Special to The Windham Eagle
Starting on the Thursday before Memorial Day weekend, Raymond Waterways, a non-profit organization devoted to protecting the health of Raymond’s lakes, ponds, rivers, and streams since 1975, opened its Courtesy Boat Inspection Program for 2026 at boat launches in Raymond.
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| Ollie Kyllonen is serving as the Courtesy Boat Insppection Manager for Raymond Waterways, a non-profit organization devoted to protecting the health of Raymond's lakes, ponds, rivers and streams. COURTESY PHOTO |
From a recent University of Maine study, property values in any town with lakes – not only for lakefront owners, but for non-lakefront owners and businesses as well – are very much tied to the health of their lakes and ponds.
CBI’s check boats, from paddleboards to pontoon boats, for signs of invasive weeds on trailers, propellers, live wells, and any other obvious surfaces, and report their findings to Lake Stewards of Maine in Bridgton and the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. They also urge boaters to check their own boats for weeds far away from any waterways.
This year, Raymond Waterways increased the hours of inspections from 97 hours each week last year, to 122 hours each week for 2026. In less than a month of operation, every hour has been covered, 965 boats have been inspected, and that thorough and reliable coverage should continue through Labor Day weekend, ending on Sept. 7.
The schedule has become traffic-driven, so hours at boat launches have evolved to concentrate more on Sebago Lake, where the invasive weed milfoil is established in Turtle Cove, and at Crescent Lake, where traffic on that boat launch covers both Crescent boaters and anglers, and those traveling down the Tenney River to Panther Pond.
The new CBI manager, Ollie Kyllonen, graduated from University of Maine at Machias in 2025 with a degree in Marine Biology. He has worked as a loon field biologist, duck banding technician, and as a laboratory/field assistant for an eDNA project while attending school.
He has lived in western Maine his whole life, and says he is, “very passionate about protecting the watersheds and wild spaces that make Maine so special.”
Kyllonen has hired a great crew of inspectors, including a Portland high school student to a nuclear engineering student from Casco to a retired paralegal from Georgia.
Raymond Waterways is run by a volunteer board and operates from the principle that all our waterbodies are connected: there is no use in keeping Panther Pond healthy if Crescent Lake water eventually runs into it from the Tenney, or in keeping Thomas Pond healthy if it runs into Sebago. Maine is one of the few states in the country successfully combating the scourge of invasive species by having CBI programs throughout the state.
Nevertheless, every angler and boater is urged to inspect their own watercraft and to “Check, Drain, and Dry” their boat away from lakefront property.
Raymond Waterways is funded by private donations (check out the website at raymondwaterways.org to donate), and some state and town funding. <
The schedule has become traffic-driven, so hours at boat launches have evolved to concentrate more on Sebago Lake, where the invasive weed milfoil is established in Turtle Cove, and at Crescent Lake, where traffic on that boat launch covers both Crescent boaters and anglers, and those traveling down the Tenney River to Panther Pond.
He has lived in western Maine his whole life, and says he is, “very passionate about protecting the watersheds and wild spaces that make Maine so special.”
Kyllonen has hired a great crew of inspectors, including a Portland high school student to a nuclear engineering student from Casco to a retired paralegal from Georgia.
Raymond Waterways is run by a volunteer board and operates from the principle that all our waterbodies are connected: there is no use in keeping Panther Pond healthy if Crescent Lake water eventually runs into it from the Tenney, or in keeping Thomas Pond healthy if it runs into Sebago. Maine is one of the few states in the country successfully combating the scourge of invasive species by having CBI programs throughout the state.
Nevertheless, every angler and boater is urged to inspect their own watercraft and to “Check, Drain, and Dry” their boat away from lakefront property.
Raymond Waterways is funded by private donations (check out the website at raymondwaterways.org to donate), and some state and town funding. <
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