Greetings to all of you!
I hope this letter finds you looking forward to many fun days on our beautiful lakes! The water levels appear to be low, but we have had a lot of rain in recent days so hopefully that will help.
I know that the wildlife is definitely active as our friends have seen a big bear making his way along the shore of Appleton Lodge heading towards the old Blue Echo properties - and the loons have been quite vocal. It is certainly a gift to be part of it all!
I wanted to take a moment to thank Mary Doden and Bob Nelesen. Mary is our Clean Boats Clean Water liaison, and she has spent an incredible amount of time making our ILIDS boat monitoring system a reality. The amount of time she and Bob, our treasurer, have spent dealing with grants, the federal government and the forest service is remarkable, and we are grateful.
You may recall, I sent an email earlier this year about the Franklin Lake Improvement Association. I wanted to stress again that this organization is in its infancy and has absolutely no ties to or affiliations with our 54-year-old association. It is creating confusion for some of our fellow lake organizations and for members of our Butternut Franklin Lake Association. If you have any questions related to this, please feel free to contact me.
As a number of you have noticed, the boat launch on Butternut is damaged at the deepest part. This repair is the responsibility of the National Forest Service. They are aware of the issue, and it is on their list. That said, the repair will not be happening anytime soon. The Forest Service is very understaffed at the moment and funding is not available. Our contact has told us that we may need to help fund the repair. There are a number of members who have spoken to me about this and we may be able to come up with a temporary fix - but I wanted all Butternut Lake members to know that we are on it and trying our best to get it repaired sooner rather than later!
Are you looking for a way to become more involved in our lakes community? Our association will be short two board members this July. We have an open position now and we’ll be losing LaNora Kleerup this summer as she completes her 2nd term. The time commitment is minimal – 3 meetings per year with occasional zoom calls and emails. The term is 3 years, with a 2 term limit. Our next election will be at the Annual Meeting on July 19th. Please consider becoming a board member and joining a team of neighbors whose goal is to maintain and preserve this beautiful environment that we all enjoy so much. Contact me if interested.
I am excited that we have a number of new members who have moved onto our amazing lakes and joined our association! Welcome! We are excited to have you! We are all blessed to spend time in these magical places. Thank you to all for caring and for your help in keeping Butternut and Franklin Lakes some of the most pristine lakes in the state. I look forward to seeing you out on the water or on a path!
Onward!
Molly Gallagher Kies
"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks." - John Muir