Agency Water Quality Monitoring Meeting – February 22, 2022

State, local and federal agencies within the Deep Creek Lake (DCL) watershed convened the third DCL Collaborative Management/Restoration group meeting on Tuesday, February 22, 2022. The focus of the group is to identify and prioritize areas of concern and evaluate where monitoring and restoration efforts could better serve the needs of the Lake and watershed.
New to the February meeting were representatives from the US Department of Agriculture, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Service Appalachian Laboratory, and Maryland Department of the Environment. Other agency representatives who attended the meeting were from Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Lake Management Office, Forest Service, Fisheries Service, Resource Assessment Service, University of Maryland Extension Service, and Garrett County Department of Planning.
Staff from DNR’s Resource Assessment Service confirmed that there will be a high-resolution Drone Imagery Survey of the Lake’s shoreline conducted during the late summer 2022 that will be funded through the State Lakes Protection and Restoration Fund. The survey will provide a thorough evaluation of near shore Submerged Aquatic Vegetation (SAV). There were also discussions about upcoming training events concerning watercraft inspections and decontamination training for aquatic invasive species (AIS) and training on the Maryland Biological Stream Survey (MBSS) methods and protocols. Information on the MBSS training can be found at https://dnr.maryland.gov/streams/Pages/mbsstraining.aspx . Information on the AIS training event will be available later.
The next meeting of the DCL Collaborative Management/Restoration group is tentatively scheduled for late March. The group will focus on further evaluating major lake stressors, their impacts and prioritizing critical areas for potential coordinated monitoring and restoration efforts. A larger meeting with DCL stakeholders will be planned for later in the spring.