OXFORD — Green and Mirror Ponds Association has received a Gold Category Award from Maine’s LakeSmart Program.

Bill Laflamme, communications and outreach, Maine Department of Environmental Protection, presented the award to President Terri Coolidge Marin, for recognition that Green Pond reached 15 percent or more LakeSmart properties.

The association joined the LakeSmart Program in 2010 after an application process and a willingness to make a three-year commitment to encourage shoreline properties to become lake-friendly by keeping storm water from running into lakes, maintaining a fairly deep and healthy screen of groundcover, plants, shrubs and trees along the waterfront, maintaining septic systems well, avoiding the use of harmful chemicals and obeying laws that govern the shoreland zone.

Members volunteer to have their property LakeSmart evaluated and reviewed on landscape and management practices in five categories: Road, Driveway and Parking Areas; Structures and Septic System; Lawn, Recreation Areas and Footpaths; Shorefront and Beach; and Undeveloped Land.

“I commend and appreciate landowners for their willingness to be evaluated. The award is for our members who quickly learned that this friendly process was all about making simple improvements over time to help their property become LakeSmart,” Marin said at the annual meeting when the award was presented.

As the LakeSmart Award sign indicates, “Living Lightly on the Land for the Sake of Our Lake” is key to pollution prevention now and in to the future.

To learn more about the program, visit: http://www.maine.gov/dep/water/lakes/lakesmart/.

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