The Chautauqua Lake Partnership got an unexpected gift recently when the state DEC approved more acres of Chautauqua Lake for herbicide treatment than CLP officials probably expected.

Recent history has been that the CLP receives herbicide treatment permits for roughly one-third of the acreage it requests. So imagine the CLP’s surprise when it received notification that the DEC had approved nearly all of the acreage requested – 95 acres in Busti, 66 acres in Lakewood, 131 acres in Ellery, 68 acres in Bemus Point and 90 acres in Ellicott and Celoron. In total the DEC approved 450 acres of the 463 acres requested.

The process was a bit uncertain this year, and we hope the approval of a streamlined lake permit under the Freshwater Wetlands Act removes some of that uncertainty in the future. But give DEC officials credit – they worked through the longer Article 24 permitting process to get treatment into the water in time to treat Chautauqua Lake last week for curly leaf pondweed. The agency’s efforts dealing with what we still feel is a flawed piece of legislation in the Freshwater Wetlands Act is appreciated.

But the DEC’s approval creates another problem that is entirely under our control. CLP officials almost immediately had to ask for more money to treat all the acreage the DEC approved. Let’s not forget the Chautauqua Lake Association has spent the last couple of years doing extra fundraising as it tries to raise the money needed for harvesting and debris removal. Shortly after receiving word that the CLP needed more money for herbicide treatments this year, the CLA provided an update on its work that included an appeal for donations so that the organization can get more crews in the water. The CLA also asked for an additional $54,000 from the Chautauqua Lake Watershed and Management Alliance in February.

We’ve called for years for more of a set yearly budget for planned lake maintenance, with the process run by a lake manager. This year’s fundraising appeals on the cusp of the maintenance season should be a sign that we have to change the way we maintain Chautauqua Lake. We look a little silly if we ask the DEC for treatment areas, the DEC obliges after years of complaints about limited treatment areas, and then we can’t treat the entire area because we can’t afford to. We likewise look a little silly if we talk about the benefits of mechanical harvesting and the need for CLA crews and can’t afford to staff the harvesters to capacity.

So, we will make our yearly call for a defined budget process for Chautauqua Lake maintenance and the hiring of a lake manager to help devise a yearly budget and action plan that is then implemented by organizations like the CLP and CLA. Such a yearly plan – made available publicly – would help the public better understand what’s happening on the lake, help foundations, towns and villages plan for lake needs when setting their yearly budgets and help organizations know their exact scope of work.

We’ve done a good job getting lake organizations to sit around one table on a monthly basis and communicate their needs. Believe it or not that was an incredible improvement from what we saw even 15 years ago on Chautauqua Lake. But now, it’s time to take another step to improve the lake maintenance process.