Floating close to the shoreline of the Rindge side of Lake Contoocook is a wooden platform, covered by a wire-mesh awning and filled with dirt and moss.
It’s an unassuming structure, with an important mission – to bolster New Hampshire’s vulnerable population of loons.
The raft, installed by the Contoocook Lake Area Preservation Association (CLAPA) last week, is part of a five-year program by the Loon Preservation Committee to install more of these platforms and provide a safe nesting place for loons.
“They mimic the perfect habitat for nesting loons,” said John Cooley, a senior biologist at the Loon Preservation Committee. “These nest rafts that we put out are a central piece of the management we do to recover the population in New Hampshire and across their breeding range.”
Loons are optimized for the water, Cooley explained, and are clumsy on land. They nest on the immediate shoreline, but that leaves the nests vulnerable not only to predators, but to the natural rise and fall of the water, which can swamp nests or leave them stranded.
One of the natural solutions to this problem is floating bog mats which rise and fall with the tide that loons sometimes nest on, and this is what the floating rafts try to replicate.
Cooley said the Loon Preservation Committee has been using these types of rafts since the 1970s, and they’ve become a key piece of ensuring successful loon nesting.
“Almost a quarter of chicks that hatch each year, about 22 to 23 percent, are hatched from a raft nest,” Cooley said.
They have been successful enough that the Loon Preservation Committee has been part of a five-year effort to increase the number of rafts in the state and across New England, using funding from a Rhode Island oil spill that killed hundreds of loons.
Some of those rafts will be managed by the Loon Preservation Committee, but others are projects being led by local lake associations or volunteers, such as CLAPA.
CLAPA member and volunteer Mike Golibersuch led the charge on getting a raft for Contoocook Lake. Golibersuch, who has lived on the lake for about a year, said he’s familiar with the work of the Loon Preservation Committee, and has contributed to their efforts to bolster the loon population on Squam Lake.
“I just think they’re a beautiful, fascinating bird. They have very unique qualities. They’re beautiful, and the songs the make, the call of the loon, when I hear that, my heart skips a beat,” said Golibersuch.
Golibersuch said there have been reports of at least a pair of loons on the lake for years, with a group of three often spotted together and reports of up to five. But it has been years since there has been any sign of loon chicks.
Cooley said Contoocook Lake is a prime example of the kinds of water bodies that the Loon Preservation Committee targets, where it’s known or believed to have hosted failed nests in the past.
Cooley said nests can fail because of fluctuating water levels, which can be caused by just a single significant rainstorm, or by fluctuations due to human control through dams. He noted that the Monadnock region has been subject to several serious flooding events in the past few years.
“The impacts of more extreme weather is something we’re already seeing,” Cooley said. “The rafts are a good way to mitigate that, and we’re really excited to get them to new locations and see how this experiment works.”
Cooley said that while helping to hatch chicks is a vital part of the Loon Preservation Committee’s work, so is preserving adult loons, which can live for decades. The committee works to educate the public on using lead-free fishing tackle and reduce loon deaths from boating accidents or being caught in the ice.
For information on the Loon Preservation Committee and their work, visit loon.org.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172, Ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.