Valerie Burns

Natural ice cover is absolutely critical for our lakes’ health, especially as the climate change contributes to warming temperatures and total days of ice cover each winter decrease. In Pleasant Lake, for example, total days of ice cover have decreased a full month since 1985 – an alarming trend. We need to do everything in our power to stabilize conditions and stretch out these valuable ice cover days! Decreased ice cover increases the amount of sunlight that can penetrate our lakes, stirs up nutrients into the water column, and thereby encourages the proliferation of cyanobacteria blooms. More frequent and extended cyanobacteria blooms are a recognized threat to the health of New Hampshire’s lakes, which are the backbone of our economy. It’s a ripple effect that we must prevent at the state and local levels! SB 594 limits unnecessary water agitation, which will help safeguard and allow nature’s patterns to continue – even in their compromised state within the context of a changing (warming) climate. SB 594 also improves the safety of winter recreation – skating, skiing, angling, snowmobiling – by mitigating against the human-caused threat of thin ice and open water. Please support this common-sense Bill, and demonstrate that you care about our lakes and those who, like my family and me, live on and near them and who wish to continue enjoying their beauty throughout the year.