

A welcome and introductions from OWLA President Jim Beckwith will start verbal presentations at about 5 o’clock.

Following these words, our first speaker will be: Dr. John Halfman, from the Finger Lakes Institute at the Hobart and William Smith Colleges. He will present his annual analysis of the condition of Owasco Lake based on the results of the data from the 2014 sampling. He will pay particular attention to the accelerated aging of the lake (expanding weed growth and blue-green algal blooms) that are likely caused by excessive nutrients (phosphorus) from human activities throughout the watershed. Dr Halfman has been guiding the study of Owasco Lake for many years. His work is supported by the Cayuga County Water Quality Management Agency, the Owasco Lake Watershed Management Council (OWLMC), and the Owasco Watershed Lake Association (OWLA).

more info: http://www.owla.org/composite%20lake%20day%20info.pdf