Carroll County, New Hampshire
Carroll County is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of New Hampshire. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 50,107, making it the third-least populous county in New Hampshire. Its county seat is O ...
, and
York County, Maine
York County is the southwesternmost county in the U.S. state of Maine, along the state of New Hampshire's eastern border. It is divided from Strafford County, New Hampshire, by the Salmon Falls River, and the connected tidal estuary—the Pi ...
, in the United States. The lake is shared by the towns of
Wakefield, New Hampshire
Wakefield is a town in Carroll County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 5,201 at the 2020 census. The town includes the villages of Wakefield Corner (the original town center), East Wakefield, North Wakefield, Sanbornville, Union ...
, and
Acton, Maine
Acton is a New England town, town in York County, Maine, York County, Maine, United States. The population was 2,671 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. It includes the villages of Acton, Miller Corner and South Acton. The town is home ...
, with 45% of its surface area in Acton and 55% in Wakefield. The lake is the farthest upstream of the five headwater lakes of the
Salmon Falls River
The Salmon Falls River is a tributary of the Piscataqua River in the U.S. states of Maine and New Hampshire. It rises at Great East Lake, Newichawannock Canal, and Horn Pond and flows south-southeast for approximately , forming the border between ...
, a tributary of the
Piscataqua River
The Piscataqua River (Abenaki: ''Pskehtekwis'') is a tidal river forming the boundary of the U.S. states of New Hampshire and Maine from its origin at the confluence of the Salmon Falls River and Cochecho River. The drainage basin of the river ...
. Water from Great East Lake flows out its dam and through the
Newichawannock Canal
The Newichawannock Canal is a man-made canal which drains Great East Lake into Horn Pond at the border between Wakefield, New Hampshire, and Acton, Maine, in the northeastern United States. It is at the head of the Salmon Falls River, which the Abe ...
into Horn Pond, then into the Salmon Falls River below Horn Pond.
The widest part of the lake is in New Hampshire. The lake narrows to the east in Maine, creating the First, Second and Third basins. Great East Lake is the largest of the Salmon Falls headwater lakes.
Great East Lake supports abundant wildlife, and 21 fish species including
lake trout
The lake trout (''Salvelinus namaycush'') is a freshwater char living mainly in lakes in northern North America. Other names for it include mackinaw, namaycush, lake char (or charr), touladi, togue, and grey trout. In Lake Superior, it can also ...
(togue),
rainbow trout
The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. The steelhead (sometimes called "steelhead trout") is an anadromous (sea-run) form of the coasta ...
largemouth bass
The largemouth bass (''Micropterus salmoides'') is a carnivorous freshwater gamefish in the Centrarchidae ( sunfish) family, a species of black bass native to the eastern and central United States, southeastern Canada and northern Mexico, but ...
,
American eel
The American eel (''Anguilla rostrata'') is a facultative catadromous fish found on the eastern coast of North America. Freshwater eels are fish belonging to the elopomorph superorder, a group of phylogenetically ancient teleosts. The America ...
,
hornpout
The brown bullhead (''Ameiurus nebulosus'') is a fish of the family Ictaluridae that is widely distributed in North America. It is a species of bullhead catfish and is similar to the black bullhead (''Ameiurus melas'') and yellow bullhead (''A ...
,
white perch
The white perch (''Morone americana'') is not a true perch but is a fish of the temperate bass family, Moronidae, notable as a food and game fish in eastern North America. In some places it is referred to as "Silver Bass".
The name "White perc ...
,
black crappie
The black crappie (''Pomoxis nigromaculatus'') is a freshwater fish found in North America, one of the two types of crappies. It is very similar to the white crappie in size, shape, and habits, except that it is darker, with a pattern of black sp ...
and
chain pickerel
The chain pickerel (''Esox niger'') is a species of freshwater fish in the pike family (family Esocidae) of order Esociformes. The chain pickerel and the American pickerel (''E. americanus'') belong to the ''Esox'' genus of pike.
Taxonomy
French ...
.
Water quality monitoring data has been collected since 1974, including 29 years of
secchi disk
The Secchi disk (or Secchi disc), as created in 1865 by Angelo Secchi, is a plain white, circular disk in diameter used to measure water transparency or turbidity in bodies of water. The disc is mounted on a pole or line, and lowered slowly down ...
transparencies, 23 years of total
phosphorus
Phosphorus is a chemical element with the symbol P and atomic number 15. Elemental phosphorus exists in two major forms, white phosphorus and red phosphorus, but because it is highly reactive, phosphorus is never found as a free element on Ear ...
(TP) data, 20 years of chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) data and 7 years of
dissolved oxygen
Oxygen saturation (symbol SO2) is a relative measure of the concentration of oxygen that is dissolved or carried in a given medium as a proportion of the maximal concentration that can be dissolved in that medium at the given temperature. It ca ...
(DO) profiles. Sampling results from Station 1 (1974-2008) show a median TP concentration of 6.4 parts per billion (ppb), a mean secchi disk transparency of , and a mean Chl-a concentration of 1.2 ppb. The data indicates that Great East Lake is a high quality water by both the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services standards.
The Great East Lake watershed is located in Acton, Maine, and Wakefield, New Hampshire, and covers approximately . Great East Lake is part of the Piscataqua River major drainage basin and the Salmon Falls River subdrainage basin. Great East Lake flows into Horn Pond which in turn starts the Salmon Falls River at its outflow. The Salmon Falls River then flows into the Piscataqua River and into the Great Bay estuary and the
Gulf of Maine
The Gulf of Maine is a large gulf of the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of North America. It is bounded by Cape Cod at the eastern tip of Massachusetts in the southwest and by Cape Sable Island at the southern tip of Nova Scotia in the northeast ...
.
The Great East Lake watershed is currently 66% forested, 9% developed, and 52% buildable area. The shoreline of Great East Lake is composed of primarily medium density residential houses and camps (77%). The majority of these structures (64%) are within of the shoreline.
The Great East Lake Improvement Association (GELIA) was founded in 1932 and has been dedicated to the welfare of Great East Lake, its wildlife, and environment. The nonprofit organization sees education as its primary function to help protect the lake.
Great East Lake has several other programs and organizations dedicated to protecting its pristine water quality. A boat inspection program is run by the NH Lake Host Program where over 1,000 boats are inspected annually for invasive aquatic plants. There is also a weed watchers program (similar to the Invasive Plants Patrollers Program in Maine).
See also
*
List of lakes in Maine
The qualifications for this list of Maine lakes is that the lake is located partially or entirely in Maine, named, and has a surface area of more than . This makes it legally a great pond unless it is dammed, smaller than prior to damming, small ...
*
List of lakes in New Hampshire
This is a list of lakes and ponds in the U.S. state of New Hampshire. The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services lists 944 lakes and impoundments in their ''Official List of Public Waters''. The water bodies that are listed include natu ...