Lost Lake Association Offers Boat Tours This Saturday (Updated)

People don’t usually think of Groton as a cruise destination, but this coming Saturday about 150 residents will embark for a guided tour of Lost Lake and Knops Pond. The Groton Lakes Association (GLA) is sponsoring the tours and providing the boats in its “quest for healthy lakes and ponds in Groton and protection of their watersheds,” according to Martha O’Bryan, a spokesperson for the group. “We have filled every seat on the boats and have people on stand-by,” she said.

“The GLA booth at Grotonfest proved to be a good way to provide information to the larger Groton community. Through videos of our invasive weed-choked Knops Pond and Lost Lake, and first hand descriptions by GLA members and others who have lived near the lake and pond for years, interested Groton residents learned what needs to be done to save the largest open recreational space in Groton,” she wrote in an press release.

“Surprising to many GLA members has been the fact that some Groton residents of 20 years or more have never visited the lake, and some did not know the lake is open to all Groton residents and by boat, to all Massachusetts residents. One reason for this has been the neglect of Sargisson Beach, which is the Groton community’s primary access to Knops Pond and Lost Lake. Visitors to the GLA booth learned of multiple efforts by GLA and Conservation Commission’s steward of Sargisson Beach to rehabilitate it for the next swim season in 2013 and some agreed to help in the fall clean-up.”

Lost Lake and Knops Pond, which adjoins it, are a focal point for two community discussions. The ponds have suffered from a rapidly multiplying number of invasive water plants for several decades. There are currently proposals before town board seeking to apply herbicide to control them. Also, the proposed $13 million Lost Lake Sewer project, the subject of fall town meeting articles on October 15, would reduce the amount of nutrients flowing into the lakes that feed the invasive plants, proponents say, but would not reduce the higher level of lawn and agricultural fertilizer runoff that also feed the weeds.

GLA President Art Prest said: “The GLA per se did not take a position on the Lost lake sewer project although I believe that many members support the project including me. The Sewer Committee gave a presentation to the GLA members months ago and the committee took a straw vote of those present (about 30 members if I remember correctly) and there was strong support. The reduction of the nutrients feeding the lake from all sources including the areas that form the watershed area (about 14 times the size of Lost Lake and Knops Pond) will be important in our efforts to restore the lakes to what they were before about 1960.”