As heir to a log cabin in the Adirondacks, I have caught myself imagining the mile-high glacier that carved out its lake and melted to fill it with crystal pure water. The scrape marks on outcrops of stone here and there in the forest remain as testimony to that primeval event.
Big Moose’s Twitchell Lake became host to a native population of brook trout that sportsmen in the 1860s and following decades measured by the pound rather than the inch. But my summers in the 1950s bring up a very different image, water unfit to drink or even swim in, laced with dangerous e. Coli bacteria and a dumping ground for used-up appliances. This essay will tell the story of “troubled waters” and one lake community’s painstaking quest for good water quality.
The Perch Explosion
The state of Adirondack waters used to be measured exclusively by fishermen. And usually that was after a body of water like Twitchell was “fished out,” an event which arrived all too soon for avid sportsmen.
The Fulton Chain Fish Hatchery pictured here was established in Old Forge in 1868, to improve fish populations in depleted water bodies near forests being impacted by logging operations or overburdened by a growing tourist population.
An 1888 newspaper article noted Hatchery improvements with the addition of a dozen more Chase hatching jars (pictured here), in preparation for placing trout in spawning beds carved out of streams “near Twitchell, Big Moose, Third, Seventh and Lime Kiln lakes.” At that point in time, Twitchell Lake still supported trout, my great-grandfather Francis Mason Hayes choosing to summer at Twitchell Lake Inn with his family for its famous trout fishing.
To their credit, lake residents in the 1920s and 30s raised money to fund continued stocking of trout, but the Hatchery closed in the early 1930s. Lake species at that time included brook trout, bullheads, and chub, with an occasional lake trout caught. Twitchell Inn owner Earl Covey installed a dam at the outlet on the southern end of the lake and put up a screen to keep those fish from swimming downstream.
Most of those early camp owners were avid fishermen. One who would leave his stamp on lake policy was Hamilton Allen, who learned how to fly fish from old-timer Jack Milnes in the 1930s, using “the necessary split bamboo rod, reel, line, catgut leaders, and flies.” From then on Ham angled with his brother Hank on Twitchell and its surrounding ponds, ragging on anyone who went after trout with worms.
An event in the 1940s profoundly impacted lake habitat, the introduction of yellow perch. Debate still surrounds the source, two possibilities posed. A careless fisherman using perch minnows to land trout could have dumped his pail before leaving and thus introduced the new species. But there is another theory.
Perch could have been introduced on purpose, because this fish was known for its tasty cuisine. The logic went something like this, “Two savory fish species are better than one.”
The problem, a State biologist later pointed out, was that “weed species” such as perch are very prolific while trout are poor predators. The perch population explodes, trout starve, and both species suffer competing for a limited food supply.
Poisoning & Reclamation
Ham Allen initiated a letter-writing campaign with State fishery officials and was informed that any further stocking after the introduction of perch would be a losing battle.
In a letter dated May 19, 1949, the Senior Aquatic Biologist of the Northern Fisheries District, Mr. W. M. Lawrence, informed him the perch would have to be eliminated before stocking resumed. Which in the protocol of that time meant treatment by a poison called “rotenone,” a procedure the State termed “reclamation.”
Derived from the legume plant family Fabaceae, Native Americans had used rotenone to catch fish in earlier times. This treatment was approved by the US in 1952 for use in rivers and lakes to remove unwanted fish species. Depending on the concentration used, rotenone was gone from rivers in a matter of days, from lakes within a few months.
Reaching out to the Big Moose Fish and Game Club in 1953, Ham discovered that Big Moose Lake was engaged with the State in a four-year experimental program of “perch control” employing the stocking of sockeye salmon and two stains of lake trout. He and Norm Sherry were invited to join in on that program, noting that “the exact process could not be determined without a detailed study of the lake, as to depth, population, oxygen content, and spawning areas.”
However, signatures of 35 Twitchell property owners were obtained in 1954 for issuance of a Perch Elimination Permit to use this recently legalized piscicide (fish killer), and the Reclamation project went forward for Twitchell and its tributaries in September of 1955.
Twitchell Lake was one of the first in NYS to be reclaimed. Restocking followed in ten months — 12,200 domestic trout yearlings introduced in June 1956, 7,000 fingerlings in September, fingerlings 2 to 4 inches in length, yearlings 6 to 12.
