Stop the Spread

Invasives are non-native plants, animals or insects that cause harm to the environment and/or people’s health. The types of invasives creeping into the Adirondacks is rapidly increasing, and along with it, their proliferation and destructive wake. These “unwanted hitchhikers” threaten the lake we love, our home properties and our surrounding lands. One of the biggest threats to our watershed is the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid. If not controlled, most of our region’s hemlocks will be destroyed within 10 years!

Invasives have no upside and numerous downsides:

• Drag property values down
• Impede access to recreational uses of the lake, such as swimming and boating
• Increase the potential for erosion
• Adversely affect the cold-water fishery
• Destroy trees and other plants

Through surveillance, harvesting, boat washing stations and education, ESSLA is striving to protect the Schroon Lake watershed from the spread and negative impact of invasive species. But we can’t do it without you! Whether you’re a resident or visitor, please help us fight this battle. Learn how to identify the various species. Be on the lookout while on the lake, walking, hiking or working on your property. And please contact us at contact@essla.org if you spot something!

For more info on aquatic and invasive species, please visit Adirondack Park Invasive Plat Program (APIPP)