State agencies have teamed with groups of citizens to protect the area's habitat. The state owns 135,110 acres of land throughout the Chicopee basin and 6,746 of those acres are included in nine different wildlife management areas along the Quaboag ponds and Quaboag River. Additional purchases are being considered. However, despite everyone's best efforts, the system is not without problems. Exotic aquatic weeds top the list.
Water milfoil is the big one.
How the weeds got into the pond is hard to determine, Mr. McLaughlin said. Sometimes such weeds are transported from one body of water to another by boats or birds. Sometimes people dump aquariums containing exotic weeds into lakes. The Quaboag Quacumquasit Lake Association has struggled for years to control the weeds, with some success. So far, the association has successfully gotten the Spencer Wastewater Treatment Plant to monitor and reduce the level of phosphorous released into the Sevenmile River, a Quaboag feeder stream.