Common loon (Provided photo — Nina Schoch)

LAKE PLACID — Officials at the Mirror Lake Watershed Association recently began checking off items on their list to become certified as a loon-friendly lake through the Adirondack Center for Loon Conservation.

Now entering its fourth year, the Adirondack Loon-Friendly Lake Certification Program is a way to promote community-based environmental stewardship and protect common loons and their habitat on local waterbodies.

“In this area particularly, people are protective of their loons, so they want to be feeling like they’re doing everything they can (to help the loons),” said Beth Boos, stewardship and outreach director at the Adirondack Centet for Loon Conservation, based in Saranac Lake.

Loons face a variety of threats, including lead poisoning from ingesting lead fishing tackle, fishing line entanglement, flooding of nest sites, loss of nesting habitat from shoreline development, injuries from boating accidents, environmental pollutants, predation and human disturbance of nests and loon families.

As part of the Adirondack Loon-Friendly Lake Certification Program, Boos conducts a series of educational video training programs via Zoom for participants, including segments on loon natural history and nesting behavior, threats to loon conservation, and migration and wintering areas.

Signs are seen at the kiosk in Peacock Park on the shore or Mirror Lake in the village of Lake Placid with educational signs from the Mirror Lake Watershed Association and Adirondack Center for Loon Conservation. (News photo — Andy Flynn)

“Getting people who love the Adirondacks, love loons involved in the conservation has only helped loons in the Park,” Boos said in the program’s introductory segment on June 22, available to watch on the Loon Center’s YouTube page. “This is a multi-year effort to change the culture around Adirondack lakes and working with residents and visitors and just communicating effectively to make sure we’re keeping loons safe the best way that we can.”

To watch the “Introduction to Loon-Friendly Lake Series” on YouTube, visit https://youtu.be/v3ZDPJk7I64. To watch the video on “Loon Natural History & Nesting,” visit https://youtu.be/OQWlZw4mn6c.

Last year, 15 lakes were certified as loon-friendly, even though organizations representing 36 lakes had begun the certification process.

“The reason the lakes won’t get certified is just that they don’t do one or two of the projects that we ask that they do annually,” Boos told the News on Monday, July 17. “They might do a lot of activities that are very helpful, but they just don’t get that certification.”

In order to get certified — which happens at the end of the summer season — groups have to document their activities on a checklist:

A dog fetches a toy on Mirror Lake in Lake Placid Monday, July 17 while swimmers train for the upcoming Ironman Lake Placid triathlon. At right, under the "NO GAS MOTORS" sign is a sign promoting the "Clean, Drain, Dry" technique for cleaning boats to prevent the spread of invasive species and a fishing line recycling container. (News photo — Andy Flynn)

– Organize two to three lake cleanups per year.

– Provide ACLC brochures to rental properties along the lake.

– Place ACLC “Help Protect Loons” signs at boat launches.

– Monitor loon nests on the lake and report problems to the ACLC.

– Maintain a fishing line recycling container.

Common loon is seen with its bill tangled with fishing line on Mirror Lake in 2011. (Provided photo — Larry Master)

– Take actions to reduce your environmental impact (indirect impact on loons, such as solar panels, composting, driving less and carpooling).

Also, groups are encouraged, but not required, to educate people who fish on the lake — including renters and property owners — to turn in their old lead fishing tackle to prevent lead poising in loons and other wildlife.

“Even if they have a small amount (of lead in their system), it always kills them,” Boos said in the video. “We just have to convince people to buy another form of tackle.”

There are about a dozen outfitters in the region that take part in the ACLC’s Lead Tackle Buy-Back Program, including Blue Line Sports and Woods and Waters in Saranac Lake, Raquette River Outfitters and Red Top Inn in Tupper Lake, Cloud-Splitter Outfitters in Newcomb and Hoss’s Country Corner in Long Lake. There are no participating shops in Lake Placid. People can bring an ounce or more of their lead fishing tackle to a participating fishing tackle retailer and receive a $10 voucher toward the purchase of non-toxic fishing tackle at the outfitter.

