The Lake Raponda Greeter Program had another successful year protecting the Lake from the infestation of invasive plants and animals, like watermilfoil, water chestnuts, and zebra mussels to name a few. In this effort, both paid and volunteer greeters completed over 800 boat and trailer inspections over the COVID shortened summer at the state owned boat launch at the north end of the lake.

In addition to the completing visual inspections, the greeters collected other valuable information about boat traffic during the summer months. Two interesting findings about boats that use the lake are:

• Over 90% of watercraft are non-motorized.
• Over 80% of watercraft used Lake  Raponda almost exclusively.

Lake Raponda is truly a neighbor lake used primarily by kayakers, paddle boarders, and canoeists. Most of the motorized boat traffic occurs following fish stocking by the state in spring and early summer. 

For four years The Lake Raponda Association has partnered with the state, the Town of Wilmington and recently, with Windham County Natural Resources Conservation District in a state grant to fund the Lake Greeter program.

In addition to help funding paid greeters last year,  the Association provided volunteers who spent over 100 hours completing boat inspections helping to keep invasive plants and animals out of the Lake. This added about 2 days per week of greeter coverage and inspections over the summer. Funding for the Association’s  part of the greeter grant came from Association dues. In the future the newly formed Lake Raponda Environmental Foundation will fund the grant to help make the Greeter Program a sustainable long-lasting program.