Lake-of-the-Month
About Flanders Pond (Hancock County):

• One of nine lakes & ponds in the town of Sullivan, 535-acre Flanders Pond lies just off of the Downeast Sunrise trail which runs from Ellsworth to Ayers Junction along a portion of the route of the former Brewer-Calais railroad. This section of the trail provides access to hiking trails up Schoodic Mountain.
• Flanders Stream, on the southwest corner of the lake, is well known locally for its large alewife run. There is an alewife viewing area on Thorne Road (just off of Route 183) and the fish can often be seen spawning around the edges of the lake’s several islands.
• Maine Audubon’s annual loon surveys on Flanders Pond have been taking place since 1987.
• This month’s banner photo is of an LSM “Plant Paddle” held on Flanders Pond in 2017. The event brought together volunteers from across the region to learn how to work as a team to conduct an invasive aquatic plant (IAP) screening survey. It is likely that most of the records in our list of 13+ aquatic plants recorded from this lake come from this plant paddle.

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• There are currently over 80 Invasive Plant Patrol (IPPer) teams conducting screening surveys across the state of Maine. Most teams conduct Level-3 surveys annually. In a Level-3 survey, the entire littoral zone (the shallower portions of the lake that support rooted aquatic plant life) is screened for the presence of aquatic invaders. In many cases, IPPers also document the native aquatic plants observed during the course of the survey. In this way, LSM citizen lake scientists are not only helping to detect aquatic invaders early, before they become well-established, they are also helping us to better understand Maine's native plant communities.
• Plant paddles are short (2-3 hour) events that take place on shore and on the water. They are a fun and informal way to introduce community members to the threats of invasive aquatic plants and ways to minimize their impacts through early detection. You too can become an IPPer! The work is not only interesting and important, it is great fun! To learn how you can get involved, please click HERE
• You can find a wealth of information on invasive aquatic plants by clicking HERE and by clicking HERE.
• Discover more about Flanders Pond HERE.

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What's New?
Upcoming Webinars for LakesofMaine.org from Lake Stewards of Maine:

Date Change!
What's in the Water? A new smartphone app for identifying flora, fauna and other fascinating phenomena found in Maine Lakes is now Aug 21

Click here to register for this FREE webinar

Aug 7
Healthy Vegetated Buffers — Healthy Lakes! Working with Mother Nature to Protect the Waters of Maine

Roberta Hill, LSM Invasive Aquatic Species Director, will return to her “roots” in lake protection, extolling the many virtues and benefits of vegetated buffers.

Click here to register for this FREE webinar

Did You Know?

Black bass are favorite targets for many anglers. Although they have been in Maine since the 1800s, largemouth and smallmouth bass are not native to our state. The first recorded largemouth introduction was in Forbes Pond in Gouldsboro in 1897. Today, there are more smallmouth lakes in Maine than largemouth lakes. Use our Species Mapper to explore the distributions of these 2 black bass species in Maine lakes.

Although illegal introductions continue, the ME Dept. of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife no longer stocks largemouth or smallmouth bass. The only species currently stocked by IF&W are salmonids - brook, lake, brown and rainbow trout, landlocked salmon and splake. You can find out which lakes and rivers were stocked in 2020 HERE. More on bass management in Maine is HERE.

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Lots of Data: Many Sources

The Maine DEP Lakes Assessment Section works in a strong partnership with Lake Stewards of Maine/Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program (LSM) in the collection and management of water quality data collected from Lakes throughout Maine. LSM coordinates the initial gathering and quality assurance process for more than 1,300 individuals and many lake associations that monitor individual lakes across the state.

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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 [email protected]