Steve Detwiler heads the Adirondack Loon-Friendly Lake committee at the Mirror Lake Watershed Association. He received a packet from the ACLC to begin the certification process. Signs, fishing line recycling containers and loon brochures are all provided for free.

An interpretive sign about the food web on Mirror Lake in Peacock Park in the village of Lake Placid with educational signs from the Mirror Lake Watershed Association and Adirondack Center for Loon Conservation. (News photo — Andy Flynn)

Detwiler said two fishing line recycling containers are already installed — one at the boat launch next to the tennis courts and one at a popular fishing spot “about a city block away” north on Mirror Lake Drive. He’s also starting to distribute some of the brochures to the three primary rental companies in the village: Merrill L. Thomas, Engel & Volkers Lake Placid Real Estate and Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Adirondack Premier Properties.

“We’re using those to put in rental check-in packages, so people that are coming here renting a house through one of those three agencies will find those in their rental packages when they check in,” Detwiler said.

The brochures are also available in a display at the Lake Placid Public Library, which is located on Main Street on the shore of Mirror Lake.

In order to help prevent the loss of nesting habitat for loons, Boos explained in the “Introduction to Loon-Friendly Lake Series” video that groups can maintain and improve natural shorelines.

– Plant native species.

– Limit development.

– Minimize mowing.

– Use natural slopes.

On Mirror Lake, it is unclear whether loons nest there or just visit between the spring ice melt and winter ice season to fish, flying there from other waterbodies such as Lake Placid lake.

The Adirondack North Country Region is on the southern end of the breeding range for common loons, which “are excellent indicators of water quality as they require crystal-clear lakes (which makes it easier for them to see prey underwater) with abundant populations of small fish,” according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

This is the first year the Mirror Lake Watershed Association has participated in the Adirondack Loon-Friendly Lake Certification Program.

“It’s obviously good for the loons,” said Marcy Fagan, chair of the MLWA board. “I think it’s just good for us to get on board.”

This is just one of many ways the volunteer-led organization protects the water quality and animal and plant species of the lake. It’s also been active in road salt reduction efforts during the winter, educational efforts with the Adirondack Watershed Institute and Ausable River Association and invasive species prevention. The group raised $26,000 to hire watershed stewards this summer through the AWI; they work daily at the lake during the summer to inspect boats for invasive species and educate paddlers about those invasive species. And MLWA volunteers pull purple loosestrife out of the ground along the shoreline each summer.

MLWA board member Nev Dunn maintains a ritual cleanup along the shoreline.

“He literally walks around the lake every day with a trash bag,” Fagan said.

The cost to participate in the Adirondack Loon-Friendly Lake Certification Program is a $100 annual donation (minimum). The benefits of participating, according to Boos, are receiving the certificate, being recognized on the ACLC’s website, getting a discount at the Adirondack Loon Center in Saranac Lake, and “knowing that you’re making your lake a better place for loons and other wildlife.”

The lakes certified in 2002 were Augur Lake (Essex County), Big Moose Lake (Herkimer/Hamilton counties), Brant Lake (Warren County), Brantingham Lake (Lewis County), Eagle Crag Lake (St. Lawrence County), Friends Lake (Warren County), Lake Abanakee (Hamilton County), Lake Clear (Franklin County), Loon Lake (Warren County), Mount Arab Lake (St. Lawrence County), Rainbow Lake (Franklin County), Raquette Lake (Hamilton County), Schroon Lake (Essex/Warren counties), Schroon Lake (east shore), Sixberry Lake (Jefferson County) and Trout Lake (St. Lawrence County).

The Adirondack Loon- Friendly Lake Program was developed with support from the Freed Foundation and Northern New York Audubon with a grant from the Joseph and Joan Cullman Conservation Foundation. It is funded through grants from the Blake Nuttall Ornithological Fund, Glenn and Carol Pearsall Adirondack Foundation, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on behalf of the Bouchard Barge 120 Buzzards Bay Oil Spill Trustees.

Learn more about the Adirondack Center for Loon Conservation at www.adkloon.org.