Owasco Watershed Lake Association
Owasco Lake lies at the heart of our Finger Lakes community. The lake anchors our sense of place and our economic and community health depends on the lake. Join OWLA Now!Renew Membership
“Speak on behalf of the lake for she cannot speak for herself”
About OWLA
The Owasco Watershed Lake Association exists to protect Owasco Lake. We are a citizen-based, 501(c)3 not-for-profit corporation founded in 1988. Our guardianship extends beyond the lake basin across 208 square miles of watershed, the land area where every drop of falling, flowing water eventually reaches Owasco Lake.
OWLA commits itself to facilitating the strategies and activities that are designed to restore our watershed and improve water quality for both drinking and full recreational use of Owasco Lake and its watershed.
Owasco Lake is threatened!
We Need your help!! Harmful Alga Blooms and Hemlock Wolly Adelgid invation is threateneing our lake’s health!
Harmful Algal Blooms
The frequency and intensity of HABs are increasing
OWLA is Leading the Efforts
Hemlock Woolly Adelgid
The tiny bug that’s a giant threat
OWLA is working with the Rotary Clubs of Auburn & Moravia to Inform and Involve the Public!
OWLA Business After 5
Join the Cayuga Chamber of Commerce and Owasco Watershed Lake Association (OWLA) members for an evening on Owasco Lake at Owasco Yacht Club (OYC)! Enjoy small bites prepared by Drifters on Owasco, wine, and soft drinks.
Be sure to bring your business card for a chance to win a glass mosaic of Owasco Lake, an original oil painting of sunset on Owasco Lake by Meg Vanek, and other prizes.
The evening will include updates on activities from OWLA, OYC, and Drifters and will get you ready for summer on the lake.
News and Events:
Participate! Volunteer! Become involved:
OWLA is the Non-Profit of the Year
We are honored to be named the Cayuga Chamber of Commerce 2022 Nonprofit of the Year Award. This award recognizes a nonprofit organization that contributes to the success of our community by enhancing the quality of life or contributing to the economic base of Cayuga County.
In Loving Memory of OWLA Board Member
RICK NELSON
It is with deep sadness that the Owasco Watershed Lake Association says an unexpected goodbye to our friend Rick Nelson.
What an amazing person and what a remarkable life. We feel so fortunate that Rick was part of our OWLA community. Please hear the words we are not able to speak.
OWLA gets things done!
- In response to OWLA’s urgent calls for action about the increasing presence of Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) in Owasco Lake, the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) launched a pilot citizen shoreline surveillance program on Owasco and Seneca Lakes in 2016. Today, this program helps monitor HABs in water bodies across New York State.
- OWLA works with other water protection agencies to gather public and political support of Cayuga County’s proposed new Watershed Rules and Regulations
We need your help!
Meet the OWLA Board of Directors
OWLA is a membership organization run by volunteers!
Research. Mitigation. Outreach.
OWLA works best with more members to raise our voice loud and clear. If you live near the lake, recreate on the lake, depend on it for your drinking water, or need water to keeping your business flowing, we need your membership and your voice!
OWLA supports our partners!
Take the Lake Friendly Living Pledge
Take action today to better care for Owasco Lake and its watershed! If you live in the watershed, tens of thousands of people who depend on Owasco Lake for drinking water need YOU to do your part. Auburnians, who live downstream of the Owasco Lake watershed, are part of the larger Oswego River/Finger Lakes watershed that other communities depend on for clean, safe water. Learn more about the Lake Friendly Living Pledge that people are taking across the Finger Lakes Region, and consider taking the pledge.
HABs Reporting in Owasco Lake
The OWLA HABs Program Volunteers monitor their assigned shoreline zones once a week from July through early October.
KNOW IT – AVOID IT – REPORT IT
Learn More about HAB reporting:
The Latest News & Updates
Auburn Citizen Article: “OWLA: Teaching about water quality to Auburn classrooms”; Kim Mills, OWLA Board Memeber
Over the three day period of Dec. 7-9, volunteer members of the Owasco Watershed Lake Association visited Auburn Junior High School and taught a lesson on Owasco Lake and water quality to three seventh grade science classes. The current topic in seventh grade science...
Auburn Citizen Article: “OWLA: New board looks to the future”; Ann Robson, President Elect OWLA
Earlier this month, the Owasco Watershed Lake Association held its 33rd annual general membership meeting via a virtual cocktail party from the Springside Inn in Fleming. Living through this pandemic has honed our group’s inventiveness and imagination. What a great...
Auburn Citizen Article: “If We Lose the Hemlocks”; Dana Hall, President of OWLA
If we lose the hemlocks, we lose the lake. As some of you may know from trees on or near where you live, the hemlock trees in this region are becoming sick. The cause is an invasive foreign insect called the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA). This bug is tiny, about the...