An article titled “Pond Reclamation: Restoring Adirondack Waters to Trout,” quoted Fish Management Supervisor Don Pasko as saying 141 ponds had been reclaimed by 1972 at a cost of just under $500,000, plus $30 for application and barrier dam costs:
“Before the poisoning of a pond takes place, much preparatory work is undertaken. A complete biological survey of the pond is necessary to learn if the pond is suitable for trout today and what the growth rate of the present fish population is.
“The surface area of the pond has to be known and all inlets, visible springs, seepage areas and swamps must be charted to achieve a complete kill. Frequently, barrier dams must be constructed to prevent undesirable species from returning to the pond.”
Apparently the Twitchell reclamation was approved and completed without a full biological survey, which would not be done until 1969. If Twitchell’s reclamation was one of the first, it probably predated that requirement, but the Conservation Department, forerunner of DEC, monitored the lake in several important ways.
Conservation men made an annual netting to check on the results of their trout stocking, and Twitchell anglers were asked to complete a Catch Record Form to further track stocking results. Only 12 of these forms were returned in the first year, so more were distributed by Fred Ellmers on his mail route.
In addition, a large wooden framework was installed where Oswego Pond empties into Twitchell, for spawning wild fish eggs. One netting check revealed that stocked yearlings had not grown adequately, indicating an overstocking of fish for the food available, and so adjustments were made for the following annual fish stocking. This picture captures a recent stocking with Atlantic salmon, an experiment to keep perch in check.
By 1958, concerns about trout fishing were again surfacing, and it became clear that the bullhead population had increased dramatically. One Twitchell fisherman expressed concern that the loons on the lake were contributing to trout loss.
Vice President of Personnel for Oneida Silversmiths, Ltd., Ham Allen had his company lab perform lake water tests, returning a pH reading of 5.4, the report stating that “worsening acidity has taken place in the last year or so.”
This predated the “discovery” of acid rain by about 20 years but was an early signal of a lake habitat in serious trouble, a canary in the Adirondack coal mine, so to speak. Don Pasko put the complexity of lake ecology and biology into the following rule of thumb for anxious anglers, the basic given in the equation being the lake’s limited food supply:
“The total poundage of fish produced in a body of water will be shared in some proportion by the various species inhabiting it. Therefore, when a new species of fish is introduced in a body of water, it is not usually possible to retain the poundage of fish already present and reap a surplus in poundage of the new species.
“Rather, a general adjustment takes place in the water and one or more of the native species of fish produces less poundage. The secret of success in reclamation is in making a controlled readjustment which eliminates undersized species and directs total poundage production into trout.”
Ham Allen was not to be put off by a low pH reading. He continued to work with Big Moose and Twitchell Lake Fish & Game clubs on lake improvement and to lobby with the State for counter measures that had some hope of restoring good fishing. His extensive correspondence with the State reveals just how comprehensive its management efforts were across the central Adirondacks.
The Big Moose Fish & Game Club annual report listed 26 separate locations stocked annually with splake, salmon, and trout, including Twitchell and Big Moose Lakes, Limekiln, Stillwater, Cascade, Queer, Gull, Bogg, and Sisters Lakes, along with Chub, Constable, Buck, Oswego, West, and Razorback Ponds. Not to mention the many reclamations in process or planned for more than a few of these fishing destinations.
Before highly acidic water wiped out the trout population in Oswego Pond, fishermen like Norm and his son Burt Sherry (pictured here) caught their limit of native brook trout each hike over the mountain to this favorite fishing spot.
Ham’s last-ditch effort is revealed in a letter addressed to Governor Nelson Rockefeller, pleading for the $4500 funding required for a plan recommended by Leigh Blake, Region 4 Fisheries Manager at Watertown. That plan showed clear awareness of falling pH readings, because it included rotenone reclamation with restocking, but added in treatment with 18 tons of anhydrous lime to neutralize the lake’s acidity.
But times had changed. The number of the lake’s camp owners had more than doubled and the State’s requirement of unanimous consent for approval of this new plan was clearly out of reach, with strong opinions about the toxic impact of multiple chemical agents on water, plants, animals, and humans. Members of the Twitchell Lake Fish & Game Society (TLFGS) voiced these concerns and preferred to wait and see if the State’s new experimental strategy of five years of stocking with a new wild strain of trout would take hold in spite of acidity.
