The Cazenovia Lake Association Inc, (CLA) was founded in 1957 for the purpose of preserving the health of Cazenovia Lake and educating the public about lake-related issues. In recent years, the majority of CLA’s efforts have been related to raising money for the treatment of invasive lake weeds and educating the public through water quality monitoring in conjunction with New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
In November 2008, the CLA sponsored the first Cazenovia Lake Forum in response to the increasing negative impact on swimming and boating caused by an invasive species of weed known as Eurasian Water Milfoil (EWM). At that forum, representatives of CLA, the Town of Cazenovia and the NYSDEC discussed how best to deal with the problem of EWM and unanimously decided to apply the chemical commonly known as Renovate. Renovate was specifically selected and recommended by the NYSDEC because it has no adverse effect on native plants or fish. An additional benefit from the use of Renovate is that the lake is safe for swimming three hours after its application.
Renovate was first used to control EWM in 2009 and the impact on that invasive weed was dramatic with the use and enjoyment of the lake enhanced significantly. Subsequent to the initial application, CLA and the town have applied Renovate on three occasions with the application to be done this week (June 12-16) being the fifth since the treatments began.
Cazenovia Lake contains 1164 acres, is 3.9 miles long, .5 miles wide and is 45 feet deep at its deepest point. Notwithstanding the issues with EWM, Cazenovia Lake has been determined to be a healthy lake by NYSDEC because, among other criteria, it has a diverse population of fish and native plants. The issues Cazenovia Lake has had with EWM and occasional blue green algae are issues shared by many other lakes in New York state and do not detract from the lake’s general good health and water quality.
The application of Renovate is not inexpensive. This year’s treatment of 190 acres will cost $243,000, $210,000 of which will come from the CLA with the balance to be paid by the town. The scope of the treatment was limited both by the cash available to CLA and by limitations imposed by NYSDEC.
Renovate will generally be applied to portions of the lake which have exhibited the greatest historical weed density. Other portions of the lake will be maintained by the town’s weed harvester. The southwest portion of the lake will be a test area this season for naturally occurring weed-eating moths.
In the fall of 2016 through the spring of 2017, the CLA had a campaign to raise money for the application of Renovate that will occur this week. That campaign raised approximately $115,500 from members of the Cazenovia community. There were approximately 270 donors with three donors giving $5,000, one giving $3,000, five giving $2,500, three giving $2,000, 45 giving $1,000, 39 giving $500, 40 two giving $250-$500, with the remainder giving various lesser amounts.
CLA sincerely appreciates the community support it has received in furtherance of its ongoing efforts to promote lake health. To pay for this year’s treatment CLA had to virtually exhausted its cash reserves to supplement the donations received.
CLA believes very strongly that Cazenovia Lake is indeed a community asset and as such needs the support of all residents to promote its continued good health.
