Culling the mud hens

[JDK]

Ask what the P_H of the lake was back in the forties and check the PH now

You've said this a few times.  Is this your opinion or can you cite fact?

For example, everything I have read about Sebago's water quality is that it has remained stable or improved since the 1970s (before you go all batshit crazy I know that it isn't the 1940s).  According to published data by the  Lake Stewards of Maine, the annual average pH in 1983 was 7.2 and the most recent annual average pH is 7.15.  Secchi disc readings have remained stable, Chlorophyll is stable, and alkalinity was 6 mg/L in 1983 and 6.7 mg/L in the most recent year.  Sebago Lake's water quality is considered outstanding.

Generally speaking, a vast majority of Maine Lakes have had pH levels in the 6.0-7.5 range and those that did not have been improving since the mid-late 1990s.  The mean pH of all Maine lakes tested is 6.83, nearly neutral.

[MG39]

Unrelated to the levels of ph, I have heard for years about a plane on the bottom. Interesting enough, I found this interesting article on that topic. The are TWO fighter planes on the bottom.
https://www.seacoastonline.com/article/20031125/News/311259966

[woodchip1]

What reason for the White fish disappearing from Sebago? and a couple of years later Moosehead lost their White fish,  and 2 more years Caribou, Chesuncook lost their White fish. I use to jig White fish in Sebago and Moosehead and Caribou.Chesuncook. When the Whitefish and smelts population dropped we were no longer to dip Smelts in spring in Sebago ,Moosehead, Caribou lake?

[CLAMFARMER]

You've said this a few times.  Is this your opinion or can you cite fact?

For example, everything I have read about Sebago's water quality is that it has remained stable or improved since the 1970s (before you go all batshit crazy I know that it isn't the 1940s).  According to published data by the  Lake Stewards of Maine, the annual average pH in 1983 was 7.2 and the most recent annual average pH is 7.15.  Secchi disc readings have remained stable, Chlorophyll is stable, and alkalinity was 6 mg/L in 1983 and 6.7 mg/L in the most recent year.  Sebago Lake's water quality is considered outstanding.

Generally speaking, a vast majority of Maine Lakes have had pH levels in the 6.0-7.5 range and those that did not have been improving since the mid-late 1990s.  The mean pH of all Maine lakes tested is 6.83, nearly neutral.

 

There are some serious changes going on . In my 50ty years up north at camp on the Golden rd Caribou lake had feed in bird feeders for a month and not one song bird at feeder s no woodpeckers, nuthatches ,chickadees and many others no Bluejays. Nothing!!!!!!  Very troublesome

There are some serious changes going on . In my 50ty years up north at camp on the Golden rd Caribou lake had feed in bird feeders for a month and not one song bird at feeder s no woodpeckers, nuthatches ,chickadees and many others no Bluejays. Nothing!!!!!!  Very troublesome

""We saw this tremendous net loss across the entire bird community," says Ken Rosenberg, an applied conservation scientist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, N.Y. "By our estimates, it's a 30% loss in the total number of breeding birds.”...."Their results show that more than 90% of the loss can be attributed to just a dozen bird families, including sparrows, warblers, blackbirds and finches.”..... "Common birds with decreasing populations include meadowlarks, dark-eyed juncos, horned larks and red-winged blackbirds, says Rosenberg. Grassland birds have suffered a 53% decrease in their numbers, and more than a third of the shorebird population has been lost.”   "I think that I buy the magnitude of loss," says Kristen Ruegg, a biologist at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. "Overall, the conclusions weren't necessarily surprising. I mean, they were depressing but not surprising,”...."Ruegg says there have been hints that the loss was this large from a variety of sources over the past few decades. But in most cases, these were species-specific accounts of local extinctions or models of projected losses resulting from things like climate change.” https://www.npr.org/2019/09/19/762090471/north-america-has-lost-3-billion-birds-scientists-say

Hunh! Apparently smelt are BIG whitefish egg eaters! Kinda like green crabs on clams!!! I couldn’t find  this article at the moment. ... Bob, Where smelt introduced as well as lake trout? Wondering of real causes....

"Lake whitefish were also native to, but now considered extirpated from Maine’s largest lake, Moosehead, where salmon and smelts were introduced around the 1870’s. Munsungan Lake in T8R10 is another example of a lake whitefish extirpation coinciding with the introduction of salmon and smelts. There are numerous other waters with varying levels of documentation of historic lake whitefish populations that no longer exist, the common thread in these extirpations being the introduction of rainbow smelt.” 
https://digitalmaine.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1013&context=brm_docs

 It would be informative to know of recent lake surveys.

"Thirty years ago Sebago Lake was known for whitefish. But state fisheries biologist Francis Brautigam said after the wide use of pesticide, that fishery declined.”"REGION A: SOUTHERN MAINE

However, a week ago a 5-pound, 3-ounce whitefish was caught in the lake, Brautigam reported.

“There is still a viable population. It’s just not as abundant,” said Brautigam with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.”

https://www.pressherald.com/2010/08/22/whitefish-in-sebago-brook-trout-in-wild-streams_2010-08-22/

[TightLinesMaine]

Are there still whitefish in South/Round ponds in Greenwood? Or Kezar?

[woodchip1]

CLAMFARMER There are some large land fills a very short distance of Sebago . They have them capped them over but ground water evaporates and condenses under the cap guess where it drips to and guess where it runs after it has runs down threw all the trash. Plus all the Methane evaporating into the air around the lake....

[fishlessman]

that must have been the last whitefish in sebago, i hope they cooked it right