TAVARES — The Lake County Adopt-a-Lake Program will host two educational sessions for interested volunteers on April 4 from 1 to 4:30 p.m. at the Lake County Agricultural Center, located at 1951 Woodlea Road, Tavares, and April 6 from 1 to 5 p.m. at Carlton Palms Education Center, located at 28308 Churchill Smith Lane, Mount Dora.

The educational sessions give volunteers an opportunity to learn about water quality testing, aquatic plant identification, best management practices for shoreline development management, pollution prevention and monofilament recycling.

"These educational sessions help volunteers of the Adopt-a-Lake program learn valuable techniques and information they can use when out in the field," said Cathie McGwier, Coordinator of the Adopt-a-Lake Program.

The Lake County Board of County Commissioners adopted the new program on Jan. 24. Since its inception, the program has accepted dozens of volunteers. The Adopt–a–Lake Program encourages groups or individuals to adopt a segment of a lake's shoreline. The program is comprised of three separate components.

• Water-quality monitoring component requires volunteers to perform field-testing and the collection of water-quality samples. Staff at the Lake County Water Resource Laboratory analyzes the samples, adding the data to a collection of information available on the Lake County Water Atlas at www.lake.wateratlas.org.

• Education component requires volunteers to take an integral role in alerting residents of how their daily activities can affect the water quality of lakes in their community. Through distributing brochures and speaking at neighborhood meetings, volunteers of the Adopt-a-Lake program will help other residents understand proper lakefront and shoreline practices.

• Pollution prevention component requires volunteers to remove and properly dispose of litter from a portion of lake's shoreline. Participants will be supplied with the necessary equipment and safety procedures for this activity. A secondary activity to this component is to maintain a fishing line (monofilament) recycling station in the adopted area.

For more information about Lake County Adopt-a-Lake Program, call Cathie McGwier at (352) 253-1659 or e-mail cmcgwier@lakecountyfl.gov.