In the meantime, some suggested, people could “utilize bullhead fishing,” a proposal that raised the ire of all the trout anglers.
The Long-Anticipated Lake Study
Leigh Blake posted his Lake Study Report in January 1969, describing Twitchell as “a medium size, (140 acres), relatively shallow, (34’ maximum), infertile Adirondack lake,” this map sketch identifying the spawning bed at Oswego outlet with depth measurements noted, the deepest point by the Island.
By “infertile” Blake meant low nutrient levels, particularly nitrogen and phosphorus, resulting in limited plant and algae growth, and leading to clear, cold water with a low population of aquatic life. In short, a very good environment for brook trout, if perch stayed out of the equation.
A lake history back to the 1954 reclamation was detailed, a stocking history from 1956 to 1968 listed, and netting results for 1957 through 1959 included. Twitchell fishermen and women could truly be proud of the 365 Angler Catch Records they turned in to the Commission for the years 1958 through 1961!
Blake recommended replacing the annual domestic trout stocking with wild trout strains, which were more likely to survive the challenging conditions. He warned of overstocking because of limited food supply available at Twitchell Lake.
The most interesting part of the report is captured on this sketch of “Accessible Forage Area,” showing that for June through August the lake stratifies and a “thermocline” of rapidly falling temperature forms at a depth of 10 to 15 feet, separating an upper warm “epilimnion” layer (0 to 15’) from the cold lower “hypolimnion” layer (20 to 35’).
Oxygen supply, Blake’s tutorial continued, is adequate only to a depth of 20 feet in the summer, fading from 2 ppm at 15’ to zero at 20’. Thus, in those warm months cold-water-dependent trout can forage for food only in a very restricted five-foot band where this thermocline touches the lake’s bottom.
A reading of 5.4 pH (quite acidic) combined with a “Methyl Orange alkalinity” of less than 7 ppm (indicating very low fertility), spelled trouble for the lake habitat, and a point beyond which the lake water was unable to neutralize acids. Trout and other organisms, under these conditions, were in real jeopardy. Which explained why the State would even propose using truckloads of lime.
Acid Rain Precipitation
The Clean Air Act of 1970 was passed by Congress to address growing public concern about air quality, targeting six air pollutants for cars and industry – particulate matter, ozone, carbon monoxide, sulfur and nitrogen dioxide, and lead. With a new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), national emissions standards mandated the use of catalytic converters in new cars. This was a big step forward, but it did not address water pollution and the already-felt impact of acid rain precipitation.
The New York Times broke the news about acid rain on June 13, 1974, though the problem had been known for at least twelve years. The Times picked up on research by two ecologists who found that the antipollution devices then required by the 1970 Clean Air Act actually “transformed local soot problems into a regional acid rain problem.”
Those devices did remove the visible particles in industrial smoke, but let the oxides of sulfur and nitrogen escape, the new higher smokestacks delivering sulfuric and nitric acids via weather systems to be precipitated in rain and snow over the Northeast and Canada.
The impact? Marked reduction in forest growth, actual fish kills being reported in lakes at higher elevations, and a widespread corrosive effect on bridges, buildings, and statues. Company scientists challenged the findings, questioning the causal connection between industrial smoke and acid rain.
Ham’s Oneida Lab recorded pH readings for water samples in 1971 as follows: Twitchell Lake 4.8, Little Birch Pond 5.25, and Oswego Pond 5.4 (August 15). These readings approach those shown on this map, where the Central and Western Adirondacks read 4.3 to 4.5 in pH, not far from that of ketchup, lemon juice, and vinegar.
New York State, alarmed by forest impact and loss of fish habitat in bodies of water like Oswego Pond, sprang into action, forming the Adirondack Lake Survey Corporation (ALSC) in 1983 to monitor water quality and the effects of acid rain in the Adirondacks. This important effort has been largely funded by the EPA. The earliest field-testing centered on “The Big Moose Group” as shown here.
It included nine ponds – Squash, Constable, West, Windfall, Dart, Moss, Cascade, Bubb, Rondaxe, and Big Moose Lake, that latter body of water the first selected for testing because it showed marked acidification in sediment cores.
