Paul Szmal: May is Lake Friendly Living Month and here to talk about that from the Seneca Lake Pier Waters Association Jake Welch is here. Jake, good morning. First time guest with us here on the program?
Guest: I don't know. I think it's my third time.
Paul Szmal: All right. Well, it's glad to glad to have you on board here this morning Let me start by getting a little bit of your backstory because you've been with the organization for a minute, shall we say?
Guest: Yeah, I'd say so. Yeah, I've been with a board member on Seneca Pier Waters for about 12 years now. I've been a past president for three years. I did that and since that time I've been leading a lot of the committees including the Organizational Development Committee, the Lake Level Committee. I'm co-leading that presently. I lead the Political Action Committee and presently also Lake Friendly Living, which we're going to talk about this morning.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, I'm curious as to what got you involved with the first place, number one. And number two, what has kept you coming back and continuing?
Guest: Yeah, well, you know, it's a good friend of mine said, geez, you know, you're an attorney. They could really use one on the board up there. He was on the Pier Waters board at the time. He roped me into it. I guess he roped me into it pretty good. And so what's kept me going is, you know, you're out there, you hear a lot of bad news. There's health problems, work problems, and the people that join up on an organization like this are people that really care about the environment. But because they're caring people, they also care about each other. And I really enjoy the kind of people that I've met along the way with Seneca Pier Waters. And then there's the mission itself. I can't change the world much being just a little guy here, but you know, when it comes to the lake and getting together with other people that care about it, we do make differences as far as keeping the water quality, keeping a good focus with the stormwater conservation guys that, you know, helped keep sediments out of the lake and other bad stuff and the DEC. And I've also met some politicians and testified in Albany trying to keep these waters in the best condition we can keep them. So I feel like, you know, I'm doing something important in my retirement years, especially.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, put a bunch of one persons together. You've got yourself something.
Guest: There you go.
Paul Szmal: Let's talk about Lake Friendly Living Month because we're celebrating this starting today since it's the first of May. What's a little bit that you can tell me about Lake Friendly Living Month?
Guest: OK, well, just to kind of start off with what the heck is Lake Friendly Living? You know, that's a homeowner based program. So the individuals around the lakeshore, but even up on watershed areas, can help to do something to improve the runoff from their properties. It carries fertilizers or bacteria, sediments into the lake and, you know, that enhances weed growth and also can hurt aquatic life. So it's very grassroots. And so a few years ago, this program spread, starting in Candago Lake, got to our lake, and then it really spread through all the other Finger Lakes. And then a thing called the Finger Lakes or Lake Friendly Living Coalition of the Finger Lakes was created where leaders of the different lakes said, hey, let's put May as a month where we can get out there and really promote stewardship for our lake waters. And let's sponsor some educational events and encourage people to follow best management practices and possibly take a lake friendly living pledge, get a cool sign in their lawn and, you know, keep this program alive and active. This is one of those things, unlike harmful algal blooms, that spreading it across the Finger Lakes region has been a good thing.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, you got it. So what kind of educational events or informational events are planned as part of Lake Friendly Living Month?
Guest: OK, well, I'll start with our lake. And by the way, there are other lakes are doing things of similar nature. But on Seneca, we have two events planned. One is on May 28th and that will be our water quality symposium that Seneca Pure Waters is hosting from 5 to 730 at Hobart William Smith. We've got Ian Smith, our lake steward, talking about road ditch draining that causes a lot of sediments going into the lake and what they're doing to try to improve that. There's somebody from Finger Lakes PRISM, they deal with invasive species around here, and they're going to talk about the problems we're having with the hemlock woolly adelgid killing off the hemlock trees along the stream beds that increases erosion and what we can do to try to stave off that problem. Somebody from SUNY ESF, a professor there, is going to talk to us about PFAS and mercury that they're discovering in our local fish. And I think that'll be interesting. And we've also have a lake friendly living booth that we're going to set up to try to talk to people about our program. And a second thing we're doing May 12th at Big Alice Brewery just south of Geneva is to have a presentation about native plants. They have deeper roots, you don't have to water them as much, they're really good for controlling erosion. And the speaker at that's going to be somebody near and dear to me, my wife Karen, who's a master gardener and who's also been involved in our program in the last year or two here. So those are the things we're doing so far. And hopefully we get some people that come and attend.
