Clary Lake Association

The Clary Lake Association

Welcome to the Clary Lake Association web site
Whether you're new or coming back, be sure to check the News page for site updates, and of course, news!
Also, the Water Level Chart is updated almost daily.
To join the Association or sign up for our mailing list, visit our Membership page!
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Clary Lake is a Great Pond located in Lincoln County Maine in the towns of Whitefield and Jefferson. It is about 680 acres in size and is part of the Sheepscot River watershed. Here is a relatively recent aerial photograph (and an extra high resolution photo of the marsh area) map showing Clary Lake and the surrounding area. The water level of Clary Lake is maintained by a dam at its outlet on Route 218 in Whitefield. Life around Clary Lake one way or the other seems to revolve around the dam; its condition, which is currently poor, is of concern to everyone. The current dam owner, Pleasant Pond Mill LLC, has drawn down the lake to a level lower than most people can remember. Clary is a shallow lake in a good year; drain 5' of water out of it like what happened this past fall and winter and the total surface area of the lake shrinks by over 300 acres, or more than 44%. The majority of the area drained is high-value significant wildlife and plant habitat. The Association is actively seeking to obtain ownership of the dam and hopes eventually to resolve the "dam problem" once and for all.

About this site

This site isn't quite brand new, it was originally conceived and launched back in 2007. It has been off line for quite some time and is now being resurrected to address a pressing need for a medium for disseminating information to the general public, and rallying local support. Like the old site, this one is largely the work of myself, George Fergusson, Clary Lake shore owner, Past President of the Clary Lake Association, current board member, and editor of the Clary Lake Clarion, the newsletter of the Association. I live on the south side of the lake in Whitefield on Route 126 near the Jefferson town line. I originally envisioned this site being a resource for the Clary Lake Community in general, not just for Association members- a place where all lake shore owners could gather and share ideas, concerns, and information. I still have this vision, but right off this site is has to fulfill a more immediate need.

Because of the water level crisis facing us at this time, and because I'm the Petition Spokesperson for the Clary Lake Water Level Petition currently being reviewed by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, the primary focus of this web site, now and going forward, will be the petition and relevant news & events involving that petition. I will continue to email updates to the petitioners as before but these updates will also be posted to this site, along with additional items and information pertaining to the petition. This will remain the case until such time as this crisis is behind us. It should be noted that while the Clary Lake Association supports and fully endorses this petition initiative, it is not an Association initiative; it is a Clary Lake Shore Owner initiative.

Many thanks to the Association for providing us with this online resource.

Your ideas and suggestions for this site are welcome- please take some time and explore what is here and send me your comments and I'll try and work them in. If you'd like to help with the site or have content and/or pictures you think we could use, let us know that too!

Incidentally, because I have a little trouble these days keeping track of what hat I'm wearing, I'll try to make it clear when I speak for the Association. Otherwise, assume the opinions expressed on this site are mine and may or may not represent the opinions of the Association. That's a disclaimer to protect the Association, not me!

Cracked HTML by George Fergusson
Questions? Comments? Recipes? gsfergusson@clarylake.org