New York Citizens Statewide Lake Assessment Program (CSLAP), 1985-2011

CSLAP is New York’s Citizens Statewide Lake Assessment Program. CSLAP is a volunteer lake monitoring and education program that is managed by the NY Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and New York State Federation of Lake Associations (NYSFOLA). The program has delivered high quality data to many DEC programs for over 25 years. It includes data from 259 lakes (21 of which have 2 or more sampling points/lake). Virtually all lakes have multiple years of data, and many have 20+ years, although most have years that lack data. Samples are collected by trained citizen monitors, and sent to a State or state-approved lab. Analyses prior to 2002 were done by the NY Dept of Health, and subsequently at a State-Certified Lab. The program is extremely well documented, and an overview of the background and details of the program are described in Kishbaugh (1988).