Here is the latest report on cyanobacteria, from Pam and Joe Hebert, Joe's Pond Association. The report was compiled by Angela Shambaugh, Acting Program Manager, Lakes and Ponds, for the State of Vermont. It was very long, listing Champlain sections and beaches individually as well as many interior lakes and ponds, so I have picked out the information on local bodies of water to post here.

     While Lake Champlain continues to have alerts in the Missisquoi and St. Albans Bay areas, most areas of the lake have cleared this week ending with this report, 8/9/2019.
Lake Carmi still has problems, but low alert conditions were posted.
     All other ponds in our area have good conditions reported with no reports of blooms and are considered safe. This includes Caspian Lake, Coles Pond, Joe's Pond, Lake Memphremagog, Lake Morey, and Ticklenaked Pond. 

      This is a reminder - the final meeting of the Joe's Pond Association isn't far off. The season is nearly over! Saturday, August 24th at 10 a.m. is the final meeting and the last JPA sponsored social gathering of the year is for Joe's Ponders and their friends is that afternoon when it's cocktail time!  Details are on the poster at the right - click to enlarge.

     Looks like we're in for a stretch of cooler, but really nice weather next week. Forecasters are saying there is still plenty of summer left, but it is certainly changing and feeling more like the clear, crisp days we get in September - the kind that start the maple leaves turning. At least we get to enjoy a really lovely period before the cold and snow! Nice that summers go out with literally a blaze of color here in the north country!

     I've been following the terrible news we get recently, with every day a new crime against innocent people seems to happen. I know solutions won't come quickly or easily, but hopefully our law makers will take their jobs seriously sometime soon and work  together to come up with some viable ways to begin to stop the carnage.
     One of the first steps I'd like to see would be to stop the sale of assault type weapons to the general public. Nobody - no real hunter or sportsman needs an assault rifle - and neither do people need that kind of weapon for personal protection. That excuse just doesn't hold up, in my mind. So, companies should be limited to selling them only to the U. S. government for the military. Of course, manufacturers and gun shop owners are going to squawk loudly (not to mention the fuss the NRA would put up) - but maybe the government could soften the blow considerably by just using the same tactic FDR used in 1933 when the Agriculture Adjustment Act was established that paid farmers not to raise crops. So temporarily subsidize manufacturers and sellers - whatever it takes to get those powerful weapons off the streets and out of the hands of crazies. Then tackle getting those troubled people help. It seems there is something seriously lacking in how children are being brought up and educated that causes so many young people to go off the rails. We've lost something in our society that establishes boundaries and teaches young people right from wrong, and somebody better begin correcting that really soon. In addition, the adults in our government should stop acting like spoiled brats and set better examples.
     It's all very troubling, and I know there's no easy fix - even if our law makers surprised us and decided to seriously work on finding solutions.  I know there is a lot more kindness and many more good people than the present terrible acts we hear about make us believe; and I also feel strongly that this will turn around and there will be less of this horrific activity eventually. But even one more life lost is too much.