This site provides updates on the Lake Wentworth/Crescent Lake Watershed Management Plan initiative. The effort is intended to secure a grant from the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (DES) that will allow a number of collaborating groups — including the Lake Wentworth Foundation, the town of Wolfeboro Planning Department, the Wolfeboro Conservation Commission, and numerous other participants from within the community — to develop a management plan for the Lake Wentworth/Crescent Lake watershed.

The project will eventually involve additional partners from a number of public and private organizations in the area, and the intended deliverable from the project is a plan that will identify threats and potential threats to water quality in the watershed, as well as identifying high-value natural resources that deserve protection.

A watershed can be thought of as a land basin that collects water from rainfall and snow and directs it to a lower-lying water body such as a pond or lake. In the case of Lake Wentworth and Crescent Lake, much of the land area in the town of Wolfeboro, including the highlands in the north and east, makes up the watershed. The water that collects in this watershed flows into the two lakes by way of numerous streams and through underground seepage before following the Smith River into Back Bay in downtown Wolfeboro and entering Lake Winnipesaukee.

Both the federal EPA and the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services have identified watershed-level planning as the most appropriate basis for managing and protecting water resources. A watershed management plan can be used to provide much-needed information about the health of the streams that feed a lake, the condition of wetlands that absorb storm flows and filter passing water, and the location of high-value habitats that provide food and shelter for a variety of bird and animal species.

A management plan can also identify actual and potential sources of unwanted nutrients and other pollutants entering the waters that feed a lake. Those nutrients encourage the growth of weeds, such as invasive milfoil, as well as algae blooms that are both unsightly and, in the case of blue-green algae, potentially dangerous.

All this information then provides a solid foundation for decision-making in the management of a community’s surface water resources and the mitigation of threats to those waters. The proposed Wentworth/Crescent watershed management plan would complement the Town of Wolfeboro’s existing Master Plan and provide additional guidance to planners, developers, and others in managing the town’s future growth.  Completion of a watershed plan qualifies the town to apply for additional money to control specific pollution sources.

The local effort is one of numerous similar projects across the state competing for some $500,000 in funding from the US Environmental Protection Agency under Section 319 of the Clean Water Act. Grant awards under this program are administered by the state Department of Environmental Services and require a 60/40 match between DES and the local group receiving the monies.

The Lake Wentworth Foundation is funding the initial effort to prepare the grant application, including the collection of expanded water quality data.