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To join the Queechy Lake Club as a full or associate member, please visit our website www.queechylake.org |
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The Queechy Watershed by Roger Long
The mysterious (according to what I hear from others on the lake) Long family land along Taylor Road contains a little known geographic feature. I wasn’t even aware of it until my father told me about it last summer and I investigated it with online topographical maps. If you stand on the ridge line behind my father’s study facing north and spread your feet in the rain, the water that drips off your right foot runs down the hill and eventually ends up in the lake from where it flows down Stony Kill to the Hudson River. However, the water on the side with your left foot runs down the hill, through a culvert under Route 295 into Beebe Pond, and then down to Long Island Sound via Flat Brook and the Housatonic River.
It would take some detailed onsite investigation to determine the exact line but the divide between the Hudson and Housatonic watersheds runs approximately as shown here. Water above the blue line flows to the Hudson at Stockport and below to Long Island Sound between Stratford and Milford, CT.
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Contribute to the QT!
If you have news about happenings in your "grove" or with your family you'd like to share with the Queechy Times, please email the editor at pmcdo@verizon.net!
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New Neighbors by Susan Newman
Finches Grove—Luke Hill Road’s newest year-round residents will be soon full owners of the lakeshore property owned by Jon (“Jack”) Cohen. Steve Kolonics and Alison Bouchard expect to close on the property after a final inspection by Lee Heim later this month. Over the past year they have made several improvements including drilling a 400 foot well. Steve’s father, Louis Kolonics, moved the family to Columbia County from Richmond, Queens, when Steve was a boy. At first, Steve missed Queens and enjoyed returning there to work in his uncle’s plumbing business during the summers. Now, however, Steve only tears himself away from the Queechy Lake area occasionally to go hunting upstate. Steve is a builder with an office in New Lebanon but he prefers to do his paperwork at home. In summer Steve is most often found on his pontoon boat or grilling on the deck. His grilling skills are legendary and he recently celebrated his son’s 21st birthday with a pig roast for Evan and his friends. Living next-door to Steve is a constant olfactory temptation! Alison Bouchard grew up nearby, attending high school in Berlin. She works with Steve in his business but is also the person most involved in improving the landscaping of their home. She is at work outside even on the hottest days, always with a smile and a cheerful greeting.
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Lake Health Resources
The Lake George (NY) Association put together a handbook titled “A Homeowner’s Guide to Lake-Friendly Living." This 22 page booklet gives lake property owners an idea of some of the simple things you can do on your own property to help protect the water quality. This booklet gives 15 simple ideas for sustainable lakeshores and landscape projects to protect our beautiful Queechy Lake. The Queechy Lake Club has a few of these valuable booklets and is willing to give them away to anyone interested . Please write to us at PO Box 92, Canaan requesting your free copy.
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Helpful Lake
Health Links
For more information on CSLAP:
http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/81576.html
For more information on NYSFOLA:
http://nysfola.mylaketown.com/
For more information on invasive species, with many additional links:
http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/265.html
Photos of prohibited and regulated plants:
http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/lands_forests_pdf/isprohibitedplants2.pdf
For information on harmful algal blooms (HABs):
http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/77118.html
Photo gallery of non-toxic and toxic algae blooms:
http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/81962.html
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Camp Canaan at Queechy Lake
By Steven Berninger – Queechy Shores’ Resident
Jan Durgin of Trempers once gave me a brochure from the late 1940s advertising “Camp Canaan, a camp for boys and girls - high in the Berkshires.” It was obviously the same property now owned by 28 homeowners called Queechy Shores. This twelve page brochure detailed the fun your child would experience. Children could explore music and dance, arts and crafts, nature and of course swimming and boating on “Queechy Lake, a blue-green, spring fed lake extending some 2 ½ miles around.”
A beautiful aerial photo of the grounds shows a large finely mowed field. Other photos show the “clean, cool dining hall” and one of the cottages which is “well ventilated and equipped with electricity, modern plumbing, hot and cold water and showers.”
Flash forward some 60 years and you’ll see the camp cottages are now year round homes but the fun and excitement coming from children within the “camp” still remains.
We don’t have any idea how long Camp Canaan was in business. Longtime residents remember other camps using the property. Camp Star Crest is a name I’ve heard. The property remained a summer camp until the mid-1960s when it was sold and divided into
individual properties.
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The Coming of the Highways by Ed Long
In the spring issue I described some of the things that were true about Queechy when I first spent summers here. I mentioned the frequent passenger service to the Canaan railroad station,
Since then Queechy has been affected by the building of highways. When I first came here the nearest paved road was the short spur to New Lebanon which was paved only down as far as the now unused gravel pit north of Berkshire Farm. The first paved road to be built was 295 from Chatham. Then, also before the second world war, Route 22 was built from Austerlitz to the New Lebanon line, This created an intersection which became the scene of several serious accidents. Only after several fatalities occurred was the traffic light installed.
After the war the Taconic Parkway and the New York Thruway were constructed and the county road that runs along the west shore of the Lake was paved.
Quicker access to the lake has not resulted in the kind of growth that is evident in the suburbs of many cities (or in many other vacation spots) Queechy has seen relatively little development or commercialization. That means that it continues to be a place of remarkable beauty and restful retreat. But it also means that the town of Canaan tax base has not grown in a way than helps keep the taxes themselves from going up. Benefits are not cheap.
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Boats & Lake Health
By Seth Levin & Caitlin Schwager
The bylaws of the Queechy Lake Club tell us that we “have an obligation to leave the lake for our kids the way we found it.“ But an increase in motorized boat traffic can have a negative impact on the lake.The small number of lake-property owner owned motorized boats, their low-speeds and their relatively infrequent use of the lake is basically sustainable. Continuing to allow more high speed boats, more frequently is not. According to one report, The Effects of Motorized Watercraft on Aquatic Ecosystems, by Timothy Asplund at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources in March of 2000, high-speed powerboats cause:
● Noise pollution
● Water pollution
● Increased turbidity, sediment resuspension, and a decrease in water
● Increased nutrient levels, algae growth
● Increased hydrocarbon concentrations
● Direct damage to rooted aquatic plants/dispersal of rooted plants
● Shoreline erosion
The health of the lake is put at particular risk when boats from visitors and guests are launched into the lake because of the increased likelihood of spreading aquatic invasive species. We are especially concerned about certain algaes and the dreaded zebra mussel, which can quickly and easily infest a lake with razor sharp shells. We urge you to not allow your property to be used as a public boat launch and ensure that any boat your guest may bring has been cleaned and completely dried before launching into Queechy.
We heard the concerns from some of our membership about motor boats that don't "belong" on the lake from our membership at this year's annual meeting. The Queechy Lake Club is not an organization that makes or enforces rules, but we are an educational organization. We encourage information-sharing through neighborly interactions and hope to resolve concerns through friendly, community-based efforts. And it's working! Think back to 10-15 years ago...the lake was a lot more crowded with motor boats that somehow snuck in. Thanks to the efforts of property owners with launch access and careful efforts by Berkshire Farm, we have come a long way. Things may not be perfect now, but our past efforts & current efforts are working. Thanks neighbors!
As always, property owners without boat launch access can take advantage of our arrangement with Berkshire Farm and non-property owner canoe and kayakers are welcome to use the car-top carry at the state launch down by the Adams Point Beach.
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The Zinsser Family's Queechy Lake Brewery...having no fun at all!
