Horn Pond is a water body located on the border of
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 ...
, and
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 ...
, in the United States. The lake is both spring-fed and fed by the outflows of
Great East Lake
Great East Lake is an water body located in Carroll County, New Hampshire, and York County, Maine, in the United States. The lake is shared by the towns of Wakefield, New Hampshire, and Acton, Maine, with 45% of its surface area in Acton and 55% ...
to the north and
Wilson Lake to the east. Horn Pond's outlet is 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 ...
which forms a natural border between
Maine
Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...
and
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...
and empties into 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 ...
east of
Dover, New Hampshire
Dover is a city in Strafford County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 32,741 at the 2020 census, making it the largest city in the New Hampshire Seacoast region and the fifth largest municipality in the state. It is the county se ...
, and ultimately 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 ...
.
Horn Pond is classified as "Potentially Non-supporting" under the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services' revised water quality standards for
oligotroph
An oligotroph is an organism that can live in an environment that offers very low levels of nutrients. They may be contrasted with copiotrophs, which prefer nutritionally rich environments. Oligotrophs are characterized by slow growth, low rates of ...
ic lakes. The Horn Pond watershed covers that is primarily forested (70%). Only 6% of the watershed is developed, with 34% buildable area. The shoreline of Horn Pond is composed primarily of low density houses and camps (51%) and undeveloped shoreline (44%). 70% of the structures along the shoreline are within of the water's edge.
Horn Pond water quality monitoring has been collected since 1982. During this period, 11 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 ...
transparency data, 7 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, 2 years of
chlorophyll
Chlorophyll (also chlorophyl) is any of several related green pigments found in cyanobacteria and in the chloroplasts of algae and plants. Its name is derived from the Greek words , ("pale green") and , ("leaf"). Chlorophyll allow plants to a ...
-a (Chl-a) data, and 5 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) data has been collected. From this data, the median TP concentration is 8.0 parts per billion (ppb) and the mean transparency is .
The Horn Pond Association has been recently redeveloped and aims to protect and improve the water quality of Horn Pond.
The lake is classified as a warm- and coldwater fishery and contains
brook trout
The brook trout (''Salvelinus fontinalis'') is a species of freshwater fish in the char genus ''Salvelinus'' of the salmon family Salmonidae. It is native to Eastern North America in the United States and Canada, but has been introduced elsewhere ...
,
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 ...
,
brown trout
The brown trout (''Salmo trutta'') is a European species of salmonid fish that has been widely introduced into suitable environments globally. It includes purely freshwater populations, referred to as the riverine ecotype, ''Salmo trutta'' morph ...
,
largemouth and
smallmouth bass,
Eastern chain pickerel,
brown bullhead
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 (''Ame ...
,
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 ...
and
bluegill
The bluegill (''Lepomis macrochirus''), sometimes referred to as "bream", "brim", "sunny", or "copper nose" as is common in Texas, is a species of North American freshwater fish, native to and commonly found in streams, rivers, lakes, ponds and ...
.
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 ...
References
{{authority control
Lakes of Carroll County, New Hampshire
Lakes of York County, Maine
Lakes of Maine