What We Do
The Environmental Affairs Committee promotes a safe and responsible environment in which we live, work and recreate. We are passionate stewards of the Adirondack mountain environment, with a primary focus on Upper Saranac Lake and its wetlands, tributaries and animals. The committee meets approximately six times per year, while various subgroups meet as needed to support ongoing initiatives.
Our Work
We coordinate and align our activities with the Upper Saranac Foundation to maintain and enhance the water quality of Upper Saranac Lake. We promote awareness among USLA members of our targeted initiatives through various USLA communication channels and provide advocacy to support environmental resource protection.
We advocate, educate, and participate in initiatives to support and enhance environmental health and safety, fishery health, loon safety and welfare, septic system installation and maintenance, recycling, water quality, and shoreline and wetland protection.
NYS DEC WAVE Program
We participate in the NYS DEC Water Assessments by Volunteer Evaluators (WAVE) Program, a long-term data collection initiative which enables citizen scientists to collect biological data for water quality assessment of wadable streams in New York State, and which complements the water quality monitoring work of the Upper Saranac Foundation.
We collect and count benthic macroinvertebrates (“stream bugs”) in streams and tributaries that enter Upper Saranac Lake to measure, monitor, and help ensure water quality.
Angler Diary Program
This fun, ad-hoc, all-volunteer program provides Upper Saranac Lake fishing enthusiasts an opportunity to report their catches, which provides data over time about the health of the fishery.
Between May 10 and July 1, 2023, the reported bass catch (all smallmouth bass) was fairly low, but the fish were good-size specimens, with most between 13 and 17 inches. One angler caught and released over 15 bass in just a few hours on Memorial Day.
Click here to join the Angler Diary Program, learn more, or to download or view the Annual Angler Diary Reports from 2016 to the present.
