Field crews during a 1980s survey of 1,476 Adirondack lakes started work many Monday mornings at far-flung airstrips in Piseco Lake, Old Forge or Star Lake.
They loaded up a pontoon-equipped helicopter, crammed in with camping and chemistry gear and headed off, a heavy Grumman canoe poking out each open door. After landing on remote lakes, pilots waved goodbye to the teams of scientists, often with no plans for a return flight until Friday.
The field teams worked for the Adirondack Lakes Survey Corporation (ALSC), which after nearly 40 years of water science across the park is set to merge with the Ausable River Association next year.
The surveyors dropped nets in the water to count fish, pulled water samples, noted the lake’s surrounding landscape, collected small insects to identify during the winter and mapped the lake’s bottom by canoeing vectors across the water while taking sound depths. They hiked to nearby lakes and repeated the procedures, spending the week in the backcountry checking off an itinerary of water bodies.
Sometimes, when the weather didn’t cooperate, the return flight was canceled, so the crews lugged their equipment out on foot.
“You’re tired, you’re wet, you’re filthy, you smell like old gill net, but you finally get out and have a shower and a cold beer and life is good again,” said Rick Costanza, a Vermont-based Nordic ski coach who worked as a field scientist on the 1980s survey.
In four field seasons, starting in spring
