Known for its clean water and pristine scenery, Newfound Lake is widely recognized as one of New Hampshire's crown jewels and, due to an increase in development in the region, members of several organizations have compared notes and joined forces to collaborate on a master plan to educate residents and towns on their impact on the lake.

"This master plan is a non-binding document that is simply meant to be used as guidelines for the communities within this watershed," said Brian Eisenhouer, associate director of Plymouth State University's Center for the Environment.

Coordinators of the Newfound Lake Watershed Plan gave a presentation on Friday, taking participants out on a guided boat tour of the lake and showing them various tests they use to get a perspective on the lake's overall health and quality.

The boat tour began at the northern end of the lake and swung past the Hebron coast to Mayhew Island, which Bob Craycraft, educational program coordinator from the University of New Hampshire Center for Freshwater Biology (CFB), said is usually more green because of more densely developed areas.

"Green" in this case is not a good thing — this green means an area with more algae caused by phosphorus carried down from developments to the lake by rain and stormwater runoff.

This basically means that areas with a denser population have a bigger "footprint" and impact on the lake. More congested areas carry more contaminants and more of that gets deposited into the lake when it rains.

What officials from the Department of Environmental Services (DES), Plymouth State University, UNH, Jeffrey H. Taylor and Associates and the Newfound Lake Region Association (NLRA) are trying to do is not dictate to towns and residents what they should and shouldn't do, but rather to educate them on their impact and how they can maintain the lake as it is now.

Newfound Lake is classified as a Class A lake, which means it is one of the cleanest lakes. Craycraft and other officials on the scientific research end of the plan say that it is probably the cleanest lake in New Hampshire and these officials would like to keep it that way.

Boyd Smith, executive director of NLRA, said, "One of our biggest problems is outreach and letting folks know that they have an impact and that there are threats and also steps we can take to mitigate these threats."

One of the most interesting and probably the most dangerous thing about the Newfound watershed from an environmental perspective is that it is what Smith calls a "flashy" watershed, which means it can flood easier than other lakes due to the mountains and ridges completely surrounding it. This also means that stormwater runoff is much more of a problem and can and will carry contaminants straight into the lake with less time for the soil to absorb them.

Only 10 percent of the area of the Newfound Lake Watershed is developed land and 13 percent is conservation land that is protected and will never be developed. But 68 precent of the land in the watershed is buildable land which can be used for a variety of developments. The planners' goal is to show towns and residents why they should regulate this and prevent any contamination of the lake.

"We are not trying to stop growth and make this a place where no one is allowed. We are asking towns how we can manage the growth that they are going to experience," said Eisenhauer.