Varnum Pond Plant Paddle Workshop
Temple, Maine – Scenic Varnum Pond provided the perfect setting for this free on-water workshop, where participants learned how to identify native plants and detect potential aquatic invasive species that threaten the pond.
Ecological Instincts teamed up with Lake Stewards of Maine (LSM) in 2025 to host a free outdoor, on-water workshop focused on surveying for suspicious aquatic plants. The workshop covered basic botany, plant structure, and life cycles for a variety of common native plants, instruction on the use of LSM’s Quick Key to determine whether plants are suspicious of being invasive, and how to monitor lakes and report findings.
Workshop attendees headed out on Varnum Pond in kayaks equipped with viewing scopes, specimen collection bags, and harvesting tools. A wide variety of common native plants were collected, sorted, identified, and compared to look-a-like aquatic invasive plants.
The workshop was funded in part through a Maine Drinking Water Program Source Water Protection Grant in partnership with the Town of Wilton, LSM, Ecological Instincts, and Varnum Pond landowners.