The Owasco Watershed Lake Association is offering free boat rides! From 11 a.m. to 5 p.
m. Saturday, Sept. 7, visitors to TomatoFest in downtown Auburn can catch a Tomato Trolley to ride out to Owasco Lake, where boats await passengers.
When the Tomato Trolley arrives at the lake, volunteers welcome the festivalgoers, give them life jackets and assist them on and off the boats. The boat trip from the boat launch in Emerson Park slowly travels south on the Owasco River, enters into the lake, makes a big circle back to the river and returns north to the launch dock. Weather permitting, the trip should take 40 minutes and offers a wonderful opportunity to enjoy the awesome beauty of Owasco Lake! After the boat trip, the Tomato Trolley returns passengers to TomatoFest, where families can make their own watershed.
Families will create a model of Owasco Lake’s huge 200-square-mile watershed by crumpling paper, drawing land and streams with markers and pouring water over the paper to see lakes, rivers and ponds form as the water and pollutants flow down and collect in pockets. Also, a model watershed borrowed from the Owasco Lake Watershed Inspection and Protection Division allows parents and children to pour water over the model to observe how pollutants are carried into our lakes and rivers. Free Owasco Lake boat rides during a previous year of TomatoFest.
OWLA volunteers serve as captains and docents on each boat. Owasco Marine and other volunteers generously donate boats for the day. Docents answer questions about Owasco Lake and enlighten families about our precious drinking water.
Millions of gallons of drinking water are filtered every day, and flow through pipes into homes in Auburn, Owasco and communities around Auburn along the Owasco River! Free boat rides have been provided by OWLA for decades. OWLA members know that everyone living in the watershed should enjoy the beauty of Owasco Lake along with the 40,000 people who drink Owasco Lake water. We can all appreciate bountiful water resources because we live in the Finger Lakes and the Great Lakes Basin.
Most of our country and most of the world must worry about access to water. Do you know that one-fifth (20%) of the world’s fresh drinking water is here? Our part of the world is unique and particularly fortunate! Free Owasco Lake boat rides during a previous year of TomatoFest. The reason we need to work together to conserve water, be careful not to waste water and protect Owasco Lake and its watershed from pollutants is because our lives depend upon it.
In parts of the U.S. and the world we see water reserves threatened and being drained completely, crops unable to grow and cities “running dry.
" Engaging everyone in appreciation of the beauty and enjoyment of our lake and watershed and our drinking water is the intention of OWLA’s boat rides. Boat riders are invited to become members of OWLA and join the effort to preserve our drinking water and our beautiful lake. “Top off” your summer with a beautiful boat ride! For more information, or to join OWLA, please visit our website at owla.
org . Gilda Brower is a member of the board of directors of the Owasco Watershed Lake Association. For more information, or to join OWLA, visit owla.
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