Town of Stoddard, NH

During the late summer of 2010, a "Lake Inventory & Management Plan for Highland Lake" was developed by the Upper Valley Lake Sunapee Regional Planning Commission with the assistance and guidance of the Highland Lake Unified Association (and its President, Joe van Shaick) and input from the Lakes Coordinator at the NH Department of Environmental Services.
Click on this link to read the report. (3.6 mbs of data).

In summary, protecting the quality of Highland Lake is of utmost importance to the residents of Stoddard.  The lake provides numerous summer & winter recreational uses for the residents of Stoddard; the lake is directly responsible for a considerable portion of the tax base in town;  the lake supports a diverse eco-system with 9 species of warmwater fish, 15 species of reptiles and amphibians, 26 species of aquatic or water-dependent birds and 6 species of aquatic or water-dependent mammals including beaver, mink, moose, muskrat, raccoon and river otter, and the our own clean water is dependent on the lake's well-functioning ecosystem.

The current water quality of Highland Lake is good, however, there is no guarantee that the lake will remain so.  Protecting and preserving healthy ecosystems remains an ongoing process.  Within a 30-mile radius of the Mill Village boat launch, there are an estimated 542,219 year-round residents, including the cities of Claremont, Concord, Keene, and Manchester.  The accessible nature of Highland Lake does make the lake vulnerable to
degradation, as certain human activities create the potential for the introduction of exotic plant species, pollution, and conflicts over recreational use. 

In particular, the potential of invasive/exotic aquatic plants pose many problems for an ecosystem, in terms of displacing native species, degrading habitat, altering the amount of lake vegetation, and disrupting nutrient cycling and flows.  If it should occur that invasive plants are introduced to Highland Lake, the lake is particularly susceptible to a widespread infestation due to its large areas of shallow water that provide suitable habitat for invasive plants.