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Unity Pond (Lake Winnecook) is the largest lake in 
Waldo County
Waldo County is a county in the state of Maine, in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 39,607. Its county seat is Belfast. The county was founded on 7 February 1827 from a portion of Hancock County and named after ...
, 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 ...
. It is within the towns of Unity
Unity may refer to:
Buildings
* Unity Building, Oregon, Illinois, US; a historic building
* Unity Building (Chicago), Illinois, US; a skyscraper
* Unity Buildings, Liverpool, UK; two buildings in England
* Unity Chapel, Wyoming, Wisconsin, US; ...
, Burnham, and Troy
Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in present-day Turkey, south-west of Ç ...
. The main tributaries are Meadow Brook, Bithers Brook, and Carlton Stream. The sole outflow is Twenty-Five Mile Stream, via a wetlands to the southwest of the lake, which in turn feeds into the Sebasticook River
The Sebasticook River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed June 30, 2011 river in the central part of Maine, in the United States. From its source () in Dexter, the upper ...
. The lake is surrounded by almost 300 residences, of which slightly more than half are seasonal. It is also used for boating, fishing, camping, and swimming. Kanokolus Beach on the southwest shore and Burnham Town Beach are both open to the public.
History
Europeans first settled Unity Pond in 1785. By the early 1800s,sawmill
A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...
s were established along the three main tributaries to the lake. By 1830, however, deforestation
Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated ...
caused most of the sawmills to close. Deforestation made agriculture
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people t ...
possible, which continued in the lands adjoining the lake well into the 20th century. Canneries
Canning is a method of food preservation in which food is processed and sealed in an airtight container (jars like Mason jars, and steel and tin cans). Canning provides a shelf life that typically ranges from one to five years, although un ...
were established in the area from the 1920s to the 1950s. As subsistence agriculture declined in the 1940s, it was replaced by poultry and dairy farming, and seasonal camps were built along the lake shore.
Water quality
The lake has been subject toeutrophication
Eutrophication is the process by which an entire body of water, or parts of it, becomes progressively enriched with minerals and nutrients, particularly nitrogen and phosphorus. It has also been defined as "nutrient-induced increase in phytopla ...
caused historically by agricultural runoff and effluent from a canning factory, and is on the state Nonpoint Source Priority Watersheds list, owing to the occurrence of summer algal blooms caused by phosphorus nutrient addition by runoff water. The watershed area surrounding the pond consists of 16.2% developed land, 71.7% non-developed land (consisting mostly of forest), and 12.1% surface water. A total of 20 fish species are found in the lake, including 12 indigenous species. The lake is stocked with trout
Trout are species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', '' Salmo'' and '' Salvelinus'', all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae. The word ''trout'' is also used as part of the name of some non-salm ...
and alewife.
References
{{authority control Lakes of Waldo County, Maine Lakes of Maine