Featured Lake
Lloyd Pond (Piscataquis County)

Thanks to Sarah Nelson for assisting with this article!

Lloyd Pond - a remote pond in the Maine woods

Located just off of the Appalachian trail, 2-acre Lloyd Pond is one of many remote waterbodies deep within the Maine Woods. It lies just north of Long Pond (see map below) and flows into the West Branch of the Pleasant River. Brook trout and Golden shiner have been documented from Lloyd Pond. However, for many of these remote ponds and lakes, we know little (often nothing) about their water quality and biology.

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What's New?
Loon Data Updated!

In 2021, Maine Audubon’s Loon Survey covered 323 Maine lakes. The five lakes with the largest loon counts last year were: Great Pond (73 adults, 5 chicks); Great Moose Pond (54, 3); Damariscotta Lake (47, 6); Androscoggin Lake (46, 0); and Pushaw Lake (44, 2). (Of course, these five are all large lakes - larger lakes would be expected to have larger loon populations.)

The easiest way to find loon data is to go to our Loon Count Portal (from our Homepage, click on the Conservation tab). Once there, enter a lake name (select from a list if there are multiple lakes with similar names). A map then displays - with the loon pin for the selected lake being larger than the other loon pins. Click on the pin to see the data. Explore other lakes in the vicinity by clicking on their pins.

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Did You Know?
Is it a Lake?    
    Is it a Pond?

People often ask: What is the difference between a lake and a pond? Back in 2010, Linda Bacon (ME DEP) wrote an informative article in VLMP’s Water Column newsletter *. Quoting Linda, “One classic distinction is that sunlight penetrates to the bottom of all areas of a pond in contrast to lakes, which have deep waters that receive no sunlight at all. Another is that ponds generally have small surface areas and lakes have large surfaces…..Some of Maine’s large and deep bodies of water are indisputably lakes. Others are ponds – small and shallow. But there is a transition between the two where the definition becomes fuzzy…..The one distinction that has any legal application is the designation of a body of water as a Great Pond. Maine state statutes define lakes and ponds greater than ten acres in size as Great Ponds…..” Read more about the differences between lakes and ponds HERE.

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What's Happening at Lake Stewards

Visit Lake Stewards of Maine's web site for the latest news and information.

Current Conditions

Click here to view current water quality conditions on a representative sample of Maine lakes during summer, or view which lakes have experienced ice-cover in the fall and ice-out in the spring.

Get Involved

The majority of data on lakesofmaine.org comes from certified volunteer citizen scientists. If you are interested in finding a monitoring opportunity, please visit Lake Stewards of Maine or contact our office at 207-783-7733. Email is stewards@LakeStewardsME.org