There are many goals we want to accomplish to continue to preserve, protect, and improve Candlewood lake for generations to come. To do that, we are using a tried and true method developed by lakes around the country and even the world – creating a Lake Management Plan that outlines every area where progress needs to be made, sets goals of what that progress will look like in both the short and long term, and outlines strategies to accomplish those goals.
These areas include all sorts of critical aspects of lake management including: the fish community, aquatic plant management for recreation, blue green algae, invasive species, water quality improvement, stormwater management, watershed land management, and community engagement and education, to name a few!
To create this document, we cannot work alone. Many different people and organizations have a part to play in protecting Candlewood Lake. For this reason, we formed a Lake Management Plan Committee in June 2019. Following the creation of that committee we reached out to the critical stakeholders around the lake to join us as members of the committee and provide their critically important insight and expertise, and continue to work with them today on a comprehensive management plan for Candlewood Lake.
Those organizations include but are not limited to: each of the five municipalities around the lake, the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, FirstLight Power Resources, and Eversource. Furthermore, we are incredibly fortunate to have a robust network of lake managers and limnologists who have undertaken relevant projects at their lakes, both locally and through our membership in the North American Lake Management Society, and have been offered their assistance and expertise as we work through the creation of this document.
While Candlewood Lake is incredibly unique, the experience of these lake managers will be fundamental in helping inform the goals we can realistically set and the strategies we use to attain them. The Candlewood Lake Authority has a long history of collecting and analyzing important lake data, creating strategies and action plans to address pressures facing the lake, and even has an initial Lake Management Plan we created in 1985.
While our new plan will be informed by the work the CLA has done in the past, the Candlewood Lake Management Plan will be created with stakeholder input to ensure its longevity. It will also be a “living document” so as scientific discoveries are made, the community continues to change and evolve, and the ecosystem in the lake changes, that doesn’t mean the plan is out of date; it can simply be amended and updated to reflect our new understanding.
While we know that the CLA could sit down and write a “plan” without any input from the community, it would not be terribly effective at protecting the lake – because we are far from the only ones working to preserve Candlewood, and we must work with the community and other organizations to ensure that our goals and strategies are both realistic and effective.
We cannot wait to begin this process in earnest and look forward to working with the community and lake experts to organize our efforts. We know how much everyone loves the lake, and we work every day to help make sure that the lake remains beautiful for years to come, because we love it too. We hope you are as excited about the future of Candlewood Lake as we are.