The July 1982 minutes for the TLFGS record President Nat Gorham’s commendation of Anne LaBastille for her National Geographic article titled “Acid Rain: How Great a Menace?” Her data on acid rain impact with six percent of Adirondack lakes and ponds losing their fish, informed the 1984 Report to Congress on Acid Rain and the subsequent passage of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendment which added an Acid Rain Program to the original bill aimed at reducing sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions, particularly for coal plants.
Again, the EPA has funded this research and enforced acidification cleanup until recently.
ALSC’s Twitchell Lake Report (July 30, 1985) was an interesting research follow-up to Leigh Blake’s 1969 study, measuring 143 lake acres to 1806 watershed acres for a lake to watershed ratio of 7.9%. That watershed, it stated, was made up of 60% deciduous, 10% conifer, and 30% mixed forest.
The lake shoreline consisted of 70% conifers and 80% sand. Lake chemistry was detailed for 5 positively charged ions (like calcium and magnesium), 6 negatively charged ions (sulfate and nitrate), and trace metals (like aluminum and iron). Metals and ions, it was found, were leached out by higher acidity, and so were part of the pollution equation.
Water pH registered 5.58, Air Eq pH 5.64. By 2008, ALSC verified substantial reductions in sulfuric acid precipitation with other ion concentrations, a significant win for the Adirondacks, for Canada, and for anglers who saw trout populations returning, assisted by the State stocking programs.
The Citizen’s Pollution Survey
The next water crisis for Twitchell Lake water targeted a very different form of pollution, one that had been “hidden” for years, black water sewage and grey water runoff. The TLFGS President in 1988 was John Miller, who introduced a Citizen’s Pollution Survey he authored to address these two culprits which he posed as very typical of Adirondack lakes hosting a summer camp population:
“I believe there was a common denominator – a single underlying fact which explains most of the wide-spread pollution. That is that most of our camps and cottages are seasonal dwellings built between 1900 and 1940 and used very few weeks each year.
“Historically, during the early part of the century, sanitary codes for vacation homes either did not exist or were poorly enforced. Lake front property was not part of the municipal system. In many cases, raw sewage was strait-piped into the lake. Grey water was simply piped from the sink or shower through the adjacent wall and onto the ground.”
In the 1950s this writer had to return home to White Plains, NY, for emergency surgery on boils he contracted at Twitchell Lake more than once, a sad experience I believe was tied to this pollution picture. Miller’s lake survey found 21 of 74 camps in violation, 15 involving direct discharge of raw sewage and/or grey water, and six more potential violations.
Water samples for fecal e. Coli bacteria from human waste registered 93, 84 points above an acceptable level, although any e. Coli presence can be dangerous for human health. Coliform bacteria from ducks, deer, dogs, and other warm-blooded animals added to the mix in this foul soup.
The genius in Miller’s program was that it was a voluntary citizen’s initiative, as opposed to a heavy-handed code-enforcement program. Miller did include info on the legal ordinances, minimum septic tank size being 750 gallons for two bedrooms, leaching field and outhouse setbacks of 100 feet from lakes, streams, and wetlands.
But stress for the campaign was put on a community approach, open discussion, volunteer survey teams of two people making the visits, public awareness, and a fixed completion date. Positive peer pressure with common courtesy worked for all the violations but one. He had to deal with the Town of Webb until he was in compliance.
The bottom line as stated in the Survey: “By the time the survey was completed, the fecal E. Coli count dropped from 93 to 3 and our water quality was restored to be imminently drinkable.”
People on the lake genuinely responded as neighbor helped neighbor in an effort to eliminate pollution sources and protect the environment. This writer with his spouse were two of Miller’s volunteers.
Besides getting to converse with our neighbors and tour many of Twitchell’s historic log cabins, we administered a dye tab inside and inspected outside septic systems for possible leakage, thrilled just to be part of the lake cleanup.
The September 4, 2010, minutes for the TLFGS record President Joe Spakowski’s tribute to John Miller, with the whole group giving him a standing ovation as he was presented with a handsome plaque created from a cross section of a local tree. In response, John said it had been an honor to work for the betterment of Twitchell.
