The effort to develop a management plan for the Lake Wentworth/Crescent Lake watershed cleared its final hurdle on June 22 as Governor John Lynch and the Executive Council gave their approval to a $67,800 grant from the Department of Environmental Services to a partnership of the Town of Wolfeboro and the Lake Wentworth Foundation.

The money is part of a larger pool of funding made available to the state by the US Environmental Protection Agency under the Clean Water Act. The DES funding will be combined with a $30,000 pledge by the Lake Wentworth Foundation and some $55,000 in matching volunteer labor and materials to create a detailed scientific picture of the surface waters in the watershed.

The project is expected to begin in July and last a year. Members of the local steering committee, including Town Planner Rob Houseman, LWF President Jack O'Connell, Planning Board Chair Kathy Barnard, and Bob Craycraft, director of UNH's Lakes Lay Monitoring Program, will oversee the project, which will be conducted by a consortium of environmental consultants. Selection of the consultants is expected to take place by early July.

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The annual Lake Wentworth Foundation membership drive has begun. In a letter to nearly 1,300 property owners in the Lake Wentworth/Crescent Lake watershed, President Jack O’Connell asked for support for the many projects of the foundation.

The foundation uses its tax-deductible donations to support activities such as the development of a watershed management plan for Lake Wentworth and Crescent Lake. This two-year effort will identify current and future threats to water quality and provide a scientific basis for handling those threats. The foundation is spearheading this $150,000 project after successfully pursuing a federal grant. The organization has committed $30,000 and volunteer labor to the effort. Partners in the project are the Town of Wolfeboro, the University of New Hampshire, and the NH Department of Environmental Services.