Lake Rescue (Vermont)

Lake Rescue
Lake Rescue and the horseshoe dam, looking north from Red Bridge
Lake Rescue Depth Chart, prepared by Vermont ANR
Location	Windsor county, Vermont, United States
Coordinates	43°27′05″N 72°42′08″W / 43.4514601°N 72.7023191°W / 43.4514601; -72.7023191 (Lake Rescue)Coordinates: 43°27′05″N 72°42′08″W / 43.4514601°N 72.7023191°W / 43.4514601; -72.7023191 (Lake Rescue)
Type	Reservoir
Primary inflows	Black River
Primary outflows	Black River
Basin countries	United States
Max. length	5,900 feet (1.8 km)
Max. width	2,200 feet (0.67 km) widest point
Surface area	184 acres (0.74 km2)
Average depth	24 feet (7.3 m)
Max. depth	95 feet (29 m)
Water volume	4,416 acre feet (5,447,000 m3)
Surface elevation	1,043 feet (318 m)
Settlements	Ludlow

Lake Rescue is located in Windsor County of south central Vermont, in the northeastern United States. Occupying 180 acres (73 ha) and reaching depths of 95 feet (29 m), it is the tenth-deepest and 23rd-largest lake in the state. Lake Rescue is located along VT Route 100 about three miles north of Ludlow and Okemo Mountain, and it is surrounded by the town of Ludlow. The lake is fed by the Black River and is the third of four lakes extending from Plymouth, Vermont through Ludlow, with Lake Amherst and Echo Lake to the north and Lake Pauline to the south. The northern section of the lake, connected to the main body via a shallow channel, is referred to as Round Pond.

The lake is used year-round predominantly by the residents of the approximately 110 lakeside homes and camps who enjoy swimming, waterskiing, fishing, sailing in summer and ice-fishing, skating, and snowmobiling in winter. Although no public swimming beaches exist, the lake does have a state-maintained public fishing access point where boats can be launched. Fish include bass, perch, brown trout, rainbow trout, pickerel, and sunfish. A "horseshoe" dam separates Lake Rescue from Lake Pauline, over which passes the well-known and much photographed Red Bridge. Lake Rescue is north of Red Bridge and power boats (but not jet skis) are permitted on the lake. Pauline Lake is to the south of Red Bridge and only non-motorized propelled craft are allowed.

The Vermont Agency of Natural Resources posts a report on the water quality of Vermont lakes, with the 2015 report summarized as follows:

In 1998 the Department of Natural Resources, State of Vermont, found 70 plants of Eurasian milfoil growing in the Round Pond section of the lake. Since then, there has been an ongoing effort to prevent the spread of this invasive water plant in Lake Rescue. Since 1999 the Lake Rescue Association (LRA) has hired scuba divers to look for and remove milfoil plants from Lake Rescue, Round Pond and Lake Pauline. The LRA Board at that time acted quickly to employ divers to hand pull the discovered plants and each following year divers have been employed by the association to survey the lake. From 1999 to 2003 paid divers searched and removed about 100 milfoil plants. Lake Rescue was free of milfoil from 2004 until the last several years. Tropical Storm Irene hit the region in 2011 and the massive inflow of sediment from that storm into the lake made it difficult to search for milfoil in 2012 and 2013 but the first, new milfoil plant was found in 2013. Since 2014, the LRA Board increased the number of days that divers were employed to survey and hand pull milfoil plants. In addition to thoroughly searching the entire lake for milfoil twice a week over the summer in 2016, the LRA board is reviewing other measures and is conducting a program of lake-user education/outreach, and public access education/inspection.