Not only had he served Twitchell well, but John had been President of the Fulton Chain of Lakes Association, the New York Federation of Lake Associations, and had received over 100 requests for his Citizens Pollution Survey guide to help other lakes in similar pollution predicaments.
One of the provisions of the Miller Survey was annual water testing to ensure new pollution sources did not go undetected. John Deasy and Dan Conable volunteered to take on this role and have carried it out right up to the present, sampling water on up to nine lake locations several times per summer and transporting the bottles to Utica for analysis.
In the summer of 2010, for example, multiple sites showed total coliforms (most forms harmless to humans) at 250 ppm (parts per million) for 100 milliliters of water, but e. Coli at each of those locations was less than 3 ppm, except for one at 13 ppm. The August readings saw all those samples at 2 ppm or less. TLFGS’s 2012 Labor Day meeting allocated $180 to pay Mohawk Valley Water Authority to run the tests, a small price for clean water.
Joining the Adirondack Lake Assessment Program
In 1998 Paul Smith College joined with Protect the Adirondacks to form the Adirondack Lakes Assessment Program (ALAP), a research and monitoring collaboration between scientists and volunteers. Eighty lakes currently participate in the program, Anne LA Bastille of Twitchell signing up her lake just after the program began.
Sue Nettleton volunteered to do water sampling from 2001 to 2022, collecting Twitchell water from June to August and sending a bottle to Paul Smith College for analysis. Cherri Vandenberg took over in 2022.
The first comprehensive report was published in 2018, with Twitchell categorized as an “oligotrophic” lake. 65% of the lakes fit this category, 32% were “mesotrophic,” and 3% “eutrophic.” Basically, oligotrophic lakes tend to have high transparency, low algae presence, and a lower chance of algal bloom, that bright green “blanket” on the water when too many nitrogen and phosphorus nutrients are present.
Eutrophic lakes, on the other hand, have low transparency — a paddler cannot see very deep down — and a relatively high nutrient value which could come from fertilizer, septic seepage, or animal wastes. Mesotrophic lakes are in between these other two. Then at the extreme are the “hypereutrophic” lakes that jam up with algae and aquatic plants, creating dead zones under the water’s surface.
In a practical sense people interested in using a water body for activities like swimming and fishing think of an oligotrophic lake as the ideal choice, while others who wish to create a bird sanctuary will select a eutrophic lake with plenty of algae to feed the birds.
The 2018 Report’s section on Twitchell (pp. 160-163) has this helpful map showing our lake in its watershed with that ratio of about 8% — Oswego, Lilypad, and Little Birch Ponds emptying into Twitchell. Thus, pH or other measurements at those ponds are going to impact that larger water body, along with fish and other animals and plants that may migrate downstream.
The Report’s 16 measures of lake chemistry include pH, specific conductance, apparent color, CDOM (colored dissolved organic matter), chlorophyll-a, transparency, alkalinity, chloride, sulfate, total phosphorus, nitrate-nitrite, ammonia, total nitrogen, dissolved organic carbon calcium, and sodium. If this list is a bit intimidating, the Report offers non-scientists helpful explanations for each one of them up front.
As an oligotrophic lake, Twitchell water is quite healthy now, clear and cool even in summer, acidity trending upward toward the neutral point, and its acid-neutralizing capacity low to moderate. The lake was thus an outstanding habitat for trout again until someone spilled a bucket of yellow perch minnows back into the lake, again!
So today, trout must compete with that aggressive species for food. Recent fish stocking by the DEC has added smaller numbers of lake trout and salmon strains in hopes they will keep the perch population in check. Some stockings are now done by helicopter.
Lake naturalist Ernest Williams noted the sighting this past summer of a microscopic aquatic invertebrate living in a jelly-like colony under Twitchell docks. It is the “Bryozoan species,” scientific name Pectinatella magnifica (pictured here). Because this species requires very clean water, its presence signals a very healthy aquatic environment for Twitchell Lake.
