Nick Rowell, CPESC

In his terrestrial life, Nick is a Certified Professional in Erosion and Sediment Control, NYSDEC Endorsed Erosion Control Trainer, and New York State Soil Health Specialist. He has been a Natural Resources Specialist with the Warren County Soil & Water Conservation District for 12 years and oversees the implementation of stormwater retrofit systems, green infrastructure projects, and is currently on the Board for the Upper Hudson River Watershed Coalition. In his preferred aquatic life, he is a certified PADI Open Water Diver surveying native and invasive aquatic plants for multiple lakes throughout Warren County and manages the stormwater sampling program for the District.

I will be discussing the entry-level underwater camera equipment used for filming and photographing the aquatic plant communities, including the GoPro underwater cameras, the Kraken Housing and accessories including filters and macro lens. I will review some of the filming techniques I’ve learned over the past few years to capture plant details for identification and focus on the native and invasive plants in Lake George.

The film and plant data collected provides a snapshot in time and is presently being used to bring professionals and lake associations underwater to get a firsthand point of view on managing invasive species, as well as, the lake’s ecosystem conditions throughout the growing months. The film will also be used in the future to track changes in the lake plant ecology and utilized as a comparison with data collected in the coming years