Description of area: Larchwood Lake can be found in central New York, outside of Laurens New York. Buried in the woods, Larchwood Lake was a Boy Scout camp in the early 1960’s. Around 1988 the Boy Scouts sold the land to residents creating the Larchwood Lake Homeowners Association. The lake was manually increased to twice its size. Today the lake has a long almost swan like shape. According to The Biological Field Station Larchwood Lake is “near pristine.” The lake is not that deep, it has a maximum depth of 4.3 meters (14 ft.) near the dam. The lake 's surface area is approximately 22.2 ha (55 ac) and its watershed is 134 ha) (Harman, et al). The water can be rather cold for the most of the year. In late summer it has been documented to
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The lake’s dam system allows the Larchwood Lake Homeowners Association to let water out. This, however, was not known by the majority of the residents of Larchwood Lake. In 2013 in conjunction with new guidelines set by the E.P.A., due to the flooding in the area in 2007 the Larchwood Lake Homeowners Association spent twenty-thousand dollars to repair and upgrade the dam, which lowered the lake water level roughly about two feet. This caused a lot of outrage by the residents of the lake. The Board and President of the Larchwood Lake Homeowners Association told the residents that there was nothing they could do, because if they did not make changes to the dam the Association would be fined and they had no control as of how much water was being let out (which was completely untrue). Two years’ later the President of the Larchwood lake Homeowners Association announced that they could in fact raise the level of the lake 18 inches if they spent an additional fifteen thousand dollars to fill up 3 of the 4 openings in the spillway with concrete. They also planned to install 3 stop logs that are 6” high in the 4th opening of the spillway, which would allow the lake to be raised 18 inches above the design level. To do this though they had to lower the lake an additional 3 feet as well as a cost to residents of $10,000. The residents of the lake were vastly opposed to this idea. But …show more content…
If you do not know what you are doing or you have not weighed out all the possible outcomes, you should not act like you have perfect confidence in what you are doing. This is a problem that is common in not just environmental fields. Acting like you know what you are doing when you actually do not is a crime plain and simple. The president of the lake lied and ignored the other residents of Larchwood Lake because he thought he knew what was best for them. This would be fine if he did things like researching the area, bringing in the necessary specialists, or attempted transparency but he did nothing of the sort. It is ok to admit you do not know what you are doing because you can use that opportunity to learn the correct way to proceed in the future. When you blatantly lie however, you are going to screw up and there is no one who is going to be blamed but you. It is far weaker to pretend that you know how to do something rather than admitting you are in over your
The lake’s dam system allows the Larchwood Lake Homeowners Association to let water out. This, however, was not known by the majority of the residents of Larchwood Lake. In 2013 in conjunction with new guidelines set by the E.P.A., due to the flooding in the area in 2007 the Larchwood Lake Homeowners Association spent twenty-thousand dollars to repair and upgrade the dam, which lowered the lake water level roughly about two feet. This caused a lot of outrage by the residents of the lake. The Board and President of the Larchwood Lake Homeowners Association told the residents that there was nothing they could do, because if they did not make changes to the dam the Association would be fined and they had no control as of how much water was being let out (which was completely untrue). Two years’ later the President of the Larchwood lake Homeowners Association announced that they could in fact raise the level of the lake 18 inches if they spent an additional fifteen thousand dollars to fill up 3 of the 4 openings in the spillway with concrete. They also planned to install 3 stop logs that are 6” high in the 4th opening of the spillway, which would allow the lake to be raised 18 inches above the design level. To do this though they had to lower the lake an additional 3 feet as well as a cost to residents of $10,000. The residents of the lake were vastly opposed to this idea. But …show more content…
If you do not know what you are doing or you have not weighed out all the possible outcomes, you should not act like you have perfect confidence in what you are doing. This is a problem that is common in not just environmental fields. Acting like you know what you are doing when you actually do not is a crime plain and simple. The president of the lake lied and ignored the other residents of Larchwood Lake because he thought he knew what was best for them. This would be fine if he did things like researching the area, bringing in the necessary specialists, or attempted transparency but he did nothing of the sort. It is ok to admit you do not know what you are doing because you can use that opportunity to learn the correct way to proceed in the future. When you blatantly lie however, you are going to screw up and there is no one who is going to be blamed but you. It is far weaker to pretend that you know how to do something rather than admitting you are in over your