A large bladderwort bloom a few summers ago at Twitchell Lake, most likely the species known as Horned Bladderwort (Utricularia cornuta), prompted me to contact ALAP to see if the lake’s status should be changed from oligotrophic to mesotrophic, but Research Scientist Sara Kelly assured me of Twitchell’s continued oligotrophic status, with this comment about loss of transparency:
“A loss of transparency (i.e. what is driving the change from Oligotrophic to Mesotrophic) in Twitchell Lake follows a park-wide trend in lake browning due to acid rain recovery and climate change. More things can grow in a more neutral pH, warmer lake conditions foster greater primary production, and wetter conditions flush more organic matter and debris into lakes, decreasing transparency.”
One of Sue Nettleton’s initiatives has been to encourage Twitchell lakers to identify invasive species, to paddle around and look for invasive water plants. One of the best resources on this subject is The Nature Conservancy, which has a website www.adkinvasives.com, its mission to minimize the impact of land and water invasives, which it named “the bullies of the natural world.”
The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) posted this sign at the Public Landing of Twitchell Lake to persuade visiting boaters to ensure they are free and clean of invasives before backing a boat into the lake.
Facing the Future with Hope and Vigilance
My review of Twitchell Lake history has touched on the list of warnings posted by the Adirondack Council for water bodies in our six-million-acre Adirondack Park, including sewage and wastewater, acid rain pollution, aquatic invasives, and harmful algal blooms from excessive nitrogen and phosphorus.
Mercury pollution and road salt in the winter months are two we have not faced, though storm events linked to climate change have produced extraordinary rainfall with extreme flooding in our part of the Park.
I thus bear good and bad news as I close. The good, my list of extraordinary people at Twitchell Lake who have dedicated themselves to clean up Twitchell’s “troubled waters.” That list includes Ham Allen, John Miller, Sue Nettleton, Cherri Vandenberg, John Deasy, and Dan Conable, but then a host of other volunteers like my spouse and I who have helped transform a very polluted lake into one that could be consumed in a drinking glass. For them and a host of others, this is my tribute.
But let this also serve as a serious reminder of the vigilance needed to heed the Adirondack Council’s warnings and to obey the sign posted by the DEC on Twitchell Lake’s public bulletin board. I close by repeating a news bulletin that broke this past summer in the New York Almanack, under the title “Supreme Court Decision Endangers Adirondack Progress on AcidRain” (July 4, 2024).
Thirty years of progress is in real jeopardy since our Supreme Court nixed the “Good Neighbor Rule” by exempting two coal states from new limits on interstate air pollution. Their June 27 decision came as the EPA was cutting funding for the acid rain research Twitchell and Big Moose Lakes have been a vital part of.
The ponds surrounding Twitchell are just beginning to host trout populations again, with our lake’s pH readings back up to neutral. To think that such progress could all be rolled back is truly troubling. Do we in the Adirondacks face a future of acid rain? Our voice needs to be heard! And vigilance is needed for each of the Adirondack Council’s warnings.
Illustrations, from above: The Fulton Chain Fish Hatchery in Old Forge, NY from August 9, 1888 (courtesy of the Goodhall Museum in Old Forge); Chase Hatching Jars used with Brook Trout eggs in “Catalog of Glass Hatching Jars,” by Vance Polton in American Fisheries Society, 2022; Perch and Trout illustration created by Noel Sherry; Rotenone Illustration created by Noel Sherry from Wikipedia article; Atlantic Salmon being stocked at Twitchell Lake by DEC, from Diana Thode Huss video; Norm with son Burt Sherry holding String of Trout from Oswego Pond, ca 1955; Depth Map in “Twitchell Lake Study (1954-1968),” by Leigh Blake, Region 4 Fisheries Manager at Watertown, NY, January 1969; Typical Foraging Profile in “Twitchell Lake Study (1954-1968),” by Leigh Blake; US Map of “pH Precipitation” by National Atmospheric Deposition Program, 2003; Lakes included in “Acid Rain & the Adirondacks: A Research Summary,” Adirondack Lakes Survey Corporation, 2005; “Coliforms Explained” Illustration, Alabama Cooperative Extension System, June 4, 2024; “Twitchell Lake” Map & Findings in Adirondack Lakes Assessment Program Report in 20th Year, Paul Smith College, December 2017; “Bryozoan species,” Microscopic Aquatic Invertebrate living in jelly-like colony under Twitchell docks, August 2024; and “Protect Your Water” Poster by Department of Environmental Conservation posted at Twitchell Lake, 2024.
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