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	Vol. 15, No. 1		Summer 2010

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The Branch Lake Milfoil Rangers:
an IPP Lake Team success story

The Branch Lake Team was honored
in 2007 as the Maine Volunteer Lake
Monitoring Program’s IPP Team of the Year.

The story of the Branch Lake Milfoil Rangers provides a glimpse into the future of the IPP program in Maine. The team itself is an excellent model for forming and sustaining an active, well-trained volunteer team on a lake, pond, or stream. And because Branch Lake is located in Hancock County, one of the State’s largest, most active, and well coordinated IPP Regions, their story also provides a model of how the broader, multi-level IPP system works.

Branch Lake is substantial in size, 2,703 acres, eleven miles long and three miles across at the widest point. For the past eight years, the Branch Lake Milfoil Rangers Team has done a complete (level 3) survey of the entire littoral zone of the lake. The shoreline is divided into 23 sectors and surveyed by 33 trained rangers plus paddlers. All team members, except 1, have been trained through VLMP IPP program. The team has an excellent record of maintaining volunteer momentum… only two rangers have resigned over past eight years; approximately half a dozen new rangers have joined.

One of the Branch Lake Team’s homemade glass bottom boats: the view canoe

The Branch Lake Association (BPA) has played a major role in this success story. It financially supports the team and its training, and helps to recruit and organize the volunteers. Over the eight years it has been in existence, BPA has provided team members with 20-25 homemade six-inch view scopes at a cost of $20-25 each. It also constructed two “glass-bottomed” survey boats which it makes available to the milfoil rangers upon request. Funds to support the team are raised by BPA with an optional donation check-off in the annual lake association dues appeal. Once every other summer, BPA hosts a social event such as a pot luck or BBQ hosted at a ranger’s house to report findings and thank the volunteers for their dedication and service.

But perhaps the most essential factor helping to ensure the ongoing success of the team has been the leadership provided by the Lake Team Leader (or in this case, the “head ranger”) Invasive Plant Patroller, Don Hayes. Don’s self-defined duties include: calling team members every spring for affirmation of engagement; disseminating the latest version of the VLMP’s IAP screening survey documentation forms; sending reminder e-mails during the summer to remind team members to complete their assigned section and to send in their data forms; providing technical assistance to team members, and/or helping to get it from the IPP Regional Coordinator (Hancock County Soil and Water Conservation District) or the VLMP. As the data comes in, Don proofs the survey forms and monitors who has not yet reported, sending reminders to late reporters.

Every team needs a captain!
Don Hayes has helped
Maine “write the book”
on what it takes to be a
successful IPP Team Leader

Once all the forms are proofed, collated and copied, copies are sent to the regional coordinator at Hancock County Soil and Water Conservation District. The regional coordinator proofs the data once more, adds this data to all of the other IPP survey data that has been gathered and submitted in Hancock County, and sends copies of the entire data set to the VLMP. Our staff then enters the data into the VLMP’s statewide database, a process that includes additional Quality Assurance/Quality Control checks.

Maine Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program

vlmp@mainevlmp.org
24 Maple Hill Road, Auburn, ME 04210
(207) 783-7733
www.MaineVolunteerLakeMonitors.org
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