(Image courtesy: tourchautauqua.com)
MAYVILLE, NY – Stakeholders around Chautauqua Lake have agreed to extend a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that continues collaboration surrounding one of the region’s most cherished resources.
Renewed for another two-year term from May 1, 2023 to April 30, 2025, the MOU consists of the same 16 stakeholders including Chautauqua County Government, the Towns of Busti, Chautauqua, Ellery, Ellicott, North Harmony and Bemus Point, Villages of Celoron, Lakewood and Mayville.
Several non-profit groups, like the Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua Lake Association, Chautauqua Lake Fishing Association, Chautauqua Lake Partnership, Chautauqua Lake & Watershed Management Alliance and Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy are also on board.
This statement of intent continues collaboratory and in good faith efforts to achieve a common goal: maintaining an ecologically and economically healthy Chautauqua Lake.
The first MOU, signed in 2019, combined efforts to improve near-shore cleanup deploying mobitracs, barges and lake-weed harvesters, use of new herbicide products to control Eurasian Watermilfoil, deployment of satellite tracking to monitor the progress and movement of lake management equipment.
During the previous extension, Chautauqua County, the Town of Chautauqua, the Village of Celoron, The Chautauqua Harbor Hotel, the Chautauqua Lake Partnership and the Chautauqua Lake Association collaborated to improve lake maintenance activities in the south basin.
Going forward more collaboration, including proposals for Collaborative Lake Maintenance Services, are in the works.
Furthermore, additional lake surveys and data collection efforts took place with the end goal of increasing transparency and collaboration by sharing operational and statistical data.
“I’m proud to see the Memorandum of Understanding renewed, building on our past successes,” explained Chautauqua County Executive PJ Wendel. “We have to work together in order maintain a healthy lake, which is vital to not only our environmental wellbeing, but also, our economic success.”
Statistics show that over 60 percent of visitors coming to Chautauqua County, visit for the lake. Which is why it’s vital to maintain this natural resource for generations to come.
