Together we can protect our lakes, divided we all lose

Every bit of land surface, dairy farm fields, crop, vegetable and fruit farm fields of all types, sizes and production systems, schoolyards and sport fields, lawns, abandoned lots, roads, parking lots, stream banks, and forests, contributes non-point source nutrient runoff to water in streams and lakes. Even without any farms, our watersheds shed nutrients. Some watersheds are mostly wooded or abandoned fields, others have a high proportion of cultivated land, but both types have had problems in recent years. And then some lakes, like Skaneateles, with mixed watershed use and with low nutrient levels (considered to be very clean), experienced harmful algal blooms (HABs) in 2017 and 2018