Paul Szmal: We're having a conversation with Jake Welch, a longtime board member from the Seneca Lake Pure Waters Association, about May being Lake Friendly Living Month. Jake, you mentioned that there are other events at other lakes. Can you tell us about maybe some of the other events that some of the partner organizations are up to this month?
Guest: You know, if they want to look at them, they can go on the Finger Lakes Regional Watershed Alliance or FLRWA website. And if they tap at the top, it says Lake Friendly Living. And I think there's maybe another four different events other than the ones that we have here. I'm getting to be the old man I am. I can't remember the details of those. You got me on that one, Paul.
Paul Szmal: That's totally OK. Yeah, I'll grab that website address from you again here at the end of the conversation. You mentioned residents can take what's called the Lake Friendly Living Pledge. So let's kind of break down what that's about.
Guest: It's really a pretty basic thing. If you go to our website, Seneca.org or Seneca Lake Pure Waters Association, and you tap on the Lake Friendly Living element of that as well, it'll just bring up a few simple things, you know, to keep in mind how what kind of fertilizers you might put on your lawn, things of that nature, which are really, you know, it's more like, OK, yeah, I'm going to try to keep myself mindful of what I do with my property and what I can do to minimize problems occurring in our lake. Plus, you get the cool sign that's not a vote for blank, blank, blank sign. No, no, we don't do that. There's also the opportunity for people to participate in committees or be volunteers, not just for Lake Friendly Living Month, although that's a good takeoff point.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, and again, if you want to go to our website, you know, Seneca Lake Pure Waters Association or Seneca.org, hit the volunteer button and then we'll list out a bunch of areas that if you want to volunteer, you know, doing stream sampling, looking for habs on the lake, those type of volunteers, and we need the volunteers. I mean, our organization just totally survives on volunteer effort. And we're starting to maybe think of something new, and that would just be a volunteer on call. Let's say we're having an event and somebody says, yeah, I've got some time that night. I can help you guys out. You may not even have to be on a committee. It could just help us a few hours a year. And we're going to try to incorporate that into the website also. But just for the listeners, if you want to, if you're interested in something like that, all you got to do is send an email and we'll sign you up for a very limited amount of volunteering. But you'd get to meet the people in the organization and maybe get some of that feedback I was talking about to see what great people we have.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, but the neat thing about volunteering, and I've said this in other conversations, is that you can do as little or as much as your time schedule allows, because there are some things that, you know, only take maybe a few minutes a day. If you have more time, you want to get more involved, you have the option to do that, too.
Guest: Yeah, that's what my wife's always saying. You know, you could be less involved. But, you know, it sounds, at least to me anyway, Jake, it sounds like you have a real passion for this and have for a long time. And that's one of the things that keeps you going with this and keeps you wanting to be as involved as you are.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, it seems to be holding in there. What was that website again, Jake, for some of the other regional events that are happening that we mentioned?
Guest: Yes, well, they can just put in, if they go to their, you know, computer and type in FLRWA, it will come up. That's the Finger Lakes Regional Watershed Alliance, and there's a specific place on there that just says Lake Friendly Living. It's right at the top, very easy to find. And, of course, Seneca.org or, you know, Seneca Lake Pure Waters Association, or even Seneca Pure Waters, it'll come right up.
Paul Szmal: Right, right. And the Lake Friendly Living pledge is available on the Seneca Lake Pure Waters Association site as well?
Guest: That is correct, Paul.
Paul Szmal: All right. Jake, it's been a pleasure speaking with you. Thanks for filling us in and continued success in your ventures with the Seneca Lake Pure Waters Association.
Guest: All right. Well, thank you very much for that sentiment.
